Maintaining the Gallatin Legacy
The FHA and Stephanie Koller of West Overton Village Museum are in major agreement on the particulars of the
transfer from West Overton to FHA of a 14 March 1823 letter signed by Albert Gallatin, as US Minister to France
to his acting Counsel of the United States concerning trade agreements with France.
This transfer is tentatively scheduled in early March when schedules of FHA, NPS and West Overton personal are clear. A formal transfer of the letter from FHA to NPS is planned to occur at the FHA Sunday Membership meeting on 1 May 2016 at 2 P.M. Koller has had the Senator John Heinz History Museum (HHM) perform a total conservation of the letter and its accompanying envelope, which still bears red French postal markings. HHM used a treatment process which deacidfied both sheets, included a pH deionization, use of appropriate adhesives, the preparation of an acid-free double rag window mat and the preparation of an acid-free shallow e-flute box for storage. The HHM Conservation Services Manager, Barbara J. Antel, in a 11/7/14 letter to Koller referred to the letter as “an interesting piece of history.” Next the Rabb Collection verified the Gallatin Signature. The Rabb Collection has done prior work for West Overton in authenticating original signatures of Abraham Lincoln, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin
The FHA and Stephanie Koller of West Overton Village Museum are in major agreement on the particulars of the
transfer from West Overton to FHA of a 14 March 1823 letter signed by Albert Gallatin, as US Minister to France
to his acting Counsel of the United States concerning trade agreements with France.
This transfer is tentatively scheduled in early March when schedules of FHA, NPS and West Overton personal are clear. A formal transfer of the letter from FHA to NPS is planned to occur at the FHA Sunday Membership meeting on 1 May 2016 at 2 P.M. Koller has had the Senator John Heinz History Museum (HHM) perform a total conservation of the letter and its accompanying envelope, which still bears red French postal markings. HHM used a treatment process which deacidfied both sheets, included a pH deionization, use of appropriate adhesives, the preparation of an acid-free double rag window mat and the preparation of an acid-free shallow e-flute box for storage. The HHM Conservation Services Manager, Barbara J. Antel, in a 11/7/14 letter to Koller referred to the letter as “an interesting piece of history.” Next the Rabb Collection verified the Gallatin Signature. The Rabb Collection has done prior work for West Overton in authenticating original signatures of Abraham Lincoln, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin
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