Call Number:

C0892

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.4 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Charles Thomson Letters, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1783-1988 (inclusive)

Creator:

Thomson, Charles, 1729-1824

Form:

Letters -- 18th century. and Photographs.

Abstract:

Consists of letters and miscellanea of the educator, merchant, and first secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson (1729-1824).

Charles Thomson is best known as the secretary of the Continental Congress, a position he held from 5 September 1774 until 23 July 1789.

The collection consists primarily of 40 letters by Thomson to his wife, Hannah, in Philadelphia, written while he was attending the Continental Congress in Princeton, New Jersey, from June to October, 1783. Also included are copies of four additional Thomson letters to his wife during the same period (Princeton does not own the originals); printed material about Thomson and Harriton House, his estate in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, where he resided from 1789 to 1824; photographs of the interior and exterior of Harriton House; and photographs of Thomson's grave in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery.

The collection has been organized into the following sections: