Folded letter by US Navy Surgeon David Shelton Edwards
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The rate for a single letter (one sheet of paper) traveling more than 400 miles was 25 cents. The absence of the word \"Paid\" indicates that the letter was sent unpaid and 25 cents was collected from the addressee."}, {"label": "Description", "content": "David Shelton Edwards spends most of this letter giving his wife Harriet instructions relating to her upcoming visit to see him in Pensacola, Florida, including possible timeframes and routes of travel. He tells her to sell all of her furniture in her New York home and either rent or sell their house in Sing Sing. With much of his advice centering on their finances he explains, \"But you know there is a right way and a wrong way of doing business. It is always a poor way to get work done to pay beforehand.\""}, {"label": "Description", "content": "One of the major difficulties facing Edwards while he served in the Navy was running his household from two thousand miles away. When military families were separated in the age before telephones or email, mail was the primary means of communication. And those letters could take weeks to reach their destinations. This made running a household incredibly challenging for husbands stationed afar. Without her husband present, Harriet was in charge of the family finances and the raising of their two children. While Edwards does give her extensive instructions on how to spend their money and bring up their children, it was ultimately Harriet's action and decision."}, {"label": "Description", "content": "This letter is part of the correspondence of David Shelton Edwards between the years 1835 and 1848. The 48 letters from this period held by the National Postal Museum are primarily addressed to Edward's wife Harriet; in 1830, Edwards married Harriet Eliza Henry and they had two children, William and Harriet. They kept up a frequent correspondence when his naval service kept them separated. Between 1835 and 1848, Edwards served as a Surgeon at the hospital in the Pensacola Navy Yard, Florida; Fleet Surgeon to the West Indies Squadron; and Surgeon aboard many vessels engaged in the Mexican-American War. His naval career spanned from 1818 to 1861 and his last sea cruise ended in October of 1859 after which he retired to his family home in Connecticut except for a brief time spent at New Bedford, Massachusetts recruiting for the Union Navy during the Civil War. He died in Trumbull, Connecticut on March 18, 1874."}, {"label": "Description", "content": "Reference:"}, {"label": "Description", "content": "Alt, Betty Sowers and Bonnie Demrose Stone. Campfollowing: A History of the Military Wife. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1991."}], "name": [{"label": "Writer", "content": "David Shelton Edwards, American, died 1874"}], "topic": [{"label": "Topic", "content": "American Expansion (1800-1860)"}, {"label": "Topic", "content": "Covers & Letters"}], "place": [{"label": "Place of Origin", "content": "Florida"}, {"label": "Place of Destination", "content": "New York"}], "physicalDescription": [{"label": "Medium", "content": "paper; ink / handwritten"}, {"label": "Dimensions", "content": "Height x Width: 12 7/8 \u00c3\u0097 15 7/8 in. (32.7 \u00c3\u0097 40.32 cm)"}], "dataSource": [{"label": "Data Source", "content": "National Postal Museum"}], "objectType": [{"label": "Type", "content": "Covers & Associated Letters"}]}}, "url": "edanmdm:npm_1978.0652.2", "hash": "19108a978335b8ef31216071545c7acf7f22eee8", "docSignature": "a547b5428136f5d74625b88e00a30f3d", "timestamp": 1663786505, "lastTimeUpdated": 1657961588, "title": "Folded letter by US Navy Surgeon David Shelton Edwards"}