Original letters, tickets, and documents from old Waltham.
A shelf of surviving paper from nineteenth and early twentieth century Massachusetts: Civil War passes and party ballots, watch company correspondence, electrician licenses, bank stock certificates, and the invoices of one of America's first automobiles. Each piece is scanned at high resolution, transcribed in full, and set in its historical context, so you can read what the people of the time wrote, bought, and signed.
The Watch City, on paper
Browse the Waltham postcards in the archive
A travel pass signed by Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks at Headquarters, Department of the Gulf, letting Captain William Green ride to Baton Rouge on any government transport.
A signed letter from Nathaniel P. Banks urging George S. Boutwell to accept a presidential appointment to the office held by Judge Lowell, plus the modern letter of authenticity that traveled with it.
A party-printed ballot for the 1866 Massachusetts state election, topped by an eagle and running Nathaniel P. Banks of Waltham for Representative to Congress.
A printed invitation from Waltham's Grand Army of the Republic Post 29 asking the recipient to a supper honoring the volunteers of the recent G.A.R. fair.
Two Commonwealth of Massachusetts journeyman electrician licenses issued to Foggs of Brown Street, Waltham, in 1916, when wiring America's homes was a brand-new certified trade.
H. A. Robbins of Robbins & Appleton, New York agents for the American Watch Co. of Waltham, asks a Charleston firm to mail him back his bonds and mortgage.
A punch-cancelled stock certificate for seven shares of the Waltham National Bank, made out to the bank's own president, Charles A. Moulton, and stamped by the bank's cashier.
A professional photograph of a two-story brick commercial block, its storefronts lettered for a drug store, an electric light company, and Murray the Electrician, with trolley tracks and pedestrians at the corner.
Three 1905 invoices from the Waltham Manufacturing Co. recording E. T. Brown of Vermont buying an Orient Model A automobile, then a horn, a spark plug, and a spare tire to keep it running.
A full-length engraved portrait of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in uniform, published by Johnson, Fry & Co. of New York in 1863 from a painting by Alonzo Chappel, with his facsimile signature beneath.