George Washington Smith's Letter to Joseph Henry (January 26, 1847)

Summary

Letter from George Washington Smith, a Philadelphia merchant, to Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, January 26, 1847. In the letter, Smith seeks Henry's expert opinion about the lightning strike that sank the packet ship "Thomas P. Cope."

Author

• Smith, George Washington ca. 1820-1899
• Joseph Henry Papers Project

Subject

Henry, Joseph 1797-1878

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

The accompanying PDF contains SIA2012-0443, SIA2012-0444, and SIA2012-0445, which are pages scanned from the edited transcript of the original version and notes in the Joseph Henry Papers Volume 7, pages 23-25 (Document 9).

Contained within

• Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7001, Box 8, Folder: 26 - January-March 1847
• Rothenberg, Marc, et al, eds., The Papers of Joseph Henry, Volume 7, The Smithsonian Years: January 1847-December 1849 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1996), 23-25

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

January 26, 1847

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

• Boats and boating
• Electricity
• Shipwrecks
• Secretaries
• Lightning
• Letters
• Science
• Ships

Place

• United States
• Philadelphia (Pa.)

Form/Genre

• Document
• Paper

ID Number

SIA2012-2911 and SIA2012-2912

Physical description

Number of Images: 2 ; Color: Color ; Size: 8w x 9 3/4h ; Type of Image: Document ; Medium: Paper

Full Record

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