Letter-copy book for the Chicago post office

John Locke Scripps, American · 1861-1864

Copies of letters composed by John Locke Scripps, postmaster of Chicago, are preserved on the tissue-thin pages of this book. The covered manuscript contains 598 pages of handwritten letters sent by Postmaster Scripps between April 14, 1861, and June 20, 1864. Most letters fit on single pages that are individually numbered in the upper right corner. Yellowed shadows of the original letters’ stationery faintly appear behind the brown-colored script. Most letters are a single page in length.