Autograph Letter Signed & original 19th century steel engraving
Secret Six John Brown Supporter 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Recollects Spiritualist Phenomena
 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 12, 1823- May 9, 1911) was an American Unitarian Minister, a member of the notable Secret Six who helped finance John Brown’s illegal raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry for which Brown was ultimately hanged. Higginson was also a Civil War Colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first federally authorized black regiment from 1862 to 1864. After the war, Higginson fought for the rights of freed people, women and other disenfranchised peoples.
 
Transcription
 
Cambridge March 17, 1892
 
Dear Mr. Hodgson.
I was living in Newburyport 1850-52 & only have seen this person at the time; but I have no recollection of it whatever. Much later in Worcester I saw some similar phenomena & described them in a statement since quoted by Rev. Joseph Cork in one of his books. But the medium was either Mrs. Hatch or Mr. Willis or both. Probably Mr. Plimpton confuses the mediums.
               
   Yours cordially,      T.W. Higginson
 
About the letter contents:
 
Higginson was possibly referring to Cora Scott, a medium of the Spirtualist movement. Scott’s first husband was the professional mesmerist Benjamin Franklin Hatch. He was likely also referring to Frederick L. H. Willis, who was expelled from Harvard Divinity School for acting as a spiritual medium. Willis was a close friend of Abigail May and Bronson Alcott, an ardent proponent of spiritualism, a lecturer, preacher, homeopathic physician and writer. 
 
About the letter:
The letter is attached to cardboard by a previous owner. 
Archival matting
TruVue Museum Glass
 
About the image:
No date. c. later 19th century steel engraving by J.J. Cade, New York.