Item 12: Autograph from Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, ca. 1866-1868

Item — Box: 12, Folder: 12

Staff Only

Dates

ca. 1866-1868

Creator

Maury, Matthew Fontaine, 1806-1873 (Person)

Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities

Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.

Access:

All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.

Extent

From the Collection: 17 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Type of Material:

Autograph

Condition Note:

Good; yellowing

Measurements:

3 in. x 1 ½ in.

Description:

Matthew Fontaine Maury was an American Naval officer and oceanographer that fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. After serving 14 years in the Navy as a sailor, Maury broke his leg, leading to him taking up oceanography. He founded the US Naval Observatory and discovered charts and current information that had been lost in a depository of thousands of US naval logbooks. He created the American Association for the Advancement of Science in order to make this information widely available. Because of his contributions, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. Maury also supported the idea of shipping all slaves from Virginia to Brazil, which would gradually phase out slavery and expand the United States into South America. Maury urged for peace between the Union and the Confederacy, but eventually joined the Confederacy. He eventually rose to be a Commander of the Confederate States Navy, where he helped develop the first electrically-controlled torpedo. He was eventually sent to England to find ships and support for the Confederacy, initiating relations with many figures, such as Archduke Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico, and Napoleon III, Emperor of France. After the war, Maury and Maximilian worked together, planning the New Virginia Colony, where the defeated Confederate troops would emigrate to central Mexico, but the plan was never followed through. He was then pardoned by the US and spent the rest of his days instructing at universities across the East Coast. After the New Virginia Colony failed, Maximilian appointed Maury Commissioner of Colonization and he lived in England from 1866 to 1868, so the note may have been written then, with the “Comr” title standing for Commissioner. This is supported in John D. Bennett’s The London Confederates: The Officials, Clergy, Businessmen and Journalists who backed the American South During the Civil War, where Maury was recorded as living at 3 Belsize Square with his family.