1870 Letter from Rev. Edward P. Smith to the Singer Sewing Company Requesting a Sewing Machine for Howard University Students

New York City, 1870. Single one-page letter measuring 8 x 9 ¾ inches. Near fine.. A letter from Reverend Edward Parmlee Smith (1827–1876), then a field secretary of the American Missionary Association, requesting a free or half-priced Singer sewing machine for the “colored young men & women” who are “working their way through an education” at Howard University. The AMA was initially formed as an abolitionist society; following the Civil War, it funded churches and schools for freed African Americans. One such school is Howard University in Washington, D.C., founded in 1867. Smith himself co-founded Fisk University in Nashville. Following Smith’s tenure at the AMA, he would be appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and later elected president of Howard. Besides the Freedmen’s Bureau, funding for HBCUs at the time largely came from donations, both from individual philanthropists and through organizations like the AMA. However, precedent for direct donations of equipment is less clear, nor is it known whether Singer honored Parmlee’s request.