Martin Archer Shee autograph album

1531-1903

Album of autograph letters, letter fragments, and cut away signatures, many of which are addressed to the English portrait painter and writer Martin Archer Shee. Apparantly partially compiled by Shee's daughter, Eliza Jane, the album represents the hands of hundreds of nineteenth-century British artists, writers, politicians, and royalty, as well as a number of notable continental Europeans of the period. The bulk of the manuscripts date from the first half of the nineteenth century. The earliest manuscript is a 1531 document on vellum signed by Francis I of France; the latest is a 1903 letter from British Army Genreal Archibald Hunter, to Shee's great-grandson, also named Martin Archer Shee (1873-1935).