Bank check, 7.75 x 2.25, filled out and signed by Lincoln, payable to “S. L. Whipple for Ills. College” for $12.50, January 29, 1859. Archivally double cloth matted with a portrait of Lincoln to an overall size of 14.25 x 19.5. Unobtrusive cross-cut bank cancellation, two other small cancellation holes, and a few spots of foxing and soiling, otherwise fine condition. According to the consignor, this check descended in the family of Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, Lincoln’s great-grandson and the last of the president’s direct descendants.
In 1831, Lincoln moved to New Salem, Illinois, just 30 miles away from the town of Jacksonville and Illinois College. In 1859, the year of this check, the college’s Phi Alpha Men’s Literary Society made him an honorary member, with the future president delivering an address, entitled Discoveries, Inventions, and Improvements, on February 11, 1859. This check’s recipient is most likely Dr. Samuel L. Whipple, who in 1869 gave the college $10,000 for the founding of a preparatory school run in connection with Illinois College. The week Lincoln wrote this check, he also represented the Illinois Central Railroad Company in what was to become one of the biggest cases of his legal career, defending the railroad before the Supreme Court after the state of Illinois sued for back taxes on property owned by the company. Great association between the 16th president, Illinois, higher learning, and Lincoln’s legal career. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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