Exceptional ALS, one page, 5.25 x 7.5, black-bordered letterhead, September 22, 1881. Addressed to the Executive Mansion, a letter to J. Stanley Brown, the private secretary to President Garfield. In full: "If you will kindly send me a few tickets of admission to the Rotunda for the funeral ceremony you will oblige one of the sincerest mourners of the late President." In fine condition, with a trimmed bottom edge and torn upper edge. In mid-July of 1881, Bell was invited to the White House to locate the bullet fired into the back of President Garfield by assassin Charles Guiteau. In an attempt to achieve what the nation's best surgeons could not, Bell searched for the bullet with an induction balance device, an early version of the metal detector inspired by the work of Gustave Trouve. Bell made efforts on July 26 and August 1, but was ultimately unable to locate the stray bullet; it was later determined that the metal bedsprings below the supine president had skewed the experiment. President Garfield died from his wounds just three days before this letter was written. With such a close association to the tragic fate of America's twentieth president, this is a superb and solemn letter from one of the Industrial Age's foremost names.
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