Partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 15.5 x 19, March 21, 1870. President Grant appoints Theodore Cooper as "First Assistant Engineer in the Navy." Neatly signed at the conclusion by President Grant and countersigned by Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson. The crisp blue Navy Department seal affixed at the bottom remains fully intact. In fine condition, with a small stain in the eagle vignette at the top.
Theodore Cooper entered the Navy in 1861, serving aboard the gunboat Chocorua and the Nyack in the South Pacific, as well as assignments as an instructor and engineer at the Naval Academy. He resigned from the service in 1872, and is better known for his later engineering feats, which included designs for the Junction Bridges over the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh, the Seekonk Bridge at Providence, Rhode Island, the Second Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River at New York City, and the Newburyport Bridge over the Merrimack River in Massachusetts. Most notable of Cooper’s achievements is that he developed the standards and calculations used to determine the safe loading of railroad bridges. And, his paper on 'American Railway Bridges' presented to the American Society of Engineers at the Seabright Convention and published in Engineering News, July 6, 1889, was the first to gather historical data on America’s railroad bridges. Highly detailed, lengthy and elaborately illustrated, it showed the progress in this branch of engineering that made the United States famous for its railroad bridges. Provenance: Collection of James C. Seacrest, a noted collector and philanthropist from Nebraska.
This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
Buy a third-party letter of authenticity for
$100.00
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
