Original March 14, 1904 Harper & Brothers Publishers Letter – Addressed to Harvard Historian Albert Bushnell Hart – Concerning His “Panama Articles” During the Year the U.S. Took Control of the Canal Project

Typed on official Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, New York City letterhead and signed in ink by J. N. Foran, an editor and manuscript reader for the firm.  This letter informs Professor Hart that his Panama articles had been reviewed but were not selected for publication, while noting their valuable material and inviting him to visit the editors in person.

Dated March 14, 1904, the same spring the United States formally assumed control of the Panama Canal Zone (May 4, 1904), marking a turning point in American foreign policy under President Theodore Roosevelt.  The timing places this letter at the very moment national newspapers and publishers were racing to interpret and explain the new era of U.S. expansionism.

Albert Bushnell Hart (1854–1943) was one of the country’s foremost historians, a leading member of the “Harvard School” of history, and an early mentor to Franklin D. Roosevelt.  His writings on government and imperial policy helped shape public understanding of America’s new global role.  This unpublished editorial exchange captures his direct contact with one of America’s premier publishing houses at the dawn of the Panama Canal enterprise.

Details

One-page letter, 8½ × 11 inches

Dated March 14, 1904

Harper & Brothers engraved letterhead

Signed “J. N. Foran” in black ink

Mentions “the Panama articles” sent for review

Fine, even toning; light mailing folds; clean and well-preserved

Historical significance:

In 1904 the U.S. purchased the French canal rights and began construction of what would open a decade later, in 1914, as the Panama Canal—one of the greatest engineering feats in history and a cornerstone of U.S. strategic power.  Correspondence from that precise transition month between a major publisher and a leading historian provides a rare firsthand window into how the subject was handled in American literary and academic circles.

A unique association between Harper & Brothers and Albert Bushnell Hart, directly tied to the birth of the Panama Canal.

Condition: Very Good; light folds, minimal toning, strong signature.

Guaranteed original, 1904.