The collection contains financial instruments, forms, and ephemera that emanated from the South during the Civil War. The material was once kept in a folio album, and some of the documents, particularly the currency and newspaper clippings, remain attached to their album pages., Folder 1 holds bonds and certificates, many uncut with coupons attached, and one album page with receipts for bonds. Folder 2 holds sixteen album pages of Confederate currency and a folder with fourteen loose dollar bills in various denominations, a few of which are labeled as facsimile notes (as part of their engraved design) and were printed in Philadelphia. There is also one page with Treasurer's bank checks, and a sheet of white paper with CSA watermarks, which is inscribed “Bank note paper manufactured for the Confederate States of America. Part of the cargo of the Blockage runner Bermuda captured 27 April 1862 & brot into the Port of Philadelphia.” Folder 3 holds clippings cut from unidentified newspapers, most of which contain announcements of regiment activities, bonds sales, defense loans, etc. Folder 4 holds ephemera printed with “Southern rights” and other secessionist slogans. Folder 5 holds miscellaneous material printed in the South, primarily government and military forms. There is also a blank sheet of light brown paper inscribed “Rebel writing paper from North Carolina.”, Confederate correspondence is filed in Series III of the McAllister Collection's Civil War Manuscripts (McA MSS 024)., Includes counterfeit currency that was featured on the program "Mysteries at the Museum" (Season 12, Episode 31, in the segment entitled "Civil War Counterfeiter"), which aired 2 February 2017., John A. McAllister was an antiquarian collector living in Philadelphia.
Creator
McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896
Date
1861
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts MSS McA 5795.F (McAllister)
A singing women stands amid floating bank notes., Text: The silvery notes that from your throat / Flow forth so beautiful and sweet, / Much better are than notes of Banks, / For they cannot be counterfeit., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
