George Washington letter

A letter signed by George Washington is housed in Connecticut College’s Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives.

“Without loss of time,” the letter begins, “you will provide and deposit at Albany sail cloth rigging, pitch, junk, iron, and every other material for shipbuilding.”

These are the words sent by Gen. George Washington, then the commander in chief of the Continental Army, to Maj. Gen. Nathanel Greene on Dec. 15, 1778, to prepare for a planned invasion of Canada in the midst of the Revolutionary War. 

Signed by Washington’s hand, the letter has been part of Connecticut College’s Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives since 1945. “We think this might be one of the first letters ordering the building of a United States Navy ship,” said Linda Lear Special Collections Librarian Bailey Rodgers. 

Washington eventually called off the planned expedition, and that particular ship was never built. (The first U.S.-built Navy ship wouldn’t be completed until 1797.) He had been unenthusiastic about invading Canada after a failed attempt in Quebec during the winter of 1775-1776, Rodgers explained, and he felt the Army still lacked the necessary weapons and supplies four years later.

But the letter survives and is kept in Shain Library thanks to trustee emeritus Bernhard Knollenberg, who donated it to Conn. “I am giving it as one of the members of the Friends of the Library of Connecticut College, and hope it may be a China egg to attract other gifts,” he wrote in a letter accompanying the donation. 

A historian with degrees from Cambridge and Harvard, Knollenberg became one of the nation’s top tax lawyers. He retired from practicing law in 1938 and became director of Yale University’s library until 1943. Until his death in 1973, he continued doing what he loved most: studying history, writing about the Revolutionary War and collecting antiquarian documents relating to it. The Connecticut College Librarians Office is dedicated to him.

As America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, visitors to the Linda Lear Center are invited to make an appointment to view Washington’s letter to Gen. Greene, as well as a first edition of founding father Thomas Paine’s highly influential pamphlet, Common Sense, printed in Norwich in 1776 by Judah Spooner and sold in New London by his brother-in-law, Timothy Green. Paine’s arguments for independence from Great Britain famously fueled the Revolutionary War. Also in the collection is an original Colony of Connecticut shilling printed by Green at his own printing press in New London.

Contact the Linda Lear Center at learcenter@conncoll.edu to make an appointment.