Ward Burlingame scrapbook

ca. 1873-1925. Hardcover. Poor. Scrapbook of over 300 p. 28 cm. Full leather with "Ward Burlingame" in gold print on front centre. Front board and marbled endpapers detached and rear board nearly detached. Spine missing. The scrapbook is a used ledger in which articles and clippings have been pasted overtop. Age is difficult to determine, since the first 50 pages consist of pasted-in articles about an extensive trip to Europe, apparently written by Burlingame himself ca. 1873. Occasional editorial notes and corrections seem to have been written by the author himself. After this articles about Burlingame's retirement and his obituaries have been pasted or loosely inserted. Most are dated to 1907 or 1908. Last 200 p. of the ledger are empty. At front is tucked in the front page of The Topeka Daily Capital from April 18, 1925. All articles browned and have often marked the ledger pages.

Burlingame (1836-1908) was a well-known journalist of Leavenworth and confidential secretary to several noted men of Kansas, including Governor Carney, Senator James H. Lane, Governor Crawford, Governor Harvey, Senator Alexander Caldwell, Governor Osborn, and Senator Plumb. In 1880 he began work for the dead letter division of the post office but retired in 1907. The writer's travels about Europe still make for interesting reading, aside from a tendency to think nothing compares to America. He sees a version of the play Uncle Tom's Cabin in Brussells, the "lingering agony" of a table d'hote dinner, Italian wayside shrines with a "hideous carricature" of the Saviour, that "wonderful place" Pompeii, and how you need at least a month to see Paris, etc.