Browse Items (72 total)

This permit authorized Fergus Peniston, a Louisiana cotton merchant, to transport and sell the cotton he possesses. In order to obtain this permit, Peniston wrote several petitions to Lincoln and enlisted friends of the administration to write on his…

Abraham Lincoln to William Kellogg, rejecting his attempts to secure a cotton permit for former Illinois legislator, Amos Babcock. Lincoln scolded Kellogg for his single-minded pursuit of a permit and observed the corruption already associated with…

Just three months after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln issued a proclamation to reform the cotton trading system laid out in 1861. As trade grew in the Mississippi Valley in 1862 and 1863, the permit system was plagued by…

This affidavit, written by Alphonse Boudousquie and certified by Governor Michael Hahn, affirmed that Fergus Peniston and William Pike owned substantial quantities of cotton and were loyal citizens of the United States during the war. Affidavits like…

Engraving for Harper's Weekly of cotton and sugar brought out to be sold after the fall of Memphis to the Union Army.

Article from WNYC reporting on the agreement between Mayor Bloomberg and State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, protecting gardens from further private development.

Poster for the U.S. Department of Agriculture promoting victory gardens, showing carrots, lettuce, corn, tomatoes, and potatoes growing.

Photograph of sign reading "Childrens School Farm - Exhbited by The International Children's School Farm League of New York City."

Park Association President Whitney North Seymour Jr., circa 1965, explaining the concept of using vacant lots to create 'vest-pocket parks.'

Children at play in a vest pocket park located at 182 Mulberry Street, July 13, 1968