TLS from the philanthropist and businessman

BLOOMINGDALE, LYMAN G. (1841-1905). American philanthropist and businessman whose eponymous department store has influenced American merchandising to the present day. TLS. (“Lyman G. Bloomingdale”). 2/3p. Small 4to. New York, January 6, 1897. On his personal stationery bearing the department store’s address. To Union Colonel Edmund Hendricks (1835?-1910).

I am in receipt of your favor of January 5^th inquiring as to Mr. J. M. Tobias, with regard to his application to join Lafayette Post, and in answer beg to say, that I have known Mr. Tobias for a number of years, and am glad to say that I can speak only well of him. I believe that he will be an acceptable member of the Post, and therefore recommend him. Very truly yours…

Sons of a Jewish-Bavarian immigrant, brothers Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale began their retail business selling hoop skirts in their Ladies’ Notions Shop on New York’s Lower East Side. Soon after, they branched out to carry a wider variety of furnishings for men and women, laying the foundation for their innovative Bloomingdale’s Department Store. In 1886, the operation moved to its current location on 59^th Street and Third Avenue. Although his brother retired in 1896, Lyman continued to run the department store until his death, becoming a prominent member of society and a member of New York’s Lafayette Post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Founded in April 1866, the GAR was comprised of Union Civil War veterans whose membership “increased rapidly in the 1880s, so that by 1890, when the GAR reached its peak, more than 400,000 members were reported,” (The Columbia Encyclopedia). GAR members (of whom Bloomingdale was one, despite his very limited service in the Civil War) “sought to strengthen the bonds of comradeship, to preserve the memory of their fallen comrades (they secured the general adoption of Memorial Day to achieve this purpose), to give aid to soldiers’ widows and orphans and to handicapped veterans, and, most of all, to fight for pension increases and other benefits,” (ibid.). Broadly signed, folded and in very good condition. Rare; the first example of Bloomingdale that we have handled.

Item #15494

Price: $750

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