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Militaria and Political Auction
Lot 1345:
George C. Marshall
Archive envelope measures 7.375" × 4.75" 1947
Washington, DC File Military XWCCDD
Marshall was General of the Army and U.S. Army Chief of Staff during World War I. He was Truman’s Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, and the European Recovery Plan he proposed in 1947 earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.
George C. Marshall replies to 7-year-old New Jersey wheel chair-bound girl
Small archive comprised of TLS from Joan D. Stevenson of Nutley, New Jersey requesting an autograph from Marshall;
*Secretary of State" letterhead envelope originally enclosing Marshall’s autograph; and a photocopy of a 1949 New Jersey newspaper article discussing Joan’s autograph collecting.
TLS from Joan D. Stevenson of Nutley, New Jersey signed "Joan" in black ink at center. The May 20, 1947 letter requested an autograph from then 50th U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall. In near fine condition, with expected paper folds, the page measuring 8.25" x 10.75. Also accompanied by a free franked "The Secretary of State, Washington" letterhead envelope postmarked from Washington, DC on July 2, 1947, stamped "Department of State Official Business, Penalty for private use" in postage area. Some mounting traces verso, measuring 7.375" × 4.75". A photocopy of an October 10, 1949 newspaper article describing Joan and her collection entitled *Youngster, 9, in Nutley Gets Autographs" provides some biographical information.
Please see below for the content of Joan’s TLS, with uncorrected spelling and typographical mistakes:
"DEar General Marshal,
I hope you are well. I am sick in a wheel chair I am 7 yearsold Will you please send me your autograph Love Joan".
As the period newspaper article tells us, Joan Stevenson was a young girl from northeastern New Jersey recovering from an April 1947 attack of rheumatic fever. She played with her father’s typewriter, requesting autographs from famous people.
Eventually, Joan Stevenson would correspond with world leaders, automobile industrialists, professional athletes, and military commanders like George C. Marshall.
George C. Marshall (1880-1959) was a career soldier of exceptional quality whose talents also extended to statecraft. His forty-nine-year-long military career stretched from the Philippine-American War to the Korean War; his political roles ranged from serving as Special Envoy to China to acting as the 50th U.S. Secretary of State. Marshall was a master strategist; as U.S.
Army Chief of Staff, he oversaw the expansion and training of approximately 16 million service men and women during World War II. Later, Marshall used this same masterful planning when implementing his 13-million-dollar plan to rebuild Western Europe. Marshall served as Secretary of State and later as Secretary of Defense during the second administration of friend, colleague, and 33rd U.S. President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972).
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