Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
November 1779
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 50v
Additional Source Text:
"In other respect perfectly Similar to the fragments described above in the month of September No. B found among Some rubbish in a cellar in this town [Philadelphia]."
Notes:
For Du Simitière's Sep 1779 acquisition, see the entry for "A fragment of petrification resembling a piece of horn."
The donor, Lewis Nicola (1717–1807), was the editor of The American Magazine, or, General Repository (1769). A native of Dublin, Ireland, who had purchased a commission in the British army about 1740, Nicola in 1766 quit the army and moved to America. Nicola established himself as a merchant in Philadelphia, where he became much involved in cultural affairs, operating a circulating library, editing a short-lived magazine, and participating in the formation of the American Philosophical Society in 1769. During the Revolution he was town major of Philadelphia and colonel of the newly created Corps of Invalids, which was to organize soldiers with physical disabilities for employment in garrisons, magazines, arsenals, and hospitals. See Founders Online, National Archives / https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-09-02-0292
