Papers of John Adams, volume 21
r:30
th:1794
In the Belief that it may afford to you some Pleasure, I
do myself the honour to enclose to you a Drawing of sundry matters collected
from an old Grave in this Country—addressed as you will observe to my Friend
Mr Belknab of Boston— The Skull of the Body
interred with them mouldered away upon being exposed to the Air, and a Part
of the Thigh Bone Seems to me as antique as
many which I have viewed after laying three hundred years in the Earth—1
If upon the Receipt of this Packet you should have a few
moments of Leisure I shall hope to be indulged with Information of the
probable Uses of the different Articles and the Degree of Improvement of the
people designing them—which I have in vain sought amongst the learned of this Country.
with highest Respect / I have the honour to be / Sir / your most obedient / humble Servant
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The honourable / Vice President of the United States.”
Sargent was serving as secretary of the Northwest
Territory. The enclosure has not been found, but JA sent
his artwork of Native artifacts to Jeremy Belknap, for which see JA’s 24 Jan. 1795 reply
to Sargent, below. Sargent gave the artifacts to the American
Philosophical Society, and his original drawing is in OHi:Winthrop Sargent
Papers (Terry A. Barnhart, “Ancient Metropolis: Prehistoric Cincinnati,”
Ohio Valley History, 2:5, 6, 8, 22
[Summer 2017]).