Up for auction the "Statue of Liberty" Francis Hopkinson Smith Hand Written Envelope Mounted. 

ES-1089B

Francis Hopkinson Smith (October

23, 1838 – April 7, 1915) was an American author, artist and engineer. He built

the foundation for the Statue of Liberty, wrote many stories and received awards for

his paintings. Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland on

October 23, 1838, a descendant of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration

of Independence. He graduated from the Boys' Latin School of

Maryland. Smith became a contractor in New York City and did much

work for the federal government, including the stone ice-breaker at Bridgeport, Connecticut,

the jetties at the mouth of the Connecticut River, the foundation for the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the Race Rock Lighthouse (southwest of Fishers Island, New York) and many life-saving stations. His

vacations were spent sketching in the White Mountains,

in Cuba and in Mexico. He also visited and sketched in Venice, Constantinople and the Netherlands. He married Josephine

Van Deventer on April 26, 1866.  His

first popular book was Col. Carter of Cartersville (1891). His

1896 novel Tom Grogan and

1898 novel Caleb West were

each the best selling book in the United States in the year of their release. On

March 1, 1915, Smith wrote the Carmel Arts and Crafts

Club in Carmel-by-the-Sea,

California about his collection of fifteen original paintings

being sent for a exhibition at the Club on June 8 to June 26, 1915. It was his

first venture out West. He died at his home in New York City on April 7, 1915.