I am endeavoring to procure a collection of autographs of distinguished Americans1, and as such a collection would be incomplete without your autograph, I trust you will pardon me for2[cut away]
loc_no.00060_large.jpg loc_no.00059_large.jpg Percy W. Thomson, Lt., U.S.R.M. loc_no.00061_large.jpgCorrespondent:
Percy Wallace Thompson
(1858–1935?) was born in Washington D.C., and he attended the Virginia
Military Institute and Columbian (now George Washington) University. He was a
graduate of the Revenue-Cutter Service Academy in 1881 and was the commanding
officer of the U.S.S. Corwin during the Spanish-American
War. He wrote articles on the Revenue-Cutter service and on maritime history for
several publications, including Scribner's Magazine, the
New York Sun, and the Boston
Herald (Albert Nelson Marquis, ed., The Book of
Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of
Chicago, Vol. 2 [Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company, 1911],
669).