CHECK FROM THE CITY OF NEW YORK FOR THE ERIE CANAL CELEBRATION.


Check from the City of New York, Signed ("Philip Hone," as Mayor) made out to "R. Riker Chairm Comt Canal Celebration," dated October 23, 1826, in the amount of $3837.89, note in left-hand margin "Canal Celebration," endorsed on verso to the "Manhattan Company," signed "R. Riker," perforation.The Erie Canal was completed on October 26, 1825, the first canal in the United States to connect the Atlantic Ocean to western waterways. Celebrations took place statewide throughout late 1825 and into 1826. The Committee, with the Common Council of New York, ordered a series of commemorative medals presented to "'crowned heads of world and eminent men' including General Lafayette and 3 surviving signers of [the] Declaration of Independence ... [as well as] guests and officials" (Hibler and Kappen, So-Called Dollars, 1963). The payment here of $3837.89 is recorded in the Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, Volume 15, p 651.