GROVER CLEVELAND LETTER TO "GOURD MUSEUM" CURATOR.


CLEVELAND, GROVER. 1837-1908. Autograph Letter Signed ("Grover Cleveland"), 3 pp recto and verso, 8vo (conjoining leaves), Princeton, May 3, 1907, to Alfred Lookabill, pages toned, mounting remnants at spine.Cleveland writes a letter to "Commodore" Alfred Lookabill, founder of the Alfred Lookabill Gourd Museum in Crawfordville, Indiana. Lookabill had taken an interested in growing gourds around 1897, and soon began collecting specimens in every shape and size, leading him to open a museum. In this letter, Cleveland thanks Lookabill for having sent him seeds and a photograph of himself. (A photograph of Cleveland in a frame made of gourds hung in a place of prominence at the museum.) Cleveland has even caught a little bit of gourd fever himself: "I am thinking of putting in a few seeds at my country home in New Hampshire. A variety producing a fairly large bowl with a good handle would be useful and appropriate for that locality."