1845 Advertisement for John Herdman’s Emigrant Passage Office with Letter Offering Commission for Finding Clients
1845ref. List2995New York City 1845. Two printed pages measuring 9 ¾ x 11 ½ inches one signed. Folded and slightly wrinkled near fine. A circular advertising passage between Great Britain and Ireland and numerous locations in the United States from Boston to New Orleans by a regular packet ship service managed by John Herdman and Company. The company also offered remittances whereby an individual in the US could send money to a friend or relative back across the Atlantic generally to pay for their passage to the States. The second sheet a signed letter offers a commission for finding customers: five percent of the passage fare and one percent of the remittance money. In 1845 the Great Famine in Ireland was just beginning and Ireland would lose a large proportion of its population not just to starvation but also to emigration. Earning commission on remittances could have been quite lucrative: the National Museum of Ireland estimates that the amount sent back to Ireland in remittances between 1845 and 1854—the height of the famine—reached $19 million. unknown
Auger Down Books · United States$600.00≈ €536.05
