Curtis, George William, 1824-1892

Original manuscript of the poem "The Legend of Breakneck," written and illustrated by artist Thomas Prichard Rossiter. Manuscript contains 67 full and half page black and white illustrations executed in ink wash. Pasted onto the second front fly leaf is a letter written to Rossiter by George William Curtis, dated Jan. 1, 1868, thanking him for the opportunity to examine the illustrations to the Breakneck legend. Bound in brown leather with a hand tooled decorative title frame executed in brown and green on the cover.

The William Oland Bourne collection in the New-York Historical Society's Manuscripts Department includes correspondence, papers, broadsides, and unpublished manuscripts related to his work as a social reformer, editor and author in New York City during the 1850s and 60s. Through his publication, The Soldier's Friend, he sought to aid disabled soldiers by offering prizes to those who had lost their right arms in combat during the American Civil War and had learned to write with their left hands.