COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
COLUMNS
 

The John Jay Papers:

An Open Letter To All Friends of
Columbia. University
 

AN OPPORTUNITY has come to Columbia University
/-^\ which must be seized at once, for it will never come
.A. )V again. The papers of John Jay, one of Columbia's most
illustrious alumni, after remaining for a century and a half in the
hands of his descendants, have been offered for sale. The collection
comprises nearly 2,000 pieces to and from more than 250 individ¬
uals, including men such as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alex¬
ander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Paul Jones, Rufus King,
the Marquis de Lafayette, Gouverneur Morris, General Schuyler,
and George Washington. Columbia University, an institution
proud of her long tradition and intent on developing her research
resources in the interests of scholarship, is above all others the
proper repository for John Jay's papers. Wt are therefore asking
help to make possible their acquisition.

John Jay was one of America's foremost statesmen during the
era when the foundation stones of our nation were being laid. He
was, moreover, a citizen of New York, and his ancestors and de¬
scendants have made the New York area the center of their civic
and social activities through many generations. John Jay was a
 

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