SHIPPING RECEIPT FOR PACKAGE SENT TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN

Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Signed by "Woodside." Baltimore, 16 April 1864. 1 page, 8vo. On "Adams Express Company" receipt. 

A receipt for a package sent using the Adams Express Company. While the the person from whom the package was received is difficult to decipher, the intended recipient was "President Lincoln" in "Washington DC." The package was also shipped for free. 

The Adams Express Company was established by Alvin Adams (1804-77) in 1839 after being financially ruined by the Panic of 1837. Adams would carry letters, small packages and valuables between Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts. As business grew, Adams expanded his territory to New York and Philadelphia. By 1847, he was shipping packages to the South; by 1850, he was using rails and stagecoaches to ship to St. Louis. 

While the Adams Express Company operated in the North with a reputation for shipping anti-slavery newspapers and even an enslaved man to freedom, the company survived through the Civil War by opening the subsidiary Southern Express in the Confederate South. Despite undergoing mergers and concentration changes through history, the Adams Express Company is still operating today. It is now called Adams Funds and is an investment company focusing on energy and natural resources stocks. 

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