LETTERS OF GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM TO
JAMES S. ROLLINS
EDITED BY C. B. ROLLINS
PART I
INTRODUCTION
Sometime ago I turned over to the State Historical
Society of Missouri a large number of letters, papers and
manuscripts belonging to the correspondence of my father.
In this Rollins Manuscript Collection were more than one
hundred letters from George Caleb Bingham. Mr. Floyd
C. Shoemaker, secretary of the Historical Society, thought
these letters of sufficient interest and value to give to the public, and suggested that they be published in the Missouri
Historical Review. He asked me if I would edit them. On
account of the long and close friendship of Bingham and my
father, and my personal acquaintance with the man, I know
some facts of interest not known to others. So I agreed^
Installments of these letters will be found in the October and
succeeding issues of the Review.
My father and Bingham met for the first time in Columbia, Missouri, in the spring of 1834. They were immediately
attracted to each other, and there began an intimate friendship that lasted through the years until Bingham's death,
July 7, 1879. They loved each other with a disinterested and
lasting affection. No brothers were ever nearer. Theirs
was an example of the finest friendship. The natures of the
two men were in complete harmony, and they literally shared
every thought without reservation. Bingham's long and
repeated visits at La Grange, my father's place, were the
occasions of mutual outpourings in which their credos were
(3)
