Hon. Geo. P. Marsh

Page 1

Dear Sir

Father wishes to send me and my brother Preston to America to exhibit his Statue of America but as we are both still American citizens we do not know whether on arriving in that country we could not be obliged by conscription to serve as soldiers -- I shall be much obliged to you for letting me know what you can on this subject at your earliest convenience as the time for our departure is fast

approaching -- I was born in America (Cincinnati) & am 29 My brother was born here and is 21 -- Father is still an american citizen never having been naturalized in Italy -- We intend starting on the 28 of this Month if all is right

All the family join me in kind regards to M Marsh & yourself

Believe me

Yours Very SincerelyLongworth Powers

Jan. 8

References in this letter:

William) Preston Powers, Hiram and Elizabeth Powers' fifth child, was born in Florence in 1843. He served as his father's personal secretary for a number of years and after Powers' death operated his own studio. He died in Florence in 1931.

Powers' heroic statue of a partially-clothed female figure representing the United States was modeled in plaster between August 1848 and September 1849. The marble replica made from it, completed in 1855, never found a buyer and was destroyed in a warehouse fire in Brooklyn, New York, in 1865.

(Nicholas) Longworth Powers, Hiram and Elizabeth Powers' second child, was born in Cincinnati in 1835 and died in 1924 in Florence after a long career there as a photographer.