The Lady in Blue

SPECIAL DELIVERY

Alexander Parker Crittenden dipped the tip of his pen in precious drops of ink, staring at the waffling tent flap, sorting through his memory, choosing which news to share with his wife in Texas. Thirty days ago, he'd left for the California goldfields, preferring to follow the Mexican route (though it was longer) rather than jouncing and joggling his way across the wagon rut trails of Texas, risking extreme heat and thirst between far-flung watering holes.

He sailed from New Orleans to Vera Cruz, Mexico. In Chihuahua, his friend, also named Alex, had been injured in a knife fight, and he'd been forced to leave him behind.

Crittenden couldn't wait to describe in the letter to his wife the strange vegetation they'd passed coming north to Tucson. The folks at home would be glad to know he'd stumbled across the names of their neighbors, Frank, Roger and Leonard, scrawled a month and a half before on a crumbling church wall. So much to say, and only one sheet of paper left from those he'd bought in New Orleans. Crittenden brushed the dirt from the board he used as a writing desk and dipped the pen once again.

"Tucson Sonora Aug 18th 1849," he scrawled at the top of the page. "My dear wife, It is very uncertain whether a letter from here will ever reach you. Still it is possible and I take the chance though it is only to say a very few words ..."

Incredibly, the letter not only arrived at its destination - traveling more than 3,000 roundabout miles from Tucson to Brazoria, Texas it endured, passing from hand to hand through a century and a half, coming full circle to reside once again in Tucson as a part of John Birkinbine's internationally

A 2,000-mile journey by land and sea in 1849 took a letter from Tucson to Texas. . . Today it's back in Tucson

acclaimed private postal history collection.

The letter will go on display January 19 through 21 at the Tucson Convention Center as part of the Arizona Federation of Stamp Clubs' NORDIA-ARIPEX philatelic show.

Crittenden's message, known to philatelists as a "folded letter," is written on both sides of the paper, folded with a blank space to the outside, which is addressed to "Mrs. Clara C. Crittenden, Brasoria (sic), Brasoria County, Texas, via New Orleans." Birkinbine, who has collected and researched postal history for 40-plus years, will exhibit more than 200 dispatches that authenticate through postmarked covers (envelopes), letters and contracts postal delivery methods of Arizona's Territorial history between 1849 and 1870. The show also features a rare public appearance by Birkinbine's classic stagecoach, once used to carry mail from Tombstone to Tucson.