1878 Union College Possible Error Copy – Private Collection – $2.5 Billion
Private-Collection Historian Dossier
Price: $2,500,000,000.00. Private inquiry only; online checkout is disabled. This is a privately held, original-period 1878 circular and catalogue associated with the School of Civil Engineering of Union College in Schenectady, New York.
The pale green printed wrapper carries a ruled border, period black typography, the Union seal, and age-related discoloration and handling wear. The supplied digital record contains six photographed pages, including the Civil Engineering Class of 1877 and a full-page W. & L. E. Gurley surveying-instrument advertisement.
Possible Copy-Specific Error
The supplied scans may preserve a copy-specific printing, assembly, or binding anomaly. “Possible error copy” is used deliberately: uniqueness, completeness, and the exact production fault have not been independently authenticated. A final determination requires physical collation against complete institutional copies and examination by a qualified rare-book specialist.
All Thirteen Named Civil Engineering Graduates
Edwin Crawford Baird — civil engineer; Dayton city engineer from 1885–1889 and later Montgomery County engineer.
Frank V. Brownell — later earned an M.D. and practiced medicine.
John Causley — civil engineer whose later record places him in Australia/Oceania.
Francis Horton Colcock — C.E. graduate and Military Prize recipient; later practiced law in South Carolina.
George Edmond Crain — civil engineer later associated with Milwaukee.
Adelbert Eugene Cumming — Ohio civil engineer.
William J. De Treville Jr. — professor whose later career was associated with Texas.
John Townsend Hart — later career associated with South Carolina.
Oliver James Hart — entered government service in Washington; he is not the later Episcopal bishop of the same name, born in 1892.
Paul Fripp Jenkins — constructing engineer credited in Union alumni records with Florida East Coast Railway work from Palm Beach through Lemon City into Miami; later worked for the Seaboard Air Line and died after being struck by a train.
John C. Pennie — engineer and lawyer who became a Washington patent attorney; documented in a U.S. Patent Office roster and the 1905 U.S. Supreme Court journal.
Oscar H. Rogers — later held A.M. and M.D. degrees and practiced in New York City.
John Bohlen Washburne — C.E. graduate, multiple-prize recipient, and Pennsylvania engineer.
Historian, Educators, and Industrial Context
Joel Munsell — Albany historian-printer, antiquarian, and bibliographer associated with the catalogue’s production. His shop and bindery operated at 80–82 State Street, Albany.
William Mitchell Gillespie — began civil-engineering instruction at Union in 1845, anchoring one of the nation’s early engineering programs.
Cady Staley — period engineering leader at Union and later the first president of the Case School of Applied Science, serving from 1886–1902.
W. & L. E. Gurley — nationally important Troy, New York makers of precision surveying instruments, prominent at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition.
Thomas Edison — Union’s broader 1878 institutional record lists an honorary Ph.D. for Edison. This is same-year Union context and is not represented as appearing in the six supplied photographs.
Historical Significance
Union College was founded in 1795. Its civil-engineering program developed into an important nineteenth-century training ground for municipal, railroad, patent, government, and professional careers. The coexistence of the Union College and Union University names in 1878 is historical context following the 1873 organization of Union University; that naming alone is not evidence of an error.
Condition and Evidence Standard
Visible features include wrapper wear, toning, discoloration, and handling evidence consistent with age. Private-collection status and the $2.5 billion price are owner-supplied. The documented careers and institutional history are supported by Union College, archival, government, museum, and historic-preservation sources. No reliable comparable-market range has been established for a verified copy-specific anomaly of this type.
A 12-page historian’s dossier and the original six-page scan accompany the research record.
