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publicly available since they were donated to the American Jewish Historical Society. But as they were undated, and in fact incorrectly cataloged, anyone examining them would not have known that they were written during the same time period when Pulitzer was courting Davis. Fortunately, I was able to date them because Eric Fettmann, a remarkable collector of artifacts of American journalism, had purchased a letter from Pulitzer to Tunstall dated May 2, 1878. With this letter, one is able to correctly date the other two as having been written between February and May 1878.

As 1877 ended: JP to KP, DCS-JP, 91.

St. Louis grew: Quoted in Roberts, The Washington Post, 1.

Field was not: Ibid., 7. It’s unclear to what extent, if any, Pulitzer participated in the launching of the Post. He had been a regular contributor to the St. Louis Times when Hutchins ran it. But a search of early editions of the Washington Post turns up only one article clearly written by Pulitzer, a reprint of one from the New York Sun in the summer of 1877.

Journalism, however, was: GlDe, 1/03/1878, 3; ChTr, 11/19/1876, 2, 11/22/1876, 1, 11/18/1876, 1, 10/31/1877, 2. Seitz claims that Pulitzer studied for and passed the bar examination in the District of Columbia. A check of the record of the bar, now in the archives of the University of District of Columbia, found no attorneys standing for the bar in 1877 or 1878, so there was no way to determine if Pulitzer was admitted to practice in Washington. It would not, however, have been a requirement for appearing before the elections committee. Pulitzer was still ambiguous about his career path. He listed himself in the Washington city directory as a correspondent, probably because of his loose connection with the New York Sun.

The Committee on Elections: Minute Book, Records of Committee on Elections, 45th Congress, 1/30/1878, NARA; WaPo, 1/30/1878, 1; BoGl, 2/14/1878, 1. Though at first glance this might seem like a late date to decide an election of 1876, it was not. During the nineteenth century Congress often took a year before holding its first session, so only a few days of lawmaking had elapsed when the case of who should represent the Third District of Missouri came before the House.

If the Committee: WaPo, 2/12/1878, 2.

The editorial had: Minute Book, Records of Committee on Elections, 45th Congress, 2/20 and 2/21/1878, NARA.

Despite this loss: WaPo, 1/24/1878, 1; 1/29/1878, 4; 2/25/1878, 4; 2/26/1878, 4.

Pulitzer did not lack: WaPo, 1/24/1878, 1, and 1/30/1878, 4; Gallagher, Stilson Hutchins, 26.

On January 12: WaPo, 1/14/1878, 4; Washington Star, 6/20/1878; Stevens Point Journal, Stevens Point, WI, 6/29/1878, 1.

But to Davis’s parents: Pitzman’s New Atlas of the City and County of Saint Louis, Missouri, 1878 shows Pulitzer, Hutchins, and Brockmeyer’s lots. Pulitzer owned 3.4 acres of land; Hutchins owned an adjacent acre; and Brockmeyer had almost four acres nearby.

Trying to hide: The Jewish practice of circumcision was not introduced as a medical practice in the United States until 1870 and did not become widely practiced among Christians until the 1900s. See David L. Gollaher, “From Ritual to Science: The Medical Transformation of Circumcision in America,” Journal of Social History, Vol. 28, No. 1 (1994). Throughout his life, and long into the twentieth century, Pulitzer’s contention that his mother was not Jewish remained unchallenged. For instance, The Hebrews in America, published in 1888, reported, “The Messrs. Pulitzer, however, are not being classed among the chosen people, their father being a Hebrew and their mother a Christian lady of Vienna.” Ironically, Kate Davis was a strong-willed, independent-minded woman and might not have been deterred if Pulitzer had been honest.

Davis was not: WaPo, 1/14/1878, 4.

Born in a: Morris, The First Tunstalls.

William Corcoran, one: Corcoran wrote to Tunstall that she was expected in January 1878. Corcoran to Tunstall, 12/14/1877, WCP-DU; WaPo, 2/24/1888, 2; Corcoran, A Grandfather’s Legacy, 490.

Tunstall certainly filled: William MacLeod,