Actor Edwin Booth contributes to a fund for the relief of the children of late humorist and journalist Philip H. Welch

Edwin Thomas Booth was an actor who toured throughout the United States and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays; he was also brother of John Wilkes Booth. Autograph Letter Signed, Narragansett Pier (Rhode Island), Aug. 8, 1889 to New York Evening Post editorial writer Edward P. Clark. “Please place my name among those of contributors to the Welch Memorial Fund.” Very good, with the original envelope in his hand. Booth, one of America’s greatest actors of the 19th century is often overshadowed by the notoriety of his brother, John Wilkes Booth.

Of the fund mentioned the New York Times ran an article on April 3, 1889 which read in part “Friends of the late Philip H. Welch, the humorist and journalist, who died recently under pathetic circumstances, have organized a fund for the education of his four children, each of whom is under 9 years of age.”