Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1891-2018 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
21pp
Context area
Archival history
Kerby A. Miller was provided with a reproduction of this letter from the O'Hegerty Manuscripts, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas [call number MS P400A:1a].
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Materials pertaining to an 1891 letter sent by Augustine 'Gus' Costello to his young cousin in Ireland describing his education as a child and providing employment advice.
Augustine E. Costello (1846–1909) was an Irish-born Fenian insurgent, prominent New York journalist, and historical author. Born in Killimor, County Galway, he immigrated to the United States as a young man and quickly became deeply entrenched in Irish-American revolutionary politics. In 1867, Costello took part in the ill-fated Erin’s Hope expedition, a maritime gun-running mission designed to support the Fenian Rising in Ireland. Upon landing, he was arrested by British authorities, tried for treason-felony, and sentenced to twelve years of penal servitude. Because Costello was a naturalised U.S. citizen, his high-profile imprisonment sparked an international diplomatic dispute over the rights of Americans abroad, ultimately influencing the passage of the landmark U.S. Expatriation Act of 1868.
Following an early release, Costello returned to America and built a successful career in journalism, eventually managing the police bureau for the New York Herald. He channelled his expertise into writing massive, definitive institutional histories, most notably Our Police Protectors (1885) and Our Firemen (1887). He remained an influential figure in Irish nationalist networks like Clan na Gael until his death in Manhattan in 1909.
The series includes:
-Breandán Mac Suibhne’s book review of Lucy E. Salyer (2018), Under the Starry Flag: How a Band of Irish Americans Joined the Fenian Revolt and Sparked a Crisis over Citizenship (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press), in which Mac Suibhne extensively discusses Costello’s journalism and activism;
-a reproduction of the 1891 Costello letter written on the letterhead of The Mansion, Atlantic City;
-Kerby A. Miller’s transcript of the letter;
-Miller’s original 1973 notes on the letter.