Description
IGNATIUS L. DONNELLY SIGNED CUT SIGNATURE, "Ignatius Donnelly, Nininger, Minn", 5.25 x 1.5, bold ink signature by a founding partner in the utopia Nininger City, MN, Civil War U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, and populist author of Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. In fine condition.
Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (1831-1901) was a U.S. Civil War Congressman, U.S. Senator, populist writer, and amateur scientist. Donnelly moved to the Minnesota Territory in 1857 amidst rumors of financial scandal, and there he initiated a utopian community called Nininger City together with several partners. The group had hoped the city to become the state capital, and indeed its population did reach nearly 1,000 by the spring of 1858. The most famous resident of Nininger was Donnelly, who was sometimes called "The Sage of Nininger." The city did not flourish, however, a financial panic doomed the attempt at a cooperative farm and community, and its post office was discontinued in 1889, leaving Donnelly deeply in debt. As a legislator, he advocated extending the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau to provide education for freedmen so that they could protect themselves once the bureau was withdrawn. Donnelly was also an early supporter of women's suffrage. He is known primarily now for his popular, best-selling books on fringe theories concerning Atlantis, Catastrophism, and Shakespearean authorship, which many modern historians consider to be pseudoscience and pseudohistory.
$225 #11092
