I need somebody to identify the first name in the signature in the
image at http://www.bluewombat.com/images/longfellow.jpg.  It is
likely a relative of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but he and his wives
were dead at the time the letter was written.

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Clarification of Question by dannyp12-ga on 29 Jul 2003 16:09 PDT

I would also like to know what it says above June 10th at the bottom of the letter.

Dear Dannyp12,

If you mean the first word at the top, I'm fairly confident it isn't a
name at all, but the word "Miss".  There were two forms of lower-case
"s" in those days, the one we are familiar with and a longer form, not
unlike the modern lower-case "f".  The present form was used at the
ends of words, so "Miss" would indeed have been written as it is here,
with one long form followed by the modern form.

The words above the date may be an address of some sort.  Longfellow
lived at Craigie House in Cambridge, Massachusetts; see:

http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/english/craigie.htm
http://dlstewart.com/longfellow/CraigieHouse.htm

The first word could be "Craigie", but I fancy it isn't.

I trust this helps.

Carnegie