Signed by President Andrew Jackson. Printed ship's passport for the whaleship Commodore Rogers, finished in a secretarial hand, signed by Jackson and countersigned by Edward Livingston, Secretary of State, Lemuel Williams and John Henry Clifford. New Bedford: April 27, 1833. Original broadside, measuring 10 by 15 inches, matted and framed with a contemporary line and stipple engraved portrait of Jackson.

31 1/2 x 17 1/4 in.

Baumans's note on the reverse: Original ship's passport, vetting the Commodore Rogers for departure from New Bedford for the Pacific Ocean, "laden with provision, stores and utensils for a whaling voyage," boldly signed "Andrew Jackson". Three years later the Rogers would be grounded off the coast of California.

Since the 1790's, American whaleships had "rounded the Horn" of South America in pursuit of whales in the Pacific Ocean, and by the mid 1800s the town of New Bedford had become the world capital of the whaling industry. New Bedford whaling merchants developed a complex business network of finance, shipbuilding, barrel making, insurance, ship supply and rope and sail making. U.S. whaling ships based in New Bedford numbered over 300 in the peak period of whaling, and for a time New Bedford was considered the "richest city in the world." This passport for the Rogers, set in double columns, in English and Dutch, was issued as a guarantee of United States protection of the vessel and her owners in foreign waters. Every American-owned ship was required to keep a passport as part of her papers.