Collector's Edition

Grey Parrot Gallery is a trove of priceless primary sources.
By ELIZABETH WESTBY

Alex Branch removes a slightly browned piece of paper from its plastic sheath. “Hold it in your hands,” he says. And in an eerie, pull-back-the-veil sort of moment, the remarkably legible script of Lilyann Williams comes to life:

I am a woman that in the year 1787 was taken a prisoner by the Creek Indians in your state and my husband afterwards died. I was pregnant when taken, and while a prisoner brought forth a female child—and in May 1795 I was brought into Savanah and exchanged for, but the Indians refused to give up my child, which is now near twelve years old—and now being informed that . . . there is a way . . . to get her from [the] Savages . . . I humbly petition your Excelency to . . . take such steps as to you may seem mete. [1799, letter to Georgia Governor James Jackson] READ MORE