"James Russell Lowell" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Russell_Lowell what do you guys think ? found in with some old family stuff
Interesting piece of history. I wonder if that was for his salary for a month or payment for an article?
I sent an e-mail to Atlantic monthly once about it, but never got a reply. dont know if that was his monthly payment or not but yeah nice size check back then.