Measuring 11 inches wide (note: folded in half) and 8 1/2 inches long, this paper has pre-printed on the top "Office of The Gatling Gun Company,/Hartford, Conn. U.S.A. (blank) 188(blank)", with the remainder of the June 1st, 1885 date added by hand. The letter is directed towards one M.J. Washington, Esq., and reads "Dear Sir,/Absence from/home has prevented my answering/your letter sooner./I cheerfully grant your/request - That of sending/you my autograph/Yours Truly/R.J. Gatling". Born in 1821, Gatling pursued a number of interests, including the sale of dry goods and acquiring a medical degree, but was chiefly an inventor, with a focus on agricultural equipment, inventing his signature gun at the outbreak of the Civil War. Selling the patents to his gun to Colt after the war, Gatling kept inventing, including a variant of his gun with an on-board electric drive motor; this combination was so far ahead of it's time that it wouldn't catch on until the 1950s with the M61 Vulcan, almost 50 years after the Gatling Gun was officially declared obsolete by the Army. The Vulcan remains a mainstay U.S. aircraft armament to this day.

Excellent, with some minor staining and edge wear. A small round stain is present on the top of the handwritten side, with minimal bleeding of the hand-written ink. A set of 4 small paper circles are present on the rear corners, possibly from an old mounting.