The Louisiana Purchase Transfer Collection is an artificial collection of original documents gathered from a variety of sources that have been filed together because of their connection, or the connection of the documents’ authors, to the transfer of Upper Louisiana from Spain to France and then from France to the United States in 1804 (popularly known as the Louisiana Purchase). The bulk of the collection contains original documents dating from 1783 to 1829. The only twentieth-century items in the collection are three first-day-issue envelopes and stamps, dated 30 April 1953, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. The collection contains two documents that bear no relationship to the actual purchase or transfer of the Louisiana Territory. The first is an autographed letter signed Marbois to Major Benjamin Walker dated 22 July 1783 (the same folder also contains an undated lithograph of Barbé Marbois by Delpech). The second is an autographed document signed Bonaparte to the minister of war [General Mortier] dated 20 July 1803. Francois, Marquis de Barbé Marbois, the minister of finance under Bonaparte, negotiated and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. These two documents (with the lithograph) are filed here due to the connection of the authors to the sale of the Louisiana Territory.