Herbert Butterfield – SIGNED LETTER 1964

A fine SIGNED letter from Sir herbert Butterfield to E. Stanley Jones dated 28th September 1964, written in blue ink on ivory writing paper, headed – Master’s Lodge, Peterhouse, Cambridge – with a central horizontal fold.

In full: ‚’Dear Mr Jones, It is most kind of you to invite me to your Circuit Rally, but I dare not accept – (correction) my programme is much too heavy – and for March-April next year, I shall be abroad – for May I shall possibly be abroad. Please accept my apologies Yours sincerely Herbert Butterfield’.

Sir Herbert Butterfield FBA (1900–1979) was a British historian and philosopher of history, long associated with Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is best known for The Whig Interpretation of History, which challenged triumphalist accounts that read the past as inevitable progress toward the present. A devout Methodist, he wrote influentially on Christianity, diplomacy, historiography, and modern international relations. Butterfield urged historians to respect context, contingency, and complexity rather than judge earlier ages by contemporary assumptions or outcomes.