The Pratt & Kintzing Papers consist of three linear feet of correspondence, accounts, and receipts, largely relating to the Philadelphia mercantile firm of Pratt & Kintzing between 1797 and 1800. The collection also includes materials relating to the American Land Company (1796-1829); manuscript maps of Pratt's real estate holdings; correspondence relating to the partnership of Pratt and John Miller, Jr., involved in shipping gun powder to Europe (1797-1800); and correspondence relation to the Union Canal Company.
Henry Pratt was born in Philadelphia, the son of a portrait painter. He began his mercantile career trading in crockery and china from his store on Water Street. Later he moved into groceries and eventually became an established shipping merchant. Pratt served as President of the Philadelphia Select Council (1798-1803), was a director of the Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, the American Land Company, and the Bustleton and Smithfield Turnpike Company. He made a fortune, enabling him to purchase one of the city's mansions, 'Lemon Hill' on the Schuylkill near Fairmont.
Abraham Kintzing was a wagon master in Philadelphia in 1791, and he was listed in the city directory for 1798 as a grazier. Sometime after 1797 he became a partner of Pratt's, and he continued in the firm of Pratt and Kintzing until 1812, when he reorganized his business as Kintzing, Son and Coxe (Francis S. Coxe). Kintzing was a director of the Bank of North America and of the Philadelphia Insurance Company.
