Session 1
Autographs
John Alden Document Signed With a Second Signature by Governor Thomas Prence. One page, 8" x 12.25", January 23, 1663. An indenture between Edward Rew and William Halstone, both of Canton [Massachusetts], was written and signed on October 20, 1647. In part: "This indenture made the twentieth day of the tenth month in the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred forty seven. Between Edward Rew: inhabitant of Canton . . . & William Halstone inhabitant of the said town of Canton . . . witnesseth that I Edward Rew aforesaid . . . have sold unto William Halstone . . . my house & lands standing & lying in the bounds & limits of the aforesaid plantation of Canton." The indenture continues with the location of the land and the price ("thirteene pounds"). Following the signatures of the involved parties and witnesses ("Oliver Purchib" and "Aaron Knaps") is the added docketing which includes the signatures of Alden and Prence and the 1663 date.
John Alden (1599-1687) arrived in North America on the Mayflower in 1620. He was the seventh signer of the Mayflower Compact, living to be the last survivor of the signers. Alden was not a Pilgrim; he was hired as a cooper for the voyage and decided to stay and help found Plymouth Colony. He was popularized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1858 poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish, about the love triangle between Alden, Priscilla Mullens, and Miles Standish. In the poem, the maiden interrupts Alden as he delivers a marriage proposal from Standish with the famous retort, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" Alden and Mullens did marry in 1623, shortly after both arrived on the Mayflower.
Thomas Prence (1599-1673), the son of an English carriage maker, arrived in the Plymouth Colony in November 1621 aboard the Fortune. A leader in the settlement, he later served as the governor of Plymouth Colony three different times: in 1634, 1638, and from 1657 to 1673. While governor, Prence developed an important relationship with the powerful Wampanoag sachem Metacomet. On the death of the governor in 1673, Metacomet, known to the English as King Philip, was left to work with the new governor, Josiah Winslow, who he hated. The Wampanoag-English relationship soon broke down and the bloody King Philip's War followed in the mid 1670s.
This document is handsomely matted and framed to an overall size of 14.5" x 22". Although it has not been examined outside of the frame, it shows some separation at the folds, as well as some very minor stains and ink burn; with stitching around the border. Near very good.
Simon Bradstreet Document Signed "Simon Bradstreet Gov." with four lines in his hand as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. One sheet, 14.5" x 20.25", County [Massachusetts Bay Colony], October 18, 1679. Bradstreet's four lines appear at the end of this land deed which concerns John and Martha Chubburd and William House of Hingham and reads, "John Chubburd appearing before me this 9th day of October 1679 acknowledged this instrument to be his act and deed Martha his wife freely [?] thereunto/ Simon Bradstreet Gov." Simon Bradstreet (1603-1697) arrived at Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. After being involved in business pursuits and serving in various political positions in the colony, he became governor of the colony six months before this document was signed. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded nine years after the Mayflower arrived carrying the Pilgrims in 1620. This attractive document is matted and framed to an overall size of 20.5" x 26". With some separation along the folds; age toned and near fine.
Thomas Danforth Autograph Document Signed "Tho: Danforth". One page, April 2, 1659, n.p. [Massachusetts]. This is an agreement for work "to be completely finished before the lst of August next In consideration whereof the said Thomas Danforth & Edward Micholson do covent with the said Thomas Call to pay & sattisfie [?] them or their Assignee the full sum of sixteen pounds & ten shill". The agreement specifies that six pounds could be paid in "Indian corns [?] & the remainder ten pounds & ten shill. in English goods."
Thomas Danforth (1622-1699) served in a minor position in the Massachusetts Bay Colony government from 1659 through 1678; he later served as deputy governor of the colony at the time of the notorious Salem witch trials which lasted from 1692-1693. Arthur Miller's play the Crucible portrays the character Thomas Danforth as pompous and self-interested. This document is matted to an overall size of 10" x 12". Age-toned and near fine.
John Endecott Document Signed "Jo: Endecott Gov." One page, 5.5" x 2", April 24, 1644 [or 1649], Marblehead [Massachusetts], "to the constable of Marblehead". This five line complaint is signed by John Endecott, who had previously served as Massachusetts Bay Colony's second governor. Endecott (ca. 1588-1665) was a member of the Massachusetts Bay Company. He led a group of about one hundred Puritan settlers in 1628 from England and settled north of Plymouth Colony in what would later be Salem, Massachusetts. A strict Puritan noted for his suppression of religious dissent, he served several separate terms as governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629-1630, 1644, 1649, 1651-1653, 1655-1664). In between his terms, he served in many important positions within the colony, including leadership positions in the colony's militia (he led the Massachusetts militia during the Pequot War from 1636-1637). This very early American document is matted and framed to an overall size of 10" x 6.75". Toned with some stains, it has not been examined outside of the frame. Near very good.
Josiah Winslow Land Deed Signed "Josiah S. Winslow gov" as governor of Plymouth Colony, with three lines in his hand. Also signed by Governor Winslow's daughter, Elizabeth Winslow. One page, 11.25" x 15", May 25, 1680, n.p. The day and month have been left blank. This deed of land from father (William Tubs Sr.) to son (William Tubs Jr.) begins, "To all people to whom these presents may come, William Tubs Senior of Duxburrow in the Collony of New Plimouth in New England in America: planter sendeth greeting. . . . I Acknowledged myself to be fully contented payed & sattysfied." Some of the acreage was " situated within the township of Duxburrow aforesaid and is bounded eastward with Namahasissit River." The three lines at the end of the document written by Winslow read, "William Tubs Sen. above appeared before mee/ May 25 1680 and acknowledged this instrument/ to bee his Free and voluntary act and deed. Before."
Josiah Winslow (1628-1680), the son of Governor Edward Winslow, served as the Plymouth Colony governor from 1673 through 1680--the first governor born in the colony. During his governorship, the colony was embroiled in the devastating King Philip's War, which ended four years before this document was signed. Elizabeth Winslow (1664-1735 ), fifteen years old at the time she signed this deed, married Stephen Burton five years later. The document is matted and framed to an overall size of 17" x 22"; it has not been examined outside of the frame. Age-toned and brittle. Irregular right margin with loss of a few words of text. Paper loss also in bottom left and right corners, though with no loss of text. Good.
[Slavery] Partly Printed Receipt from a "Negro Broker". One page, 8" x 2.5", December 25, 1862, Atlanta, Georgia. This receipt is issued by "Robt. M. Clarke,/ Commission Merchant/ and/ Negro Broker", which is printed on the receipt. This receipt is for Joseph Silver for $1,500, "being in full for the purchase of one Negro Slave named Drek Nineteen Years Old the right and title of said Slave I warrant and defend against the claims of all persons whatsoever, and likewise warrant him sound and healthy" [handwritten words in the partly printed receipt are in bold print]." The receipt is signed by two witnesses.
[John Brown of Osawatomie] Owen Brown Autograph Letter Signed to his "Brother and Sister". One page, 7.75" x 10", September 6, 1858, Akron, containing wonderful content showing Owen Brown's concern for those in slavery and for his father, abolitionist John Brown. In part as written: "Our case may not be compared with the millions of our Brethren, Gods honest industrious, Poor men of Alabama, Louisiana, Georgian Etc. . . . When I think of the millions of my Brothers as good or better than I who are Stripped of their all who, with unrequited toil, are worked to death in 4 or 5 years while their affliction is so deep as I give no utterance, & at the same time reflect that I have but one short precarious life within millions of centuries. . . . Let my right arm drop from my shoulder, if I am ever so negligent, careless, indifferent, as I forget my Brethren, Gods poor, honest, laboring men." Brown continues by expressing his concern for his father: "Father has had endless discouragements and difficulties to encounter since he engaged in his work. The discouragements of this season must be very great, yet at the same time, he will not say it; on account of the effect it might have on others. As he is now in a measure unoccupied, he perhaps wants something to encourage & divert himself with. I think that I had better try & do what little I can to assist him."
The letter was written thirteen months before John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Owen was the only family member involved to survive the raid and aftermath (John Brown survived the raid but was hanged in December 1859). Also included in this lot is a printed "Tribute to Owen Brown" (1889) prepared for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and written by member Margaret Parker. Both items are toned and fine.
[Texas Revolution] Joseph P. Pulsifer Retained Letter Diary Spanning October 30, 1832-August 4, 1836. 146 letters, totaling 282 pages, 4" x 6.5", meticulously and legibly copied in ink by Massachusetts native Joseph Pulsifer. An interesting archive as it includes official and personal letters written and received by Pulsifer including many relating a remarkably informed story of the events of the Texas Revolution as they unfold. The letters also reveal fascinating details about life in Massachusetts and New Orleans in the 1830s.
Joseph Pulsifer was born in 1805 in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Brought up in a close-knit family, he trained as an apothecary and moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1827 to open a drug store. In an early letter dated May 30, 1833, Pulsifer was invited to move to New Orleans by a business proposal from Samuel Mason in an early letter dated May 30, 1833: "Do not be surprised to receive a letter from your old friend down at such a distance from the land of his birth for he is come here and contented to stay and now writes to invite you to come to this rich and beautiful country." Mason promised Pulsifer a " retail branch about 3/4s of a mile above our present store [in New Orleans] and would give you the charge of the same at a fixed salary or would give a portion of the profits as you might prefer. If you would like to try your fortune in this section of our continent answer soon."
Pulsifer accepted and moved to the bustling port city of New Orleans later in 1833 at the age of twenty-eight. As the correspondences in his diary reveal, New Orleans was a dangerous place. Outbreaks of various diseases were common: "Our City [New Orleans] is now very sickly, the yellow fever is raging to a great extent"; "I have seen by the papers that the cholera is now raging in New Orleans. I suppose it alarms you a little."
In 1835, two years after arriving in New Orleans, Mason died and Pulsifer entered another business partnership with Henry Millard and Thomas B. Huling. This mercantile business partnership required him to move to Texas in July 1835 to manage a store at Santa Anna-soon renamed Beaumont-in the piney southeast corner of Texas along the Neches River. There, just thirty miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, Pulsifer sold medicines, liquor, coffee, shoes, "calicoes", blankets, guns, gunpowder, and groceries to the thinly scattered Texas settlers.
Making life in southeast Texas more difficult was the absence of good roads through the thick pine forests and bayous, causing Pulsifer to remark unequivocally, "We have no roads." Travel was best done by canoe, steamboat, or on horseback. In one letter, Pulsifer claimed to Lucy that to travel from Beaumont to New Orleans (261 miles along modern Interstate 10) he "had 200 miles to ride on horseback to get to a steamboat and then 200 down the [Red] river to get to this place [New Orleans]." But despite the hardships, Pulsifer appears to have adapted well to his new home, even describing his dwelling in Beaumont as "a capacious log house placed in the midst of a forest bordering a view-than which there can be none more beautiful in the world."
For the next several months, Pulsifer managed his store while writing and receiving many letters which reveal details of the unfolding Texas Revolution. Two letters, however, are outstanding for their content about the revolution. The first was written from Beaumont to "Friend Brown" (George Brown, a close friend from New England), dated April 19, 1836. In this letter he writes, "The most correct particulars I can get hold of relating to its loss . . . were obtained if I mistake not by the black boy [Joe] owned by Capt Traviss and a lady that the Mexicans let go to her home [Susanna Dickinson]. There were at the time 184 men in the fort. . . ." In the riveting narrative that follows, Pulsifer gives what must have been all of the news he had at that time, only forty-four days after the fall. Included in his account is "the red flag waving, denoting that no quarter would be shewed them"; Travis emboldening his men with "here they come boys, thick as hail"; and the apocryphal account of the dying Travis killing one last Mexican commander before being killed himself. "Such friend Brown," Pulsifer ends his story, "is the melancholy tale of the fall of the Alamo, and dear dearly did the Mexicans purchase it."
Pulsifer devoted several pages in the letter to the aftermath of the Alamo, including the surrender of James Fannin ("he hoisted a white flag and capitulated with the Mexicans . . . [the Mexican soldiers] most inhumanly massacred them all . . . Cursed demons!") and the retreat of Sam Houston's army before the invading force of Santa Anna. Frustrated, Pulsifer ends this letter, "I can get no news from the U.S. for our mail is thrown into confusion again."
The second letter concerning the Alamo (and the longest letter in the diary) was written by Pulsifer to his sister Lucy on May 21, 1836. In this account, he gives an inclusive summary of the Revolution, going back to the events of June 1835 in Anahuac: "It seems before I left New Orleans [July 1835] the people had risen against the Mexican authority, and a few armed Texians had driven from Nacogdoches and a place called Anahuac . . . all the soldiers of the Mexican military government." Pulsifer blames the Revolution on Santa Anna, whom the Texians had at one time "worshipped", but the "patriotism of Santa Anna was soon swallowed up in his ambition and the title of President was too simple to fill his aspiring mind therefore another resolution was set at work in Mexico, and soon the constitution was trampled under foot to give place to a central or military system, with Santa Anna at its heads as Dictator perhaps for life. . . . Texas with a population not exceeding thirty thousand, at that time alone stood out against Santa Anna with his mighty power." About the Alamo: "The Mexicans with Santa Anna at their head suddenly made their appearance giving our men to the name of 184 only time to get into the Alamo something like 20 or 30 days provisions and themselves, when they took possession of St. Antonio. Then they commenced operations on the Alamo. . . ." Since writing the letter to Brown in April, Pulsifer had learned new information which he included in this letter, such as the story of the Mexican woman who was inside the form Catholic mission and "gave intelligence to the Mexicans without that all were asleep in the fort." Also included in this letter is the defeat of Santa Anna at San Jacinto: "In 15 minutes the Mexicans were completely routed for the watchword was that which could do no otherwise then make our men fight like lions-Remember the Alamo was the fearful cry. . . . The last victory have given them a dread of the Americans they can never recover from and I sincerely hope will be the means of giving us peace."
Following a final letter to Huling on August 4, 1836, the diary ends with the following entry: "I had the misfortune by breaking a Phial of phosphorous in my hat to destroy a letter from Thos B. Huling, two from Col Millard, one from John C. Read and one from Wm Moore one also from Franklin Hardin." After this unfortunate entry, Pulsifer's pen falls silent and he leaves several gatherings of empty pages. He died in Beaumont, Texas, in 1861 leaving his belongings, including a thirteen volume diary of which this single volume was a part, to his sister, Lucy Pulsifer Granger. (Joseph had no children and remained a bachelor all of his life.) Lucy and her husband George Granger moved from Newburyport, Massachusetts, to Galveston, Texas, after the Texas Revolution. The diaries remained with their descendants in Galveston until the devastating hurricane of 1900, when all but this volume was lost. The volume, which was chronologically the first volume, remained in the Granger family.
Throughout the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, Zulieka Semans, a descendant of Lucy Pulsifer Granger working as a librarian in Houston, painstakingly transcribed 104 of the letters into a 220 page typed manuscript. In her own letter to a Texas publishing house in 1965, she wrote that she "tried to copy the letters exactly as they were wirtten [sic], punctuation (and the lack of it), etc." Each letter was typed on a separate page. She tried to have the diary published, but the deal never happened. Later in the 1980s, she showed the diary to two Texas historians, Judith Walker Linsley and Ellen Walker Rienstra. With Ms. Semans' consent, the two historians made Pulsifer's diary public with the publication of the significant "Alamo" letter (dated May, 21, 1836) from Joseph to his sister Lucy in the November 1983 publication of the Texas Gulf Historical & Biographical Record. The remaining letters of the extant volume remain unpublished.
The diary is comprised of seven sewn gatherings. The pages are toned and brittle with occasional light chipping and faint staining; light dampstaining occurs on several of the blank pages near the end of the diary. The worn and wrinkled coated brown paper wrappers are detached but present. Only one leaf has separated from the binding. Considering its age and the amount of handling it has endured, this fragile item is in remarkably solid condition. Several documents, which illuminate the diary, are included.
[James "Jim" Bowie] Bennett General Store Ledger listing Bowie's purchases while he lived along Bayou Boeuf in central Louisiana, with entry dates from May 29, 1817, to July 6, 1819, 6.5" x 15", 101 pages. Written on the front free endpaper of this bound manuscript account ledger is the name of the store owner, "Jos. B. Roberts/ March 26, 1818". Robert's general store, located in a sparsely settled region near modern Cheneyville, was built in 1817 and was originally called Bayou Boeuf Store, as recorded at the top of each page of this ledger. Ezra Bennett bought the store in 1836 and changed the name to Bennett's Store. The Bayou Boeuf Store was a place for the settlers to receive mail, read a newspaper, talk to neighboring settlers, and buy goods like sugar, medicines, alcohol (lots of alcohol, according to the ledger), cloth, and fish hooks. Bowie, whose plantation was just a few miles from the store, traded there in 1817 and 1818. The ledger records five entries for him: page 31 (August 4, 1817); page 32 (August 6, 1817); page 51 (October 23, 1817); page 67 (December 18, 1817); and page 91 (February [?], 1818). Each entry records the items he purchased, such as combs, thread, "1 cake shaving soap", tobacco, and on August 4, 1817, one quart of Madeira wine.
Though born in Kentucky, James Bowie (1796-1836) and family moved to the Louisiana Territory in 1802, one year before the Louisiana Purchase. In 1815 at the age of nineteen, Bowie settled alone on the border of modern Rapides Parish and Avoyelles Parish and began carving his plantation out of the wilderness. It was here, a region with little law enforcement near the Bayou Boeuf Store, that the future hero of the Texas Revolution gained a reputation for his recklessness and adroitness with a knife. The ledger cover has various pen strokes and is worn as expected; a section of the back cover is missing. The pages are age-toned, but intact--as is the spine--and still bound. The text is large and easily read. Good condition.
Sam Houston Signature and Carte de Visite. The signature, cut from a larger document, measures 7" x 3.5", n.d., n.p. The carte de visite, 2.5" x 4", shows an older Houston with piercing eyes and stern countenance standing near a table. Sam Houston was a congressman from Tennessee who moved to Texas where he became president of the Republic after defeating Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. When Texas joined the Union, he served as senator for three terms, then governor. At the start of the Civil War, Houston refused to pledge allegiance to the Confederate States of America and was discharged as governor. He died two years later in Huntsville, Texas. Images of Houston are almost as scarce as his signature. The CDV has slight discoloration at the top. Both CDV and letter are lightly toned and near fine.
Four Texas Warrants signed by El Paso County Deputy William J. Ten Eyck. Each is one page (front and back), partly printed, 8.5" x 7", all dated 1895 or 1897, El Paso County, Texas. These warrants (three arrest warrants and one subpoena) are for J. J. Taylor, Joe Dwyer, J. M. Dwyer, S. A. Bardy, Ed Vecque, J. D. Melton, and Phil Baker. The warrants concern the crimes of gambling (one charges, "Exhibiting a gaming table and bank for the purpose of gaming on or about May 1st 1895"). All are signed by El Paso County Deputy William J. Ten Eyck.
After the railroads arrived in the early 1880s, El Paso became a boomtown full of gambling houses, dance halls, brothels, and saloons and known for its lawlessness. During the 1890s, this border town attempted to clean up its image. These warrants were part of that attempt. Three have blind embossed seals of El Paso County, Texas. Fine. Ex. Richard C. Marohn Collection.
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody Document Signed. One interest note, 4.25" x 2", September 14, 1911, North Platte, Nebraska. This typed interest note coupon promising to pay Arthur McNamara $1,000 is signed boldly in black ink by Cody and his wife of forty-five years, Louisa M. Cody. With "PAID/ Sep. 19, 1913/ First National Bank/ North Platte, Nebr." stamped on verso. The note, signed by one of the most famous and recognizable showmen in the world at the time (thanks to his wildly successful Wild West Show ), is in fine condition.
Also included is a mortgage bond with secretarial signatures of both William and Louisa Cody to Arthur McNamara for $25,000, April 14, 1911, payable at the Omaha National Bank and secured by the "first mortgage on Scout's Rest Ranch in Lincoln County, Nebraska". Scout's Rest Ranch was a ranch with house owned by Cody in North Platte. Seven coupons are included, each with a copied signature of the Cody's and "Paid" written across.
Accompanied by a typed letter on business letterhead signed by James M. Hamilton and dated October 3, 1913 to "Friend Lillie" concerning a coupon "which I told Miss Letherbury to send with my letter of a few days ago, but she forgot to put it in." Gordon W. Lillie performed as Pawnee Bill in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. All three items are in fine condition. Ex. Richard C. Marohn Collection.
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody and Gordon W. Lillie Document Signed "W. F. Cody" and "G. W. Lillie". One page, 8.5" x 11", n.d. [ca. 1913], Cincinnati, Ohio, to the United States Lithograph Co. agreeing to "order and purchase from you all our lithographed and printed, pictorial and descriptive advertising matter, excepting dates and small type printed matter, for the season 1913, and, we reserve the option to do the same for the season 1914." The business letter then lists the pricing scale that the two performers were willing to pay. It continues, "Sketches for the various subjects desired to be approved by us. All to be paid for as used. . . . Two seasons shall be allowed us in which to use and pay for the editions we order. No paper will be paid for except such as is authorized to be made by Major Lillie or Col. Cody."
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, a very profitable business throughout the 1880s, began to lose money after the turn of the century. Gordon Lillie performed as Pawnee Bill in Pawnee Bill's Wild West and Great Far East Show, a competitor to Buffalo Bill. The two shows merged in 1908 after Lillie became a managing partner in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The show, however, closed in 1913 because of financial problems. With smoothed folds; age-toned and fine. Ex. Richard C. Marohn Collection.
Patrick F. Garrett Typed Document Signed "P. F. Garrett". One page, 8" x 6.5", July 20, 1896, "Territory of New Mexico, Third Judicial District". The document reads, "I, the undersigned, do hereby solemnly swear that I will well and faithfully perform the duties of Deputy Clerk of the Third Judicial District Court, So Help me God." Countersigned by Clerk W. B. Walton and Deputy H. B. Holt.
Pat Garrett (1850-1908) was a young law officer when he tracked Billy the Kid and gunned him down in a late night arrest attempt--some reports say the twenty-one-year-old outlaw was unarmed. Twenty-one days after signing this document and becoming deputy clerk, New Mexico Territorial Governor William T. Thornton asked Garrett, who was living in New Mexico at the time, to track down three more high-profile at-large suspects. Garrett was appointed a county sheriff on August 10, 1896, to accomplish the task. With blind embossed New Mexico seal (New Mexico was admitted as a state in 1912). The typed text has faded, but the signatures are clear and bold. Ex. Richard C. Marohn Collection.
Patrick F. Garrett Autograph Letter Signed "P. F. Garrett". Two pages, 5.5" x 8.5", December 9, 1901, Washington, D.C., on Shoreham hotel letterhead, concerning Garrett's killing of Billy the Kid, meeting author and governor Lew Wallace, and making a trip to Washington, D.C., to see President Theodore Roosevelt. Garrett writes to his wife in part: "I wrote you while on rout from Chicago here and since I would write again from Washington. We arrived here on time Saturday evening this is the pretiest city in the world and the place where one meets the most prominent men. I just me Gen. Lew Wallace, the great author and Military man. he said he would do anything I asked him to do says I did him a great favor once. (in the 'Kid' affair) so he is anxious to express his gratitude. My prospect to get the appointment seems bright."
Pat Garrett (1850-1908) is most known as the law officer who gunned down the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid in 1881. In December 1901, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to seek an appointment as a customs collector from his personal friend Theodore Roosevelt . He won the appointment shortly after this letter was written and served in El Paso, Texas. After serving five years, President Roosevelt did not reappoint him because Garrett had embarrassed the president by inviting a friend of questionable character, Tom Peters, to join them in a photograph. The published photo resulted in negative publicity for the president. Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur, was serving as the New Mexico Territorial governor at the time Garrett killed Billy the Kid. This letter is toned with some children's scribbles, though all text is very bold and legible. Fine. Ex. Richard C. Marohn Collection.
Samuel Curtis Upham Archive, including California gold belonging to this original forty-niner. Samuel Upham was an extraordinary man, serving intermittently as seaman, poet, hymn writer, author, newspaper publisher, businessman, original California forty-niner, and renowned Confederate currency counterfeiter. In addition to the gold, this personal collection of the indefatigable Upham consists of the illustrated Journey to the Gold Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags and an album containing numerous speeches, printed essays, poems, letters, and over sixty newspaper articles, and event ribbons.
In January 1849 after catching gold fever, Samuel Curtis Upham (1819-1885) sailed from Philadelphia, around South America, to San Francisco, an eventful sea journey which took seven months and resulted in his classic work Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn (Philadelphia, 1878). By September 1849, one month after arriving in California, Upham was digging for gold. Unsuccessful as a gold miner, he soon formed a partnership with several newspapermen. In April 1850, they began publishing the first daily newspaper in California outside of San Francisco, the Sacramento Transcript. By the fall of 1850, Upham, possibly homesick, sold his interest in the California newspaper and returned to Philadelphia where he began publishing another, the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury. When the Civil War began, he was successfully situated selling stationery. With his knowledge of the printing and stationery business, Upham began copying Confederate currency in 1862. He was soon the largest counterfeiter of the currency--so large that his work became harmful to the Southern economy, gaining him respect in the North and denunciation in the South. At the same time, he was also printing patriotic Union envelopes--ten of which are included in this archive. (George B. Tremmel, A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency, Whitman Publishing, LLC: 2007.)
The majority of items available here relate to Upham's adventures in California. Of eminent interest are the three pieces of Upham's gold which have been identified as originating from Placer County, California: (1) a natural smooth gold nugget, 3.29 grams; (2) California gold ΒΌ dollar coins, one 1874 very fine, and one 1873, holed at 6 o'clock; (3) a later silver ring mounted with natural gold nuggets.
Also included is an original issue of the unusual Journey to the Gold Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags. Illustrated by James A. Read and D. F. Read. New York: Stringer & Townsend Publishers, [1849], 9" x 5.75", 56 pages (7 pages, including the back wrapper, are missing). This is the humorously illustrated misadventures of California prospector Jeremiah Saddlebags. With the original top wrapper, which has some tape repairs.
All other items in the archive are contained in an album, 9" x 12", with "News Cuttings" printed on the cover. Therein are 81 pages to which have been mounted numerous well-preserved speeches, printed essays, tickets, programs, presentations, poems, letters, over sixty newspaper articles, ten patriotic envelopes, and four events ribbons, most connected with the California Gold Rush and the California pioneer reunions of the 1870s.
Interestingly, there is a group of documents and articles pertaining to Upham's California newspaper, the Sacramento Transcript, such as a group of handwritten copies (all dated 1850) of receipts for money and items like "types, presses and other material of the 'Sacramento Transcript' newspaper". One document is a one page handwritten duplicate of the business agreement for the founders of the newspaper dated December 28, 1849. All of these are laid into the scrapbook (completely free of mounting) and remain in near fine condition.
Also included with the album are several letters written and signed by Upham, as well as an eighteen page manuscript, May 6, 1878, Philadelphia, in which Upham briefly relates his life story. This fascinating letter reads in part: "I have had a hard road to travel during my somewhat uneventful life. . . . I remained in the lumber business until the month of January, 1849, when I sailed for California, via Cape Horn, and arrived in the modern El Dorado, on the 5th of the following August, after a tedious passage of 201 days. In the month of September, I visited the gold diggings on the Caleveras River and commenced operations." The letter continues with Upham's account of the founding of the Sacramento Transcript with "five practical printers." Several pages of the letter are also devoted to a biographical sketch of Samuel's uncle, William Upham, a U.S. senator from Vermont. A second manuscript is titled "Address at the Dedication of the [James] Lick Monument at Fredericksburg, Pa., April 22d, 1878", eight pages.
With four letters of special interest from associates of Upham who were connected to his stay in California:
(1) John Sutter Autograph Note Signed "John A. Sutter". One page, August 9, 1876, Washington, D.C.
(2) Prentice Mulford Autograph Letter Signed.
(3) John C. Fremont Partial Autograph Note Signed "J. C. Fremont".
(4) Joaquin Miller Two Autograph Letters Signed, one including a poem.
This fabulous archive is replete with material and should be carefully viewed for content and condition.
Western Rail and Mining Archive. Spanning the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, this exceptional lot contains seven items and includes stock certificates, checks, and a personal letter. John Bidwell Stock Certificate Signed. One page, 12.5 x 4.75", Chico, California, October 18, 1867. Certificate for twenty shares of Chico Gold and Silver Mining Company stock, signed by Bidwell as President of the company. Richly engraved. Very fine.
John Bidwell Envelope Endorsed. 5.5" x 3.25" envelope, Chico, California, November 30, 1868. Envelope sent "Overland" from Washington DC to Bidwell's wife, endorsed on verso as having been "Read by J. Bidwell." Light age toning; near fine.
Ben Holladay Check Signed. One page, 8.75" x 3.5", Portland, Oregon, June 11, 1870. Check for $1000 drawn against the Oregon and California Rail Road Company, signed by Holladay as president of the company. Engraved railroad vignette; gold Internal Revenue stamp. Very fine.
John Bidwell Stock Certificate Signed. One page, 9.75" x 6.75", Washington City [California], February 24, 1872. Being a certificate for fifty shares in the New Mexico Mining Company. Handsomely engraved and signed by Bidwell as President of the company. Light age toning; some wear. Very good condition.
James G. Fair Autograph Letter Signed. Two pages, written on recto of first page only, 5.25" x 8.5", Virginia City, Nevada, May 3, 1881. Important California miner and capitalist James Fair writes to Mrs. Louise Gates to say that "My house is filled with paintings, and I have no use for any more." Light age toning. Fine condition.
Albert and James B. Stetson Check Signed. One page, 8.75" x 3.25", San Francisco, California, March 12, 1890. Check for $75 drawn against the California Street Cable Railroad Co., which operated three cable car lines on California Street in San Francisco from 1878 to 1951. Signed by James B. Stetson as president and Albert Stetson as secretary. Moderate age toning. Fine.
Adolph Sutro Check Signed One page, 8.5" x 3.25", San Francisco, December 11, 1897. The Nevada Bank was, at the height of the silver boom, the largest bank in America. Check is signed by Adolph Sutro, a successful engineer and tycoon who built San Francisco's Cliff House, the Sutro Baths, Sutro Heights and the Sutro Railroad, and later served as mayor of San Francisco. Moderate age toning; faint dampstaining; chip at upper right corner. Very good condition.
Prospective buyers are advised to view all items in the lot carefully prior to bidding.
General Marcus A. Reno Autograph Letter Signed. One page, two-sided, 5" x 8", New York, December 24, 1885. Beleaguered by questions about his negligence in the Little Big Horn massacre and his second court martial over his repeated public drunkenness and behavior unbecoming an officer, Marcus Reno was convicted and dismissed from military service in 1880. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he was hired by the Bureau of Pensions as an examiner but soon found himself in financial straits. Hoping to reverse this trouble, Reno offered to write his memoirs for various publications. The New York Weekly Press rejected his offer. He then submitted an article about General John Mosby and a portion of his diary concerning the Battle of the Little Big Horn to I. R. Pennypacker, editor of the Philadelphia Weekly Press. The letter offered here is a follow up to his submission and reads in part: "Your favor of 23rd inst. rec'd. I mailed to your address on Monday the Completion of the manuscript of the account of the Custer massacre . . . such pages of my diary as in my opinion would prove interesting. You say nothing about my article on Mosby. I am now completing a history of the Cavalry Corps." Reno goes on to mention that his job with the Pension office prevents him from writing full time, and inquires about the possible publication of his submission and its value should it be published. This one-page letter appears to have originally been written on a two-page (folded with integral blank) sheet with the integral blank missing. The letter has been affixed to a heavy backing sheet and is in fine condition.
Antiques
McKenney & Hall: "Encampment of Piekann Indians, near Fort McKenzie on the Muscleshell River" Hand-Colored Lithograph, 1844(?). Hand-colored lithograph heightened with gum Arabic from an original painting by Karl Bodmer. This image is the frontispiece to Volume III of the History of the Indian Tribes of North America, generally regarded as one of the most important works ever published on the American Indians. Measures approximately 19.25" x 13.5". Overall toning and foxing. Water staining in upper left corner and chipping at edges, else near very good.
McKenney & Hall: "War Dance of the Sauks and Foxes" Hand-Colored Lithograph, 1834. (Philadelphia: E. C. Biddle, 1834) A beautifully hand colored stone lithograph from an original painting by Peter Rindisbacher, depicting the war dance of the Native American Sauks and Foxes. Lithographer's imprint present. This image faces page iii in Volume I of the History of the Indian Tribes of North America, generally regarded as one of the most important works ever published on the American Indians. Measures approximately 18.5" x 13".
The Sauks (Sacs) and Foxes are generally always mentioned together, as the language they spoke was identical. These Indian tribes are from the Great Lakes area near Lake Huron. In the early days, the French drove them out of that area to the Wisconsin Territory where they settled near the Fox and Wolf Rivers. Fine, light water stains and foxing does not affect image.
McKenney & Hall: "Hunting the Buffaloe" Hand-Colored Lithograph, 1836. (Philadelphia: F.W. Greenough, 1836). Drawn and heightened with gum arabic by J. T. Bowen after a painting by Peter Rindisbacher. This image the frontispiece for Volume II of the History of the Indian Tribes of North America, generally regarded as one of the most important works ever published on the American Indians. Measures approximately 18" x 13". Overall toning with minimal foxing and one small spot of paper loss on the image, else very good.
Photography
Chief Gall Cabinet Card Photograph, 4.25" x 6.50", ca. 1880s. Beautiful early cabinet card photograph of Native American Sioux Indian Chief Gall taken in R. L. Kelly's Studio, Pierre, South Dakota. Printed on photograph bottom right corner "GALL". A dramatic pose of Gall wearing a fantastic war bonnet and a beaded and quelled war shirt. Very fine with great contrast.
Autographs
Fort Knox Bullion Depository Original Blueprints. Forty-six unique pages, with some duplication. Each sheet is approximately 38" x 24.5" and dates from 1933 to 1935. The pages, most drawn by different draftsmen, include: floor plans for the first floor, second floor, and basement; details of the vertical sliding doors, entrance gates, gatehouses, fence, main entrance, vestibule, lobby, vault entrance, vault, east and west walls of the vault, basement, first floor vault, and foundation; systems for vault armoring; and many other facets of the building considered the most secure structure in the world. Each sheet is marked "Treasury Department, Procurement Division, Public Works Branch". The architect was Louis Simon and Neal A. Melick was the supervising engineer. Looking at these plans, it's easy to see what is meant by the old saying, "Built like Fort Knox". Light wear and aging, else very fine.
The vault of the Fort Knox Bullion Depository holds much of the United States' gold reserves. The depository, located approximately thirty miles southwest of Louisville, Kentucky, on a site which was formerly a part of the Fort Knox military reservation, was completed in December 1936 at a cost of $560,000.
The two-story building, with basement and attic, is constructed of granite, steel and concrete. Its exterior dimensions measure 105 feet by 121 feet. Its height is 42 feet above ground level. Within the building is a two level steel and concrete vault that is divided into compartments. The vault door weighs more than 20 tons. The vault casing is constructed of steel plates, steel I-beams, and steel cylinders laced with hoop bands and encased in concrete. The vault roof is of similar construction and is independent of the Bullion Depository roof. Between the outer wall and a seven foot corridor encircling the vault are offices and storerooms. The second floor has a dormitory, lounge, kitchen, and tiled promenade. The basement has a pistol range along the left side and tilting mirrors to see into every compartment.
The outer wall of the Bullion Depository is constructed of granite lined with concrete. Construction materials used on the building included 16,500 cubic feet of granite, 4,200 cubic yards of concrete, 750 tons of reinforcing steel and 670 tons of structural steel. Over the marble entrance at the front of the building is the inscription "United States Depository" with the seal of the Department of the Treasury in gold on black polished granite. Offices of the officer in charge and the captain of the guard open upon the entrance lobby. At the rear of the building is another entrance, with vertical sliding doors, at the receiving room used for unloading bullion and supplies.
At each corner of the structure on the outside, but connected with it through the basement, are four guard boxes. Sentry boxes, similar to the guard boxes at the corners of the Bullion Depository, are located at the entrance gate. A driveway encircles the building and a steel fence marks the boundaries of the site. The nearby army post provides additional protection. The Bullion Depository is equipped with its own emergency power plant, water system and other facilities. No visitors are permitted at the Depository, a policy which was adopted when the Depository was established, and is strictly enforced.
Samuel Francis Smith Complete "America" Autograph Manuscript Signed "S. F. Smith". One page, 9.75" x 7.75", May 10, 1893, n.p., with "Written for Mr. and Mrs. Warren Cole." at the top. Smith writes all four stanzas of this beloved patriotic paean often known as "My Country 'Tis of Thee." As noted at the bottom by Smith, he originally wrote this song in February 1832, the same year he became a Baptist minister and editor of the Baptist Missionary Magazine. At that time, a friend asked him to translate a German poem for him. Smith liked the music so much that he wrote new English words for it. The song became popular in his lifetime and was performed at his funeral two years after he wrote this for Mr. and Mrs. Cole. A very small separation at the center fold with light toning only at the very edges, presents very well. Fine condition.
Samuel F. Smith Autograph Letter Signed and Autograph Quotation Signed; both are signed "S. F. Smith". ALS, one and one-half pages, 5.5" x 9", December 15, 1893, Newton Centre, Massachusetts, to an unnamed recipient. In part: "I thank you for your lovely letter of the 14th and for the beautiful book-mark, which by Mrs. Smith's suggestion and my cordial approval is to take up its home in my very best and favorite, as well as most elegant English Bible. . . . In conformity with your suggestion, I send by this mail 'Columbus' to Gov. McKinley, besides one to yourself. Your remark concerning Gov. McK. is too sweet a spray to be laid, years hence, on his catafalque. I wish he might enjoy it now." On lined paper; toned and fine.
In the AQS, 3.25" x 1.75", December 31, 1894, n.p., Smith handwrites, "my country 'tis of thee,/ Sweet land of liberty,/ of thee I sing", a stanza from his beloved patriotic paean "My Country 'Tis of Thee." As noted at the bottom by Smith, he originally wrote this song in 1832, the year that he became a Baptist minister and editor of the Baptist Missionary Magazine. A friend had asked him to translate a German poem for him. Smith liked the music so much that he wrote new English words for it. The song became popular in his lifetime and was performed at his funeral eleven months after writing this quotation. Fine.
[Revolutionary War] Walter Butler Group of Three Items. Two rare pre-Revolutionary War signatures of the Loyalist captain who served in Butler's Rangers, with one signature of his grandfather. (1) Document Signed "W. Butler/ Atty. for Def". One page, 7.75" x near 6", August 8, 1774, Tryon County [New York]. Butler is defending Thomas Scott who is "Delivered to bail on taking his body to John Doe & Richard Roe". Toned with smoothed folds; fine. (2) Autograph Note Signed "Walter Butler". One-half page, 7.25" x 9", December 19, 1774, n.p. In part: "There is a suit now Descending in Albany between the corporation and one Wimple in covenant-which I am applied to so state for the opinion of Council in New York". Fine. (3) Promissory Note Signed "Walter Butler", the father of John Butler and grandfather of Walter Butler. One page, 5.75" x 3", September 28, 1731, Fort Hunter.
Walter Butler (1752-1781), a young lawyer in Albany, New York, when he signed these two document, remained a loyalist with his father, John, during the American Revolution. In May 1775, they left New York to fight the American rebels in Canada. While there, John raised the loyalist regiment called Butler's Rangers, which included former slaves. Walter joined and was promoted to captain. Both father and son were accused of committing atrocious acts during the war. Walter was killed later in the war, a few days after the Battle of Johnstown in October 1781.
[Benjamin Franklin] Contemporary Copy of Ben Franklin's Letter of Condolence Upon the Death of His Brother, addressed to his niece. One page, 7.75" x 12.5", Philadelphia, February 22, 1756. John Franklin, Ben Franklin's older brother, followed in their father's footsteps by becoming a soap and candlemaker in Rhode Island. Later, with Benjamin's help, John became the postmaster in Boston. Upon John's death, Benjamin sent a letter of condolence to the grieving Elizabeth Hubbart, John's stepdaughter, this being a contemporary copy of that letter:
"I Condole with you, we have lost a most dear and Valuable Relation, but it is the will of God and Nature that these mortal Bodies be laid Aside, when the Soul is to Enter into Real life. Existing here on Earth is Scarce to be called life. 'Tis Rather an Embrio [sic] of Being State. A Preparation for living and man is not Completely born till he is Dead. Why then should we Greive [sic] that a New Child is Born among the immortals, a new member added to their Happy Society? We are spirits. That Bodies should be lent us, while they can afford us Pleasure, Assist us in Acquiring Knowledge, or doing Good to our Fellow Creatures, is a kind & Benevolent act of God - when they become unfit for these Purposes and afford us pain instead of Pleasure - Instead of an Aid, become an Incumbrance [sic] & Answer none of the Intentions for which they were given. It is Equally kind and Benevolent that a way is Provided by which we may Get Rid of them. Death is that way. We ourselves Prudently Choose a Partial Death in some cases. A mangled Painful limb, which Cannot be Restored, we willingly Cut off. He who Plucks out a tooth, parts with it freely since the pain goes with it. And he that Quits the whole Body parts at once with all the Pains and possibilities of Pains & Diseases it was liable to or Capable of making him Suffer.
Our friend & we are invited Abroad on a party of Pleasure that is to last for Ever. His Chair was first Ready & he is gone before us. We could not all Conveniently Start together & why Should you & I Be Grieved at this Since we are soon to follow, & we know where to find him. Adieu."
It is interesting to note that what Elizabeth thought of as a life completed, Franklin portrayed as a mere rehearsal for the "real life" that is immortality. It is known that, while he professed a belief in God, Franklin had little good to say about organized religion and rarely attended church, particularly in his later years. Although Volume 6 of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin records in a footnote that manuscript copies of this widely printed letter were known to have existed, this is the first such period copy to be available at auction. Manuscript copies are recorded in the collection of John Franklin Carter, with a second at Yale University Library.
Letter is lightly age-toned, with several small tears and areas of paper loss along the upper edge and at the upper right corner; a few areas of minor fold separation.
[John Hancock] An Oration; Delivered March 5th, 1774, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston; to commemorate the bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March, 1770. By the Honourable John Hancock, Esq. as printed in The Royal American Magazine, or Universal Repository of Instruction and Amusement: For March, 1774. Textually complete with 37 pages (numbered as 83-120), though without wrappers.
Only months after the Boston Tea Party, fiery patriot John Hancock delivered this significant speech at a Boston town meeting as events were quickly moving toward full-scale war. As an influential member of the General Court in 1774, Hancock angered the British government and loyalists with this speech, which included such inflammatory statements as, "Let every parent tell the shameful story to his listening children until tears of pity glisten in their eyes, and boiling passions shake their tender frames". Some question if Hancock actually wrote the speech while crediting Samuel Cooper, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Church, and Joseph Warren with writing at least parts of it.
The Royal American Magazine, designed to appeal to the general American public, was published by Boston native and American patriot Isaiah Thomas from January 1774 through March 1775. Also in this issue are articles on the impeachment of Peter Oliver, the selection of a committee to address Governor Thomas Hutchinson, and a list of marriages and deaths. Some pages are still bound with string, though most have become unbound; light spotting throughout. Near very good.
[John Hancock] Printed Circular Signed by Six Selectmen of Boston: Joseph Jackson, Samuel Sewall, John Ruddock, William Phillips, Timothy Newell, and John Rowe. Missing is the prominent signature of John Hancock, who was serving as a selectman at the time (he served from 1765 to 1776). One page, 7.75" x 12.25", October 31, 1767, Boston.
"GENTLEMEN,
In Compliance with the Orders of the Town it is our Honour to serve, WE inclose you their Votes, past the 28th Instant; and doubt not, as you tender your own Interest, and the Salvation of your country, you will promote similar Measures so far as they may be consistent with the particular Circumstances of your Town.
WE with the future Happiness of this Province, and general Welfare of the Whole Continent."
Following the printed text are the signatures of the six selectmen, some who were still serving during the Revolutionary War. "To the Gentlemen Select-Men/ of Eastown" appears at the bottom of the document. Boston's selectmen supervised many of the town's important affairs, especially those concerning taxes, land distribution, infrastructure, and the appointment of minor town officials. The selectmen, usually Boston's more prominent and capable men, were chosen to serve terms of one year. They played a leading role in rebellious activity against the British government prior to the Revolutionary War, as exemplified here.
In passing the Revenue Act of [June] 1767 (part of the infamous Townshend Acts), the British government hoped to raise revenue by taxing the American colonists for British imports into the colonies. As a result of its passage, Boston's merchants worked into an uproar. According to the minutes of the Boston Selectmen's October 22, 1767, meeting, the Selectmen, after being petitioned by a number of angry Boston merchants, voted that a town meeting be held at ten o'clock on October 28 at Faneuil Hall, a prominent meeting hall in Boston which became known as the cradle of liberty. At the crowded town meeting, measures were considered to thwart the Act by preventing the need to import the highly-taxed English goods, which, according to a broadside reporting on the meeting, "threaten the Country with Poverty and Ruin". The attendees passed resolutions to ensure that Boston would use less imported goods, such as sugar, carriages, furniture, apparel, shoes, jewelry, chinaware, silks, and liquor, and that after December 31, 1767, only goods manufactured in the American colonies would be consumed.
It was also decided that the Boston Selectmen would forward these resolutions to the selectmen of every town in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Accordingly, this circular was delivered to the "Eastown" Selectmen with the admonition that "Eastown" would "promote similar Measures". In the next few years, Boston's rebellious activity increased, leading to the British occupation of the town in 1768 and the Boston Massacre of 1770. This significant circular, which documents some of the earliest rebellious activity, has some minor stains. The verso bears the address: "To/ The Gentlemen the Selectmen/ of Easttown". Near fine.
John Hancock Document Signed Twice as governor of Massachusetts. One page partly printed, 9" x 12.5" (sight), April 10, 1789, Boston. This document directs the citizens "in the District of Hampshire and Berkshire" to vote for their first U.S. representative. In part (boldfaced words are handwritten, all others are printed): "To the Selectmen of the Town of [blank] in the District of Hampshire and Berkshire Greeting. These are in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to will and require you, forthwith, in manner as the law directs for calling Town-Meetings, to cause the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of [blank] duly qualified to vote for Representatives to the General Court of this Commonwealth, to assemble on Monday, the eleventh of May next, to give in their votes for a Representative, who shall be an inhabitant of the district of Hampshire and Berkshire to represent the said district in the Congress of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, to the Selectmen who shall preside at said Meeting . . . you shall in open Town-Meeting, sort and count the votes, and form a list of the persons voted for, with the number of votes for each person against his name, and shall make a publick declaration thereof, in the said Meeting." Countersignature by Secretary John Avery Jr.
The document continues by reporting that two men have received the most votes, though neither is named in the document as the first congressman from the district: "These certify, that the returns from the several towns within the district of Hampshire and Berkshire, respecting the choice of a Representative, to represent the people thereof, in the Congress of the United States, have been examined agreeably to the resolution of the General court, passed the twentieth of November 1788, by which it appears, that The Honorable Theodore Sedgwick Esq. & Samuel Lyman Esq. have had the greatest number of votes in the returns from the said district, in which no person has been chosen." This is followed by John Hancock's well-known, large, elaborate, and bold signature and another Secretary Avery countersignature. The second Hancock signature is below the paper seal in the far left margin, equally elaborate and bold.
Under the Articles of Confederation (1781-1789), Massachusetts' General Court (the state legislature) chose the state's one delegate to the Congress of the Confederation. Under the U.S. Constitution, which replaced the Articles on March 4, 1789, congressmen were to be chosen "every second Year by the People" according to the population of the state (U.S. Constitution, art. 1, sec. 2, cl. 1 and 3). Before the first congressional election under the new U.S. Constitution, Massachusetts had divided into eight congressional districts. Four of those districts quickly chose their representatives, but the other four--including the fourth district of Hampshire and Berkshire--were chosen later. This was not a matter of great concern, for even though the U.S. Constitution was ratified in late 1788 and the Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789, the U.S. House of Representatives did not become viable until a quorum of elected members met for the first time on April 1, 1789--only nine days before this document was produced. Theodore Sedgwick (1746-1813), a lawyer and statesman, eventually won the election and served as the U.S. representative from Massachusetts' fourth district until 1793. Samuel Lyman (1749-1802), also a lawyer and statesman, was later elected in 1795. He served for five years.
John Hancock, prominent American patriot perhaps best known for his conspicuous signature on the Declaration of Independence, served two terms as governor of Massachusetts: from 1780-1785 as the state's first governor and from 1787-1793 as its third. This document, which contains a large blind embossed stamped paper seal affixed with wax at upper left, is matted and framed to an overall size of 22.25" x 19". Though the document has not been examined outside of the frame, it appears to be very well preserved and in fine condition.
[Benjamin Lincoln] Revolutionary War: Virginia Officers' Petition. Two pages, two sided, with integral address leaf, 8" x 12.5", "Chs.Town, Apr. 11th, 1780." In September 1778, Major General Benjamin Lincoln was appointed Southern Department Commander of the Continental Army. Shortly thereafter, he participated in the attack on Savannah and was forced to retreat to Charleston, South Carolina, where he took command of that city's garrison.
In March, the city was surrounded by a sizeable British force dispatched from the northern colonies and Lincoln grew desperate for more troops. After approaching the South Carolina legislature with a request to arm slaves to assist in the conflict, Lincoln ordered his two Virginia Continental detachments, commanded by Colonels Richard Parker and William Heth, to return from Augusta. Parker's and Heth's men had been serving in the Southern Department since the previous year at Augusta, to respond to any movements by the British up the Savannah River. Directing a battalion of Georgia and South Carolina militia to take their place at Augusta, Lincoln requested that the Virginians "march with all possible dispatch" to Charleston. These troops gave Lincoln approximately 350 additional rank and file with which to defend the city, but created a great deal of controversy amongst the officers of these detachments.
It was at this time that this petition was penned. The document, submitted to Major Lincoln by a group of his officers, outlines their complaints about the reorganization of various lines of troops and regiments. It describes the complications that arose when a portion of an established regiment was combined with a newly created regiment, and details the resulting disagreements about which men were in charge and which were not. After issuing their complaints, the officers proposed their own solution.
In part: "We submit the following as it appears the most just & equitable arrangement to your better judgment, Viz. each Coll. in the Virginia Line to take his Regt. to the remaining Regts. to be divided among them in such a manner as to make their Command as nearly equal as circumstances will admit. The New Lines at the same time will equally be divided by joining such Regts. as they think proper. This will give satisfaction to us."
Rather than be forced to arm slaves, the South Carolina legislature began negotiations with the British commanders to allow the British forces to pass through South Carolina. This was one of the worst Continental defeats of the war. Lincoln's entire army was held prisoner and Lincoln was denied the honors of war in surrendering, which deeply rankled him.
This intriguing document is signed by Col. Richard Parker, who was killed at the siege of Charleston less than two weeks after the petition was penned, and by Lt. Col. Gus B. Wallace, Brigadier General Charles Scott, Lt. Col. Samuel Hopkins, Major William Lewis, and Col. William Heth, all of whom were held prisoner in Charleston, several through the end of the war. Document is lightly age toned with minor wear along the edges. Ink is gently faded; generally fine condition. An outstanding document signed at an important impasse in our nation's military history.
Military & Patriotic
[Second Continental Congress] A Resolution Concerning Supplies, with Notes on Battle Losses and Commanding Officers. Four integral pages with text on page one and page four, 7.5" x 9.25", n.d. [ca. March 1776], n.p. [likely Philadelphia], regarding the congress' management of the Continental Army following the Boston Campaign of 1775 and 1776. At the top of page one is a resolution by the Second Continental Congress for basic supplies for the army. In part as written: "Resolved by this Assembly that there be provided Marque or Officers tents. Tents for private soldiers. Iron pots that will contain from eight to twelve gallons. Wooden Bowls. Frying Pans Quart [?]. Drums Fifes medicine Chests & Apparatus with proper Instruments Books & Paper . . . as was provided for the Troops ordered to be raised by this Assembly in April last [1775]."
At the top of the page four are two lists. One list contains a count of British casualties during the Boston Campaign:
Battle of Boston
709 privates killed
102 Sergts. D.
94 Com Officers
905
600 wounded
1505
The other list records the top fifteen commanders in the Continental Army with their rank and home states: George Washington, Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Phillip Schuyler, Israel Putnam, Seth Pomeroy, Richard Montgomery, David Wooster, William Heath, Joseph Spencer, John Thomas, John Sullivan, Nathaniel Green, and Horatio Gates.
The Boston Campaign lasted from April 1775 through March 1776 and began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Later, George Washington was assigned commander in chief and tasked with ridding Boston of the British Army. After American losses of near 600 and British losses near 1,500, the British withdrew in mid-March 1776, a great victory for Washington and his ragtag army over the well-disciplined British.
The Second Continental Congress, which presided from Philadelphia, was the only uniting government of the American colonies from 1775 though 1781. The congress had the authority to appoint diplomats, make treaties, and guide the American war effort. They eventually proclaimed independence from England in July 1776. This fascinating piece of early Revolutionary War military history is age-toned with three horizontal folds, with minor separations and chipping thereat. Small tear through text affecting several words but without loss of paper. The last horizontal fold allows for display of text on the last page. Minor mounting remnants exist. All text is boldly and clearly written; near very good.
Autographs
Timothy Pickering Autograph Letter Signed "T. Pickering" as George Washington's second secretary of war. One page, 5" x 8", June 30, 1795, "War Office", written to Samuel Hodgdon, concerning the performance of a military contractor. In part as written: "The Secretary of the Treasury [Oliver Wolcott Jr.] and I have concluded that prior to a decision relative to the hats presented by the Cloathing Contractor, Mr. Waters the Inspector (who has condemned them) should state in writing his opinion of their comparative value: that is, whether they are of one third, one half or other proportion of the value of the patern hats to which their hats were by contract exactly to conform - at least to be equal to them." With remnants of red seal and docketing on verso. Tape repair along a separated fold; no text loss. Very good.
Also, a Timothy Pickering Autograph Document Signed "Tim. Pickering". One page, 7" x 2", May 7, 1784, Philadelphia. In part as written: "Received . . . of John Barry Twenty Seven pounds four Shillings, & two pence being in full for Prize Money due to Woodward Abraham A seaman belonging to the Frigate Alliance in vesture of his Power of Attorny." After serving with distinction in the Revolutionary War, Pickering began a business partnership with Samuel Hodgdon in 1783. This document was written before this venture failed in 1785. Later, Pickering entered public service as George Washington's postmaster general, serving from 1791 through 1795. On January 2, 1795, President Washington named Pickering as his second secretary of war, a responsibility he held until December of that year. This document is hinged to a larger (8.5" x 10.5") paper which included an engraving of Pickering. Very light soiling, else fine.
[Israel Putnam] Contemporary Copy Advising Colonel Williams to Raise Troops. One page, 7" x 12.25", April 23, 1775, Haddam. Immediately after receiving news on April 20, 1775, about the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Israel Putnam (1718-1790) left his successful farm and tavern in Pomfret, Connecticut, and rode to the nearby village of Lebanon to quickly consult with Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull. After receiving orders from the governor, Putnam, still in his farmer's frock, hastily rode overnight to Concord, Massachusetts, to try to aid the colonial militia. On his way, he stopped in Cambridge to consult with the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. After continuing his journey and arriving at Concord, he wrote the original of this contemporary copy on April 21 to Colonel Ebenezer Williams, also of Pomfret, a member of the Connecticut Committee of Safety. This copy, transcribed at "Haddam 23d April 1775. 5 O.Clock P. M." and attested by "James Hanetton/ [?] Brainerd", reads in part: "I have waited on the Committee of the Provincial Congress & it is there Determination to have a standing army of 20000 men from the new england colonies, of which it is supposed the Colony of Connecticut must raise Six thousand, & beg they would be on the Parade at Cambridge as speedy as may be, with conveniency, together with provisions & sufficiency of Ammunition for their own use-the Battle here is much as represented at Pomphret, except that there is more kill,d & a number taken prisoners-the Accounts are at present so confus'd that it is impossible to Ascertain the numbers exact-Shall inform you of the preceedings from time to time as we have new occurrences." Putnam adds, "Sr. being in hast I cannot write, desire a copy of this be transmitted to Govr. Trumbull." Secretarial notations follow Putnam's original text indicating previous copies sent--one to Governor Trumbull and attested by his son Joseph earlier on April 23rd.
Five days after the original copy of this letter was sent to Colonel Williams, Putnam was appointed by the Connecticut General Assembly as brigadier general, the third highest ranking officer in the Connecticut militia at the time. A month later at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Putnam and Colonel William Prescott manned a noble defense, repelling two British frontal assaults before being forced to abandon their works. This notable piece of an early Revolutionary War communication is age-toned with some separation at folds. Very good.
Marinus Willett Two Documents Signed. (1) One page signed "M. Willett Lieut Col. [?]", 9" x 7.5", [ca. June 1779], n.p., headed with "A Return of Vacancies in the Third New York Regiment with the Names of the officers entitled to fill them". This document then lists thirteen officers by name who were promoted, resigned, or dismissed. The document concludes, "These Gent. have ever since done Duty been Mustered and Received pay agreeable to those appointments, but in order to Enable them to Receive their Commissions, it is necessary that their promotions be Ratified by the State, and Warrants Certifying the same agreeable to the Resolution of Congress of the 8th March 1779." The resolution of the Second Continental Congress referred to here stated that "all appointments of officers in the continental service by the respective states, be, in the first instance, by warrant, certified in such manner as they shall severally direct, to the Board of War." (ed. Worthington C. Ford et al., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789). Toned with folds; a few later notations and mounting remnants on verso. Fine.
(2) One page partly printed, 6.25" x 4.5", August 31, 1803, New York, signed "Marinus Willett" as president of the Newtown and Bushwick Company. This document is a receipt reflecting that "Peter [?] has paid twenty-five dollars being the first installment on five Shares in the Newtown and Bushwick Bridge Company." With docketing on verso; very good.
Marinus Willett (1740-1830) joined the Continental Army in 1775 and was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the 3rd New York Regiment in 1776. After the Revolutionary War, he served New York City in various capacities, including mayor.
[Battle of Ridgefield] David Wooster Letter Signed Beneath and in Response to a Gold Selleck Silliman Letter. One page, 8" x 13", "Apr 26, 1777 10 Clock am", Milford [Connecticut], signed "David Wooster/ Major General". This single page document is comprised of two desperate letters : Brigadier General Gold Silliman's letter, which covers the top half of the page, and Major General David Wooster's letter, which covers the bottom half. Wooster's letter, written two hours after Silliman's letter, reads in part: "On receipt of this the officers commanding Cont[inental] troops or militia in New Haven & the adjacent towns, are ordered to march them immediately for Stratford. . . . This order they will forward on to the Northern & Eastern Towns whose Militia are ordered to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moments warning-Genl. Wadsworth has orders to march his Brigade immediately to New Haven to defend the Sea Coast." Wooster has added at the foot of the page, "Send a copy of this without delay to General Wadsworth/ D W." (Brigadier General James Wadsworth later became the major general of the militia, the second-highest ranking officer in Connecticut.)
Brigadier General Gold Selleck Silliman's letter, signed "G. Selleck Silliman", was written on "April 26th, 1777/ 8 o'Clock A.M.", from his home in Fairfield [Connecticut]. As soon as Silliman discovered that the British had landed on the Connecticut coast, he fired-off several letters to notify neighboring towns. This letter, likely dictated, reads, "The enemy have advanced above the County Road at Saugatuck Bridge and are advanceing on, I suspect toward Danbury. Pray join us directly and order some more Troops for the Fleet are lying off Compo and I don't think it prudent to send all the Troops off from the sea shore for . . . [the British] now on shore don't by our accounts exceed a Thousand men."
These two letters were part of a flurry of communications and confused activity by American leaders on April 26, 1777, after they had learned that the British had landed at Compo Beach, Connecticut. On April 25, one day before these letters were written, the British invasion force of 2000, commanded by Major General William Tryon, marched north to destroy a supply depot at Danbury. On the day after these two letters were written, a combined American force under Continental Army Major General Wooster, Brigadier General Silliman, and Brigadier General Benedict Arnold--700 strong--engaged the invasion force near the Connecticut town of Ridgefield. When the battle was over, American forces reportedly killed or wounded 200 British soldiers and captured 40 more; American losses included 20 killed and 80 wounded. Wooster died five days later from battle wounds. Although Tryon's raid on Danbury and actions in Ridgefield were British successes, the influx of American forces in the area would deter the British from ever again attempting a landing by ship to attack any inland colonial strongholds. These important Revolutionary War letters are age-toned with remnants of red wax seal and resulting seal tear resulting in a small amount of paper loss, though no text is affected. Matted and framed to an overall size of 14" x 19.25", this manuscript has not been examined outside of the frame. Near fine condition.
[Battle of Ridgefield] David Wooster Autograph Letter Signed "David Wooster/ Major General". One page, 7.5" x 12.5", April 26, 1777, Stratford [Connecticut]. Written "In haste", this letter directs the movement of the Connecticut militia to stop the advancing British invasion of Connecticut. In part: "I must hereby request & direct that you order with all possible dispatch two hundred of your Brigade to this place and two hundred to Milford to replace those who have marched against the enemy from those towns. . . . The Importance of a vigorous push at this time is so great that no man will want motives to urge him on instantly."
This letter was written during a flurry of communications and activity by Connecticut patriots on April 26, 1777, after they had learned that the British had landed at Compo Beach, Connecticut. On April 25, one day before this letter was written, the British invasion force of 2000, commanded by Major General William Tryon, marched north to destroy a supply depot at Danbury. On the day after this letter was written, a combined American force under Continental Army Major General Wooster, Brigadier General Gold Selleck Silliman, and Brigadier General Benedict Arnold--700 strong--engaged the invasion force near the Connecticut town of Ridgefield. When the battle was over, American forces reportedly killed or wounded 200 British soldiers and captured 40 more; American losses were 20 killed and 80 wounded. Wooster died five days later from battle wounds. Although Tryon's raid on Danbury and actions in Ridgefield were British successes, the influx of American forces in the area would deter the British from ever again attempting a landing by ship to attack any inland colonial strongholds. This letter, obviously written hastily, thoroughly communicates the need for swift action. It is framed and matted to an overall size of 13.5" x 19". Though the letter has not been examined outside of the frame, some paper separation along a fold exists. There is also some paper loss in the lower left corner. Very good.
John McLean Archive, spanning four decades (the 1820s, 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s) of the notable U.S. Supreme Court associate justice's life. The archive includes numerous letters to McLean from associates, friends, and family, as well as many letters written by the associate justice to his wife, Rebecca Edwards McLean.
The personal and business letters are mostly from his wife, children, brothers, nephews, nieces, and in-laws, and offer fascinating insight into the life and family of Justice McLean. The legal and political letters provide glimpses into McLean's public life, as well as the legal and political life of the early nineteenth century American republic. Many topics, such as the Mexican War, the growing American empire, various early nineteenth century politicians, and the 1848 election, are broached. For example, in a July 16, 1846, letter, McLean's brother-in-law, George Hildt, writes about the upcoming presidential election: "Old Rough and Ready has brought himself into notice by his late splendid victories, and as the star of [General Winfield] Scott set[s], that [of Zachary] Taylor . . . was named for that distinguished office, in the first moments of enthusiasm. But I now think the eyes of the nation are directed to John McLean". McLean had presidential aspiration, often being named as a presidential contender from the 1840s until the election of 1860.
Also included in the archive are numerous replies to dinner invitations written by the sociable McLeans along with three shipping documents, including one with the heading "Rules and Regulations for the Government of Pilots . . . October 29, 1852". The other two are ship licenses for two steamships on the Ohio River, both dated 1854.
John McLean (1785-1861) was appointed by President James Monroe to be the sixth U.S. postmaster general, serving from 1823-1829. Many of these letters were written to him as postmaster general. He was later appointed by President Andrew Jackson as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, serving a long and notable career from 1830 until his death in 1861. All items in the archive are from good to fine.
[U.S. Supreme Court] Group of Three Richard Peters Autograph Letters Signed. These letters, two of which are addressed to Supreme Court Associate Justice John McLean, contain meaningful details on the illnesses and deaths of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall and Associate Justice Joseph Story. Also, Peters' 1831 letter to Justice McLean contains information about the important Supreme Court case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. Peters, the fourth reporter of decisions for the U.S. Supreme Court from 1828 through 1843, has signed each letter "Rich Peters".
(1) One page, 8" x 10", July 6, 1835, Philadelphia, to Associate Justice John McLean. Peters was present at the death of the longest serving chief justice in U.S. history, John Marshall. He writes about the sorrowful occasion in this 1835 letter. In part: "The Chief Justice expired this afternoon at half past 6. I was present when he breathed his last. He went off without a struggle, and had his three sons at his bed side. The death of Thomas was not communicated to him. The loss is inexpressible to the Country." In the spring of 1835, Judge Marshall, at the request of family and friends, traveled to Philadelphia to seek medical relief. There he died on July 6 with three of his sons present. His eldest son Thomas, an attorney, had died seven days earlier on June 29, at Baltimore at the age of fifty. This letter, with postmark, has the original red seal and resulting tear; with folds. Near fine.
(2) Two pages, 7.75" x 10", October 27, 1831, Philadelphia, to Associate Justice McLean, concerning the health of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. Peters also writes about the Supreme Court case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in which Justices McLean and Joseph Story participated, along with Chief Justice Marshall. In part: "You will have the Cherokee and Georgia before you at next term. . . . [Concerning] the matter of 'Foreign State' - or 'State', the matter will be before you upon the Constitution - the Treaties, and the Law of 1802." This letter, which contains the red seal and a tear resulting from the original opening of the letter, is worthy of further research. With postmark; near fine.
(3) One page, 8" x 10.5", September 12, 1845, to an unnamed recipient concerning the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Story. With folds; fine.
Timothy Pickering Document Signed as secretary of war with endorsement signature on verso by U.S. Treasurer Samuel Meredith ("Saml. Meredith Treas/ of the United States". One page, 8" x 10.25", January 30, 1795, n.p., with heading "No. 29/ To Lt. Simon Geddes". In part: "Pay to Samuel Meredith Treasure of The United States, One hundred fifty-three Dollars and eighty-three Cents; being the balance remaining in your hands of the sum advanced you for the recruiting Service for which this shall be your warrant. Given under my hand and Seal of the War Office . . . Timothy Pickering/ Secy. Of War". Below the blind embossed paper seal is the countersignature of "Joseph Howell Accountant".
Timothy Pickering was President Washington's second secretary of war, serving from January 2, 1795, through December 10, 1795. This document was signed twenty-eight days after his appointment. Samuel Meredith (1741-1817), a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress in the late 1780s, was President Washington's second treasurer, serving from 1789-1801. Toned with slight separation at one fold; fine.
Roger B. Taney Autograph Letter Signed "R. B. Taney" as the fifth chief justice of the United States. Two pages, 4.5" x 7", February 22, 1850, n.p., to Supreme Court Justice John McLean concerning the illness of both. In part: "I was in court for a short time today to deliver the opinions which I read in conference two weeks ago. But am not well enough to sit & hear arguments. I was truly sorry to find you were still suffering from your cold. Mr. Vinton tells me you talk of going home. I hope Mrs. McLean will not let you move until your physician says you may do so with safety. . . . I would have called to see you this morning when I was at the Capital & at the same time to pay my respects to Mrs. McLean; but my lungs are yet so irritated that I do not venture to walk out in the cold air-and went to the Capital & returned in a close[d] carriage."
Roger Taney (1777-1864) served as chief justice from 1836-1864. He was widely criticized for his decision in the infamous Dred Scott case, holding that restricting the spread of slavery into the territories was unconstitutional. John McLean served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1830-1861. With usual folds; fine.
Joseph Pannell Tyler Archive. Joseph P. Tyler was a lieutenant in the War of 1812, a colonel in the Mexican-American War, a Union general and commissary general during the American Civil War, and the brother of President Zachary Taylor.
Offered here is a collection of eight personal letters written between the years 1836 and 1852, each addressed to Tyler's father-in-law, Justice John McLean, during McLean's tenure as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The letters primarily contain news of Tyler's wife Evelyn, their children, and the events in their household. One letter, dated December 30, 1844, broaches the subject of possible war with Mexico in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas. It reads, in part: "We have had here many rumors of war with Mexico, but I doubt very much if the Captain will be able to get up one during his short reign, if he does not succeed, certainly the blame cannot be laid at his door for it seems he has done his utmost to accomplish it."
One letter bears heavy wear and chipping along one edge; all others are near fine to fine condition.
John E. Wool Autograph Letter Signed as Inspector General of the Army. Two pages, two sided with one integral blank, 8" x 10", Boston, July 6, 1829. Noted U.S. Army officer John Ellis Wool served in three consecutive wars: the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War, serving as the oldest Union general in the conflict. In this interesting political letter, Wool discusses the new president with William Berkeley Lewis, who was one of Jackson's political managers and later became a member of Jackson's influential "kitchen cabinet," serving as Jackson's second auditor of the Treasury.
Wool forwards several political pamphlets, commenting in part: "The author was the first man to ruin the Jackson standard in the East, and the only one from the Eastern States who voted for him in the house of representatives in 1824, and subsequently did more to stay the effects of the foul slanders inculcated against Genl. Jackson than any other individual north of the City of Washington. I mention these circumstances because I am satisfied that a most infamous attempt was made at Washington to impress him in the estimation of the President and which, unquestionably, led to the appointment of men to office at Boston, who never were, and never will be his political friends. It is true they first abused, and then supported him, but in the latter case not until after the people had expressed their determination to elect him President." Letter is lightly age tone with numerous creases; generally fine condition. Letter is accompanied by a handsome 6.5" x 9.5" engraving of General Wool.
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson Carte de Visite. High-quality bust image of the great American frontiersman, Kit Carson. Image measures approximately 2.25" x 4", n.d. [circa 1840s], New York, New York. Although mountain man, Indian agent, military officer, and explorer Kit Carson was rather short of stature and had an unimpressive demeanor, the strength of his character can be seen in this excellent CDV of Carson in his 40s. He looks purposefully into the camera's lens, wearing a formal suit and tie. His long hair is brushed away from his forehead, revealing a receding hairline.
The image is backed by a slightly larger photographer's mount bearing a monograph reading "EA" on verso, an early E. A. Anthony backstamp. Below this, the New York address label of Jewish stationers John J. Mitchell & Abram H. Seixas, noting their 907 Broadway location just a few blocks away from Anthony's 501 Broadway studio. This carte de visite is in outstanding condition--bright and clean, with sharp corners and great contrast. Very fine condition.
[Civil War] Group of 17 Newspapers. Including 8 issues of the New-York Tribune, 5 issues of the Philadelphia Inquirer, 2 issues of the Saturday Evening Post, and single issues of the New York Herald and the World Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, all dated 1861 or 1862 and containing fascinating Civil War content. All issues save one are a full 8 pages. Overall very good condition.
This grouping specifically includes the following issues:
New-York Tribune, January 4, 1861, January 7, 1861, January 8, 1861, January 15, 1861, January 22, 1861, February 6, 1862, July 5, 1862, July 24, 1862.
Philadelphia Inquirer, November 12, 1862.
Saturday Evening Post, October 12, 1861, November 2, 1861.
New York Herald, May 24, 1862, partial.
Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1862, April 7, 1862, April 9, 1862, May 27, 1862.
The World Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, May 27, 1862.
Civil War Archive. Great collection of eleven items signed by ten important military and political leaders of the Civil War. Lot includes: General George Stoneman Autograph Letter Signed. Two pages, written on recto of first page only, 5" x 7.75", Petersburg, VA, October 31, 1867. Fine condition.
John Sherman Autograph Note Signed as Secretary of the Treasury. One page, 4.5" x 4.25", n.p., December 14, 1877. Lightly age toned; small internal tear. Fine.
John Sherman Autograph Letter Signed as Secretary of State. Two pages, written on recto of first page only, on Senate Chambers letterhead, 5" x 8", Washington, D.C., January 31, 1888. Very fine.
John Sherman Check Signed as U.S. Senator. One page, 7.25" x 2.75", Mansfield, Ohio, July 25, 1864. Lightly age toned; two-cent Internal Revenue stamp. Very good condition.
General John A. Dix Autograph Letter Signed. One page, one sided, 5.75" x 8", Westhampton, July 30, 1878. Affixed to a larger sheet. Very fine condition.
General John G. Barnard Autograph Letter Signed. One page, one sided, 8" x 10", New York, October 7, 1874. Blue hand stamp of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications. Lightly age toned. Bears glue and tape remnants on verso. Fine condition. Accompanied by a 5.25" x 7.75" bust engraving of Barnard; faint foxing.
General John C. Gilmore Partly Printed Commission Signed as Assistant Adjutant General. One page, 7.75" x 10", Washington, D.C., August 13, 1892. Light age toning; glue remnants along right edge. Near fine condition.
General A. P. Howe Autograph Letter Signed. Two one-sided pages, 7.5" x 9.75", Washington, D.C., September 27, 1865. Howe makes recommendations for mounted batteries. Faint age toning and soiling; near fine. Accompanied by a 6" x 8.75" bust engraving of Major General Howe in near-fine condition.
Admiral David D. Porter Typed Essay Signed. Two one-sided pages, 8" x 10.5", n.p., n.d. Being Porter's brief essay about a woman's charms. Moderate age toning. Very fine.
General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks Autograph Note Signed as Congressman. One page, one sided, 5" x 8.5", on House of Representatives letterhead, Washington, D.C., January 14, 1879. Rough edges have been professionally restored. Fine condition.
General Joshua L. Chamberlain Letter with Proxy Signature. Two pages, 4.5" x 5.75", n.p., January 18, 1900. Thank you note signed by Chamberlain's secretary. Light age toning. Fine.
Prospective buyers are advised to view all items in the lot carefully prior to bidding.
Jefferson Davis Autograph Letter Signed With Free Franked Cover as United States senator. Two pages, written on recto of first page only, 4.5" x 7", Washington, D.C., n.d. [May 21, 1848]. Following service in the Mexican War where he participated in the successful siege of Monterrey and fought bravely at the Battle of Buena Vista, President James K. Polk offered Davis a Federal commission as a brigadier general and command of a brigade of militia, a position Davis declined in favor of returning to politics.
Because of his war service, the governor of Mississippi appointed Davis to fill out the senate term of the late Jesse Speight. He took his seat December 5, 1847, and was elected to serve the remainder of his term in January 1848. The senate made Davis chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. In addition, the Smithsonian Institution appointed him a regent at the end of December 1847. It was at this time that Davis penned the brief letter offered here.
Presumably written in response to an autograph request, the letter is addressed to Joseph R. Hunter of Mercer, Pennsylvania and reads in full: "Sir, I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your's [sic] of the 18th Inst and to remain very truly yrs. Jeffer: Davis." Letter bears a small stain, a paper clip indentation at upper edge, and faint creases throughout. Very good condition. Letter is accompanied by the original transmittal cover which bears Davis' franking signature at upper right corner. Envelope is moderately age toned and stained, with some fading to the signature. Both the letter and the envelope have been affixed to a 6.5" x 11.5" backing board.
[Mexican-American War] Robert E. Lee Autograph Letter Signed as Captain of Engineers. Two pages, with integral address leaf, penned by Lee; franked "Public Service", 8.25" x 10.5", Vera Cruz, June 7, 1848. A career United States Army officer, an engineer, and among the most celebrated generals in American history, Robert E. Lee distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War as one of Winfield Scott's chief aides in the march from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. He was instrumental in several American victories through his personal reconnaissance as a staff officer, identifying routes of attack that the Mexicans had not defended because they thought the terrain was impassable.
Four months prior to writing this letter, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty required that Mexico cede 55% of its land to the U.S., lifted the U.S. blockade of Mexico's ports and free places captured by U.S. occupation troops, ended the war, and gave the U.S. undisputed control of Texas. It also established the U.S.-Mexican border along the Rio Grande River. Engineer Robert E. Lee and a team of engineers were then ordered to begin measuring roads and evaluating their travel worthiness for the use of U.S. Army troops between the states and various locations in Mexico.
Here, Lee writes to Major L. Thomas, Assistant Adjutant General of the Army, informing him of road conditions in Mexico. In full: "Sir, I arrived here yesterday with the Engineer Officers Company, having measured the road from the City of Mexico to this place, through Arizona & made the whole distance 245 5/8 miles. As far as Cordova the road is good & well elevated. This side of Cordova water is very scarce till you reach San Diego, & there is more between San Diego & Vera Cruz. The road between Cordova & Vera Cruz is in parts, very [illegible] & Sandy. Upon the whole, especially in reference to Water, I consider the National road the better route for the Army [illegible], men & Animals suffered much for water after leaving Cordova. Learning on my arrival here of the intelligence of the Treaty of Peace between the U.S. and Mexico, I caused the Engr. Comp. & 5 of the Officers to embark on board the Brig Helen bound for N. Orleans, she not having accommodation for more. She sailed this Sund. The rest of the Officers will embark with me in the first vessel that Sails. I have disposed of the Officers & men as recommended in the Memo presented to you." Letter is signed "RE Lee."
Following his service in Mexico, and after serving twenty-five years with the Army's Corps of Engineers, Lee became the superintendent of West Point for a period of three years. He later fought at Harper's Ferry and in the War of Texas Secession, and was then offered a senior command (with the rank of Major General) in the expanding army to fight the Southern States that had left the Union.
This fragile letter is moderately age toned with fold separation and minor tear repairs (minor paper loss to two letters). Docketed on address leaf. An important letter from one of the most distinguished U.S. Army officers in the conflict!
Robert E. Lee Document Signed "R E Lee" as president of Washington College. One page, 8" x 10.5", November 30, 1866, [Lexington] Virginia. This document reports the grades of E. T. Drumble, a student at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University). Drumble did well in Latin (92 was his "Average Mark", though not so well in Mathematics (60).
Six months after surrendering at Appomattox Courthouse, Lee became president of Washington College. His experience as superintendent of West Point prior to the Civil War helped him excel as an educational administrator at Washington College. During his five years at the college, he recruited northern and southern students and transformed the college into one of the nation's leading education centers. Soon after his death in October 1870, Lee's name was added to the name of the college. With pencil notations and doodles on the verso. Toned; fine.
George Washington Custis Lee Diploma Signed "G.W.C. Lee" as president of Washington and Lee University. One vellum page, 13" x 11.5", June 26, 1873, "Given at Washington & Lee University" [Lexington, Virginia]. This document reports that Edwin Theodore Dumble "has completed with Distinction the Course of Study in the School of Applied Chemistry".
Six months after surrendering at Appomattox Courthouse, Robert E. Lee began serving as president of Washington College; he served until his death in 1870. During his five years at the college, he recruited northern and southern students and transformed the college into one of the nation's leading education centers. Very soon after Lee's death in October 1870, the college's name was changed to Washington and Lee University. The general's son, George Washington Custis Lee, followed his father as the next university president, serving until 1897. Custis Lee had also been a Confederate officer during the Civil War; he was captured as a major general three days before his father surrendered at Appomattox Court House. Fine condition.
Confederate General George E. Pickett Autograph Letter Signed "George ", one page, 5" x 4.75", front and verso, [n.p., n.d.], in ink, to his wife, Sallie. In part, ". . . apparently quiet over this . . . nine this morning my darling . . . came back from Richmond this . . . was in the battle yesterday evinced by his muddy pants - Bob and little (Larry) are both quite sick though better than last night Poor little thing, blistered, just think of it. Bye Bye darling - let me know when you come by - If you feel too weak, send for the ambulance to put the mattress in - I send you. . . . Harrie Hough is from Richmond this (evening). . . . Your letter my little . . . to . . . Your own 'forever' George - ".
General George Edward Pickett served in General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, so named for the area in which it operated during the Civil War. During the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign from June 15, 1864 to March 25, 1865, a series of battles were fought around the city of Petersburg, Virginia, as Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant assaulted and partially surrounded the besieged city. Occupying the country southwest of Petersburg, General Lee's army fought to defend Petersburg and his last line of supply. During the winter months, both armies looked forward to the spring of 1865 when the end of the rains would allow passage along the roads. It is possible that this letter from General Pickett to his wife was written during this time, given the reference to a battle in the vicinity of Richmond in wet and muddy conditions, and specifically with the reference to Sallie venturing forth to visit her husband, which she was accustomed to doing, since she lived so near in Petersburg. In the final days of the war she moved to Richmond, finding it virtually deserted. The letter is very brief and hurriedly composed, yet detailed and quite informative. Written in ink, the script is slightly faded and clearly legible, the top left corner section has been torn away, tape repairs of separations along folds, indentation and toning in center from metal clip, page edges are rough, slight wrinkling, good condition.
George Pickett Partial Autograph Letter Unsigned, with references to some of his slaves. One page (front and back) on lined paper, n.d., n.p., in pencil to his wife, Sallie. In part as written: "How glad I am my own precious one to find that you are better you cannot conceive of my anxiety and uneasiness on your account and your poor miserable George away from you and totally unable to assuage your pain, or share your trouble. . . . What happiness t'would be to kiss I dreamed darling that [some?] one attempted to take this ring from my little finger which you placed there with a wish and I had quite a nightmare. . . . If possible, should there be a lull in these [miserable?] attacks I will come to press you my baby to that heart once more, even should it be but for half an hour. I am so sorry my pet is worried about the maid servant & George . . . [illegible] Sister, Charlie and Blain are for having the boy sold, should I wish to return him to the Estate. I have no use for him with me, but to sell a negroe seems . . . [illegible]."
Civil War General George E. Pickett's frequent letters to his wife, LaSalle "Sallie" Corbell Pickett, reveal a devoted and infatuated husband separated from his new bride by war. They were married in September 1863. Most of his letters to Sallie, composed during his military campaigns between 1863 and 1866, range from lengthy, elaborate love letters to brief notes like this one hurriedly scribbled on available pieces of paper. This letter, typical of all of his letters from that period, dealt with his concerns for his family and his consuming love for his new bride. This letter is fragile with fold separations repaired by cello tape which has browned, making a few words difficult to read. Near good.
George Pickett Autograph Letter Signed "Your George". One page (front and back) in pencil, "Sunday 3 Β½ P.M./ July 10 [1864]," n.p., in pencil to Sallie, his new wife, concerning a possible one night tryst together. The Confederate general also writes of a matter that concerned General Robert E. Lee. In part as written: "I have this moment returned from a ride out along the lines-and truly a warm one it was my darling wife-Captain Stuart is sending in his boy by the train so that you will get this sooner than should I dispatch a courier. I have but a moment my baby to write, but must make the boy wait till I can tell my Sallie that her husband is so anxious to see her, to kiss her. . . . Husband will try to steal in Tuesday but do not look certainly for many things, in fact anything might prevent me-should your George come, he will not be in before 9 o'clock probably later and would have to start back by early in the morning. But to see his own own good wife, he would risk a little of his reputation, and ride over the whole country yet and everything else. I sent sisters first letter, but as yet have heard nothing from Genl. Lee-cant say why-If I do not get some intimation of its being attended to within the next two days I shall make Blain put in an application for [?] bond on the necessities of the case and will endorse accordingly."
Less than a month after the Second Battle of Petersburg, General Lee and General Pickett were spending the final nine months of the Civil War involved in a struggle against Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant. During this climax of the war, Pickett takes time to write a passionate letter to his new bride, LaSalle Corbell "Sallie" Pickett, revealing a devoted and infatuated husband-they had been married in September 1863. All of his letters to her between 1863 and 1866 range from lengthy, elaborate love letters to brief notes hurriedly scribbled on available pieces of paper. This letter has been archivally restored to remove cello tape; it has also been tissued and paper has been added, which has affected a few words. Good condition.
General and Mrs. James B. Ricketts Carte de Visite Signed by both on the verso, "James B. Ricketts/ Brig. Genl." and "Fanny Ricketts". In this 2.5" x 4" image, the general is in uniform lovingly facing his well-dressed wife. This Union couple embodied the suffering of the Civil War and the noble sacrifices which resulted. A veteran of the Mexican War and Seminole War, James Ricketts (1817-1887) participated in the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. Following the battle, news of his death, along with his sword and final words, were delivered to Fanny. Two days later, after learning that he was still alive on the battlefield, she left their home in Washington and risked her life to travel through enemy territory to find him. After a harrowing journey, she finally found him, wounded in three places and near death, in a field hospital still on the Bull Run battlefield. She stayed with him there for several weeks until they were sent, with other wounded Union soldiers, to Richmond. While there, Ricketts was sentenced to the notorious Libby Prison where he was confined, still very ill, for several weeks. Fanny, who was allowed to continue caring for him in the prison, campaigned for his release. He was finally released and sent to Fairfax to recover. By the spring of 1862, Ricketts was promoted to brigadier-general and given a new assignment, only to be wounded again at Antietam and later, at Cedar Creek. "Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries" is stamped on the verso below the two signatures. Very good.
John E. Wool Letter Signed. One and one-half pages, 8" x 10", July 30, 1861, "Head quarters, Dept. of the East, Troy, N.Y.", to Boston Mayor Joseph M. Wightman, concerning the defense of Boston from the Confederates and the Lincoln administration's neglect of him. In part: "I am gratified to learn that the defences of Boston are to be considered. Lieut. Hopkins has made the inspections required, and reported to me the state and condition of the forts. I directed him to call on you and the Governor [John A. Andrew]." General Wool, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, took important early steps to secure parts of the east coast for the Union. At the age of seventy-seven when the Civil War started, he felt overlooked by the Lincoln administration as confessed in this letter: "It does appear, however, that the Administration desires my services. I am content to abide my time, confident that the rebellion will be overcome by the people. The only wonder is that the Administration should refuse or reject one so loyal as myself from participating in the conflict. It's treatment of myself is to me, as you have justly remarked, incomprehensible." Later in the spring of 1862 after the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac, General Wool was able to show his worth as a commander by capturing Norfolk, Virginia, from the rebels. He delivered the news by bursting into the room of President Lincoln, who was visiting near the Virginia battle front at the time, and proclaiming, "Norfolk is ours!", welcomed tidings to an administration starved for military victories. Wool retired in 1863 after over fifty years of faithful service.
Included in this lot are two engravings, both near 10" x 6.5", of General Wool and "General Orders No. 220", issued by the War Department, July 16, 1863, notifying of the retirement of General Wool. All items are fine.
[Civil War]. 4th United States Cavalry Document Archive featuring the military papers of Captain Clarence Mauck, dated 1861 through 1865. Organized by year, the archive contains monthly statements, disbursements, lists of provisions, reviews, receipts (for lodging, office supplies, "forage for 12 public horses", "Lodging the 4th Cav. Band", cavalry accoutrements, etc.), affidavits, enlistments, audits, promotion documents, special orders, Internal Revenue documents, military letters, lists of returned funds "belonging to Deserters", several blank military forms, and more.
One intriguing four-page personal letter, dated January 31, 1861, from Washington, is written by an unknown author to "My dear daughter"-possibly Helen, the future wife of Captain Mauck who married in the late 1860s. The author, likely a government official, wants his teenage daughter to come visit Washington, D.C., which was agitated on the expectation of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration in two months: "You speak of a visit to Washington, as though it would not be very prudent, or desirable at this particular time. Well, if things should quiet down and the apprehensions of the people become allayed, I shall certainly insist upon you Pa to bring you down." The author then reports on his recent visit to the White House: "I attended the President's Levee [reception] on Tuesday evening. It was a brilliant affair I assure you and enlivened with excellent music. . . . Among the company at the White-house, I observed Mr. & Mrs Gilmer. I think I will call on him in a few days." The levee was held at President James Buchanan's White House. "Mr. Gilmer" is likely a Congressman John A. Gilmer from North Carolina. In December 1860, Gilmer, a loyal Unionist, had been suggested to President-elect Lincoln to possibly fill a cabinet position, though he was never appointed.
The historically significant 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment was established in 1855 in Missouri. Its first action was on a peacekeeping mission between the free-state and pro-slavery factions in Bleeding Kansas during the late 1850s. The regiment was Colonel Robert E. Lee's last Federal command before he resigned and accepted a position with the Confederacy. During the Civil War, the regiment fought in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and the Indian Territory. Following the war, it was sent to Texas with the task of protecting Anglo settlements against Indians in west-central Texas; it soon became one of the most active and effective units in Texas against Indians.
Captain Clarence Mauck (1839-1881) served in the 4th Cavalry Regiment throughout the Civil War and was wounded in a battle near Atlanta, Georgia. While he recuperated from his wounds, he served for a short time as a recruiter until he rejoined the regiment in March 1865. After the war, Mauck was stationed in Austin, Texas. All documents in the archive are in generally fine condition, though a small number have rodent damage. Prospective buyers are advised to view all items in the lot carefully prior to bidding.
George Washington Autograph Endorsement Containing the Name of Lawrence Washington. One page, 9.5" x 14.25", n.d. [ca. 1753], n.p. [possibly Mount Vernon]. The endorsement in George Washington's hand on the verso reads, "A List of Bonds given/ for Sundries sold from/ the Estate of Maj. Law./ Washington". The document is entitled "List of Bonds for Sundrys purchased at the Sale of the Estate of Law Washington Esq. Also the Amt. of Sundrys purchased by Sundry persons for which no bond is Taken" and contains ruled columns of eighty-four names with monetary amounts spent by each. The first fifty-four names do not have a bond amount, though their purchases amount to £136. 16s. 8p. The remaining thirty names did furnish bonds; their purchases amount to £249 14s 2p. Included in this list are "Maj. Washington [George Washington had been promoted to major in the Virginia militia in 1752]" and "Col. Lee". The total amount sold at the estate sale was £306 10s 10p.
In 1743 when George Washington was eleven, his father died. His elder half-brother Lawrence stepped-in to help raise the boy. Shortly before Lawrence's death in 1752 of tuberculosis, the two brothers traveled to Barbados hoping that the new climate would cure Lawrence. Though Lawrence did not get better, this trip was George's only one out of the area that would become the United States (and his source for smallpox). After Lawrence's death, his estate was left to his wife Anne. None of their four children lived to adolescence, so after Anne died in 1761, George-not yet thirty-inherited Lawrence's estate, including the 2,500-acre Mount Vernon plantation. This well-preserved document is toned; a small amount of separation at some folds, none which affect Washington's endorsement. Very good.
George Washington Autograph Document Signed in the third person. One page, 6.25" x 3.25", [Mount Vernon], February 13, 1768. The body of this manuscript, entirely in Washington's hand, incorporates his name and reads, "Borrowed and received from George Washington the sum of Ten pounds Currency which I promise to return when demanded." The signature of "T.Ellzey" is below Washington's statement.
A difference exists in the way Washington writes his name in the third person and the way he signs his name to other documents as a signature. This early example of his handwriting, however, fits in nicely with other examples of the late 1760s. In particular, the second "g" in "George" matches many other "g"s written by him. Thomasin Ellzey's signature, which is rare, matches other examples of his signature provided to us by the Fairfax County, Virginia, Circuit Court Historical Records.
Ellzey, the borrower of Washington's "Ten pounds Currency", was a vestryman from nearby Truro Parish, nineteen or so miles from Mt. Vernon, and a hunting companion of Washington's. (Thomasin's brother, William, was also a friend of Washington, as well as his lawyer). Washington's diary entry for February 12, 1768, states that Thomasin Ellzey was a member of Washington's fox hunting party that day (they caught two foxes according to the diary). Washington's ledger for the next day, the 13th, records this loan of ten pounds to Ellzey.
Overall browning of the laid paper with an old 1" split in the lower right corner. Near fine. The document is tipped-in to a larger page (12" x 6"). Very good condition with Washington's name clear and prominent. Included is a nineteenth century hand-colored engraving of Washington with a sword in his left hand.
George Washington Clipped Signature "G:o Washington" on an irregularly cut slip of paper, 3.25" x 1". One word from the document from which the signature was excised remains above the "G". Boldly signed; fine. Matted and framed with a large image of the first president holding a sword to an overall size of 18.4" x 24.75".
[George Washington] John A. Washington Autograph Letter Signed by four executors of Washington's estate. One page, 8" x 10", "Berry Hill, Jefferson Co., May 1809." The Dismal Swamp is a vast marshy region in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. In 1763, a small group of investors including George Washington purchased 40,000 acres of this terrain. With the help of slave labor, they hoped to drain parts of the land to make room for farms for tobacco and other crops. They also planned to sell timber and wood shingles from the area's dense forests and to profit from roads and canals built through the land to transport commerce. The adventurers soon realized, however, that the task of draining the swamp was impossible and gave up that part of their plan to concentrate on lumbering. They cut much of the cypress trees for use in shipbuilding and the cedars for shingles and other products.
By 1796, Washington had become disappointed in the management of the Dismal Swamp lumber business and contracted to sell his 1/12th share to General Harry "Lighthorse" Lee, father of Robert E. Lee, who never was able to come up with the purchase price. A few weeks before being sent to debtor's prison, General Lee contacted the executors of George Washington's will through his attorneys, in hopes of settling this long-standing debt. Washington's executors--half-brothers Samuel Washington and John A. Washington, and nephews Bushrod Washington and Lawrence Lewis--agreed to Lee's proposition and issued a printed circular of this original handwritten letter signed by all four executors. It reads in full:
"Gentlemen, Your letter by post of May 13th came safe to hand, In which you state, that our testator, some time before his death sold his Dismal Swamp property to Gen. Lee, without, however, having made a deed for the same. Some part of the consideration money was paid, but the exact amount is not now recollected. You state also that Gen. Lee has lately proposed to recind [sic] the contract, without requiring a return of the money paid by him; and believing that the property is likely to become very valuable, and could now be sold for a good price, it is your decided opinion that his offer ought to be accepted. Upon this subject we pretend to have very little knowledge, consequently our opinions must be made up from the argument urged in your letter. It will therefore only be necessary for us to say that we concur with you in opinion, and do consent as far as we are interested that the proposition which you state to have been made by Gen. Lee should be accepted of. We are, gentlemen, yr ob serv'ts. Jno. A. Washington, The honl Bushrod Washington & Lawrence Lewis esq, Samuel Washington."
The executors held public sales of some of the livestock at Mount Vernon before Martha Washington's death in 1802, and they began selling the remainder of the listed property at sales shortly thereafter. Final settlement of the estate was not achieved until June 21, 1847. There are two recorded copies of the printed circular of this letter: one in the Library of Congress, and one in the Massachussetts Historical Society in Boston. We offer here, the original handwritten letter in outstanding condition, with little more than faint toning to reveal its age. An important and highly desirable collectible in very fine condition!
John Adams Manuscript Document, Partially in His Hand, Signed "J. Adams". Two and one-fourth pages, 7.5" x 12.5", June 11, 1769, Suffolk County [Boston]. Adams, the future second president, writes the beginning twenty-two lines (one-half page) of this legal document. In part: "George the Third, by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith He. To the Sheriff of our County of Suffolk, his Under Sheriff or Deputy Greeting. We command you that you summon Benjamin Faneuil Jnr of Boston in the County of Suffolk, Merchant if he may be found in your Precinct to appear before our Justice of our Inferior Court of Common Pleas . . . to answer to Joseph Warren of Boston . . . [for] demands against . . . a certain dwelling house". The next one and three-fourths pages, which contains additional details on the case, is written in another hand and signed "Ezek. Goldthwait Cler." Adams has signed his name near the end of the document.
After graduating from Harvard, John Adams (1735-1826) became a lawyer, against his father's wish that he become a minister. His early career as a lawyer helped him lay the foundation for his later work as an American revolutionary leader and president. The plaintiff in this case, Joseph Warren (1741-1775), was a wealthy Boston physician who had been acquainted with Adams since 1764. Warren's later radical activities and associations with Samuel Adams and John Hancock helped provoke the revolutionary war. He was killed at Bunker Hill. The defendant in this case, Benjamin Faneuil (1702-1785), was the brother of Peter Faneuil, the wealthy Boston merchant who donated Faneuil Hall to Boston. When Peter died in 1743, Benjamin inherited his wealth. A Loyalist when the American Revolution began, he soon sailed for England and never returned to America. All text is bold and clear, including Adams' signature. Toned with light soiling and slight separations at fold intersections. Includes docketing on last page. Near fine.
Thomas Jefferson Autograph Endorsement Signed approving the appointment of a lighthouse keeper. One page, 7.5" x 12" (sight), with an integral address cover, n.p., May 6, 1805. Jefferson's endorsement appears at the close of a manuscript copy of a letter by James Day "keeper of the Light House in Squam in Gloucester County of Essex & State of Massachusetts, being aged & infirm & not able to attend to my duty... Do hereby express a desire to resign my office, & my son George Day having kept the Light under me ever since its establishment... I would beg leave to recommend him as a fit and suitable person to take my place..." Jefferson writes: "The appointment of George Day is approved. Th Jefferson May 6. 05." Beneath Jefferson's endorsement is a lengthy postscript explaining the situation and requesting prompt expedition of the appointment being that "his recommendation has been several months at Genl Lincoln's office Boston...".
The letter is framed in a simple wooden frame, and appears fragile. A window has been cut on the verso through which can be viewed the address panel made out to Albert Gallatin, and an Autograph Docket Signed by Gallatin instructing "Mr. Lincoln to be apprised that the President has appointed George Day keeper of the light..." This open window has been covered in celo tape which has yellowed and become affixed to the address panel. Unexamined out of the frame, but overall appearance is good with even toning.
Thomas Jefferson Document Signed "Th. Jefferson" as the third president. One vellum page, 15" x 18", March 3, 1809, "Washington City". This document appoints James Miller "Major in the first Regiment of Infantry". Engraved with patriotic and martial vignettes and affixed with a blind-embossed U.S. paper seal. James Miller (1776-1851) later became a hero of the War of 1812 and was promoted to brigadier general. In 1819, he was appointed the first governor of the newly formed Arkansas Territory where he helped pass a bill moving the territory's capital from Arkansas Post to Little Rock. This document is countersigned by Acting Secretary of War John Kilby Smith. Some dampstaining along a fold just below Jefferson's signature barely touching the bottom tip of the "J" and resulting in a very small amount of paper loss which does not affect the signature. Vellum is slightly wrinkled with very minor mounting remnants in two of the document's corners. A nice presidential signature worthy of display; very good.
[Thomas Jefferson] Henry Lee IV Autograph Letter Signed. Three pages, 8" x 13.25", July 28, 1827, Nashville [Tennessee], to Supreme Court Associate Justice John McLean concerning the possible only male nephew of Thomas Jefferson. In part: "There is a boy going to school . . . with whose family I board, who is said to be, & I believe is, the nephew of the great Jefferson. He is about 12 years of age, not week growing and only middling in his promise. He is said to be the only child of Randolph Jefferson, the only brother of Thomas, by his wife Miss Pryor or Prior, who conceived him but is now dead. The boy is named John Randolph Jefferson & speaks of his Uncle Tom, and is living with Mrs. Prior, his maternal grandmother, in this neighborhood. . . . Being that he is the only male of the family bearing the name of Jefferson, his condition and prospects are objects worthy of general interest and with me of particular solicitude - for in him I think I see all that remains, palpable to the general feeling of the great author of the Declaration of Independence for the country. It is a pity he should be so obscure." Randolph Jefferson was Thomas Jefferson's only brother to reach adulthood. In 1809, Randolph married his second wife, Mitchie Pryor. They had one son, John Jefferson, whom Lee found living in obscurity. Five years later, author Henry Lee published Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Henry Lee IV (1787-1837) was the son of Maj. Gen. Light Horse Harry Lee and the half-brother of Robert E. Lee. An author and historian with a fascination for Thomas Jefferson, Lee spent his final years traveling abroad and dying in Paris two months after writing the 1836 letter. With folds, rough right edge, and small tear at the seal, yet very good.
James Madison and James Monroe Four Language Ship's Papers Signed "James Madison", and countersigned "Jas Monroe" as Secretary of State. One partly-printed page, 21" x 16.5", December 19, 1812, Boston. The document, printed in French, Spanish, English, and Dutch, authorizes passage for John F. Stevens, "master or commander of the schooner called Good Intent", then in port at Boston, bound for Brazil and laden with "Butter, Fish". Two blind-embossed paper seals are intact along the left margin. The document is age-toned with some separation at folds, including some separation at the fold intersection just below the "J" in "James Madison". Overall fragile, though near good condition.
James Monroe Autograph Letter Signed as the fifth president. One page, 7.5" x 9.5" (sight), November 21, 1821, Washington, D.C., to "Ch: Fenton Mercer", asking for a real estate favor for former New Jersey Senator John Rutherfurd. In part: "Mr. Rutherford, formerly a Senator of the U.States from Jersey, & with whom I had the pleasure to serve, & for whom I have great respect & esteem, will present to you this letter. He has an interest at Sn*****'s Gap, beyond the mountain, in some land which I understand belonged to your uncle Colonel George Mercer, now in the occupancy of a Mr. Cashman, which forms the motive of his visit thither at this time. It occurred to me that you might be able to give him useful information on that subject, & being well satisfied that you would take an interest in rendering any service in your power, to so respectable & worthy a character, I offered to give him this introduction to you."
Sn*****'s Gap, also known as William's Gap and Snicker's Gap, was a Native American trail long before it became the beginning of the first stone paved road built by the U.S. Government in the early nineteenth century. The land at Sn*****'s Gap which President Monroe inquires about was very valuable. When this letter was written, the recipient, Charles Fenton Mercer, had been a Virginia congressman for four years. Later from 1831-1839, he served as chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals. In addition to being a politician, John Rutherfurd was also a land surveyor often employed by the U.S. government. The letter is matted and framed with an image of President Monroe to an overall size of 19.5" x 17". Though it has not been examined outside of the frame, age toning and some discolorations near the edges can be seen. Very good.
John Tyler Autograph Letter Signed as U.S. senator. One page, 8" x 9.25", May 5, 1832, Washington. Although unknown, the recipient is likely a Virginia lawyer representing navy veteran Neagle[?] who asserts that he lost his eyesight during his service in the navy. In part: "I called on the Secretary of the Navy [Levi Woodbury] and called his attention to Neagle's[?] case. The enclosed answer presents the objections to allowing it. No difficulty will or can exist if proof is furnished showing the extent of the wound-If he lost an eye in the service, or if by reason of wounds on the head his eye sight has failed and he will exhibit proof of this, there will be no difficulty in his case. It gives me pleasure to afford you any assistance which my stature here enables me to render." Tyler was serving as U.S. senator from Virginia at the time he wrote this letter (nine years before his election as William Henry Harrison's vice president and subsequent presidency). Irregular left edge with some chipping along the right. Slightly faded ink.
Julia G. Tyler Autograph Letter Signed. Two pages, two sided, 5" x 8", n.p., August 15, 1888. John Tyler's second wife, Julia Gardiner Tyler, married the president in 1844, acting as First Lady for the last year of his term. Penned less than a year before her death, Mrs. Tyler comments on her financial difficulties in a letter to Mr. Prate. It reads in part: "I enclose on my [church] subscription acct. a check for $100 dated Sept. 6th which is the best I can do at present . . . my expenses more than take up all I receive from month to month so that I am sorely puzzled to make, with the best economy I can practice, both ends meet."
The Tylers married in secrecy and by all accounts loved each other very much. Despite the 30-year difference in their ages, she bore him seven children. Following President Tyler's death in 1862, Julia began having financial difficulties. Though never a wealthy widow, Julia was determined to have her children educated in Canada and Germany, which further depleted her finances. After the Panic of 1873, Julia resorted to selling her New York property and returned to the Tyler's plantation home, Sherwood Forest. Following a pension award given to Mary Todd Lincoln as a president's widow, Julia Tyler launched her own pension campaign and in 1881 she was granted received $1,200 a year, which was later raised to $5,000 a year. Accompanied by a 3.75" x 5.5" engraved color bust of the First Lady. Letter is bright and clean, in very fine condition.
James Buchanan Document Signed as fifteenth president and countersigned by Secretary of the Treasury Howell Cobb. One vellum page, 20" x 15.5", November 7, 1860, "City of Washington". This partly printed document, signed five months before Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, appoints Horace J. Gambrill "Third Lieutenant in the Revenue Service of the United States". "James Buchanan" is printed in large letters at the top above the patriotic vignette. With folds; near fine.
Abraham Lincoln Document Signed "Abraham Lincoln", countersigned by Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase immediately below Lincoln's signature. One page, 16.75" x 11", April 13, 1861, "City of Washington". This partly printed document appoints Stephen Brooks "Surveyor of the Customs for the District of Middletown in the State of Connecticut". Both signatures are boldly written, with flattened folds; fine.
Abraham Lincoln Document Signed "Abraham Lincoln" as the sixteenth president. One page, 19" x 15", July 29, 1861, "City of Washington". This partly printed document appoints Stephen Brooks "Surveyor of the Customs for the District of Middletown in the State of Connecticut" and is countersigned by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase ("S P Chase"). "Abraham Lincoln" is printed in large letters at the top of the document above a patriotic vignette. Lincoln's signature is large and clear. The document has flattened folds; fine.
Abraham Lincoln Autograph Endorsement Signed "A. Lincoln" as president. One page, 3.5" x 5.5", May 26, 1862, [Washington, D.C.], excised from a larger document. In this endorsement, President Lincoln asks Attorney General Edward Bates for his opinion on a claim left-over from the previous Buchanan administration concerning Washington Aqueduct contractor William H. DeGroot. In part: "Will the Attorney General please give his opinion whether this claim of William H. De Groot should be paid, the resolution of Congress to the contrary notwithstanding-". At the bottom of the endorsement is written in another hand, "6 June 1862/ Opinion Drd."
William DeGroot was contracted to deliver bricks to the Washington Aqueduct, which was begun in 1853 and designed to deliver water to Washington, D.C. DeGroot was unable to carry-out the contract and the government refused to pay him. Oddly, he appealed for full payment. Congress assigned Secretary of the Treasury Howell Cobb to investigate and in 1858, Cobb decided that DeGroot was not entitled to prospective profits, but he was entitled to a partial claim for work done. In June 1860, after receiving his partial claim, DeGroot audaciously came back to the government seeking the full contract amount, plus some. This time, the matter was turned over to Secretary of War John Buchanan Floyd who awarded DeGroot an additional $119,000. The New York Times, however, exposed the payment and, after a great public outcry, the money was never paid. (Later in December 1860, President Buchanan asked for Secretary of War Floyd's resignation following scandals involving Floyd's corruption with government contractors [including the DeGroot scandal].) Not one to give up, DeGroot comes back here to ask for the rest of his claim. This endorsement, with mounting remnants on the verso, has some very minor stains; fine.
Abraham Lincoln: Important Autograph Manuscript Page. Twenty-three lines in Lincoln's own handwriting from his last State of the Union address to Congress. One page, 8.25" x 13.75", on plain lined paper in ink, no place [Washington, D.C.], no date [December, 1864], being page forty-four (numbered in pencil by a different hand) of Lincoln's own holograph copy. It reads, in full: "To this ^again^ [added above the line] should be added the number of all soldiers in the field from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois and California, who, by the laws of those states could not vote away from their homes, and which number can not be less than [Lincoln had not yet inserted the number 90,000]. Nor yet is this all. The number in organized territories is tripple [sic] now what ^it^ [added above the line] was four years ago; while thousands, white and black, join us, as the national arms press back the insurgent lines. So much is shown, affirmatively, and negatively, by the election. It is not material to inquire how the increase has been produced; or to show that it would have been greater but for the war, which is probably true. The important fact remains demonstrated that we have more men now than we had when the war began; that we are not exhausted, nor in process of exhaustion; that we are gaining strength and may if need be maintain the contest indefinitely. This as to men. Material resources are ^now^ [added above the line] more complete, and abundant than ever." [emphasis Lincoln's]. An 8.25" x 4.5" section, consisting of the text between "to enquire" and "contest indefinitely" was lightly glued down to this full page from an identical sheet, covering no writing underneath. One word slightly smeared by the glue, original fold slightly weak (a tape repair on verso), light toning, else fine.
This message was delivered less than one month after Lincoln, running under the National Union party banner, claimed victory in the presidential election over the Democratic "peace" candidate General George B. McClellan, former general-in-chief of the Union army. This was the first time a country had held a national election in the midst of a civil war and the first time certain states allowed soldiers in the field to cast ballots (the army gave Lincoln 70% of their votes). The divided nation had been fighting a brutal "brother against brother" war for well over three years and, for most of 1864, Lincoln's chances of reelection looked grim. Finally, some of the news from the fighting fronts was beginning to give the North a glimmer of hope for a Union victory: General Sherman had taken Atlanta and was marching forcefully to the sea and General Grant had sent General Sheridan to the Shenandoah Valley to deal with CSA General Jubal Early. Lincoln was ready and willing to fight the war to its finish and to complete his goal of abolishing slavery by getting the 13th amendment through Congress.
Research shows that Lincoln began working on this important Annual Message just a week after the November 8th election by writing telegrams to several governors asking them to "[p]lease send, as soon as practicable, exactly, or approximately, the aggregate of votes cast in your State at the late election. It is desired with reference to the forthcoming Message." Lincoln read his first draft during a cabinet meeting on November 25th and then, on December 3rd, he called a special cabinet meeting to read them the final version; the plan was to send it to Congress on the sixth. Lincoln wrote this address in longhand and it was then sent to be printed for distribution to the members of the house and senate. Unlike the live worldwide media coverage given to the president's personal delivery of the yearly State of the Union address today, in Lincoln's era, the president did not read his message to Congress himself. A newspaper reporter from California named Noah Brooks wrote of the December 6th joint session of Congress: "Precisely at one o'clock yesterday the private secretary of the President appeared [John Hay] at the House of Representatives with the annual message of the president... in a few minutes, Clerk [of the House Edward] McPherson, in a loud and clear voice, took up the document and began..." Another contemporary report stated: "A complete silence pervaded the vast hall and the breathless, crowded galleries"
In the message, Lincoln summarizes the current state of affairs in different areas of the government, the nation, and the world: foreign affairs satisfactory, financial affairs administered successfully; national banking system acceptable to most; admission of Nevada as state completed; territories growing; and Arkansas and Louisiana have organized loyal state governments. He strongly recommends that Congress reconsider and pass the 13th amendment abolishing slavery [which they would in 1865]. The speech ends with: "In stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it." The New York Times described the message as "straightforward and business-like" while the London Times called "the tenour... decidedly warlike." Later that evening, a crowd assembled at the White House to serenade and congratulate him on his message. The New York Tribune of December 8, 1864, reports on his impromptu address to the group: "FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: I believe I shall never be old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have anything [nothing?] to talk about. [Laughter and cheering.] I have no good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news to tell. We have talked of elections until there is nothing more to say about them. The most interesting news we now have is from Sherman. We all know where he went in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. [Cheers and cries, 'He'll come out all right.'] I will now close by proposing three cheers for Gen. Sherman and the army."
A 1952-dated, notarized affidavit accompanies this lot describing the chain of ownership for this manuscript, from its original owner William P. Doyle, who was Indian Affairs Commissioner under Lincoln, through to the current owner. Also included is a 1948 letter from the Abraham Lincoln Association mentioning Basler's appreciation and a Photostat of page forty-three of this same Message to Congress, owned at one time by the same person.
Carl Sandburg, in his book Lincoln Collector (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc, 1949), explains how a precious few of the original pages in Lincoln's holograph have survived to this day: "Of President Lincoln's Annual Message to Congress in December of 1864, several manuscript sheets were given to various persons by the Superintendent of Public Printing, J. D. Defrees..." (page 190). Sandburg goes on to state that three of these manuscript pages were contained in the legendary Oliver R Barrett collection (later sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries in 1952). Basler, in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln Volume VIII, notes eleven known fragments of the original manuscript extant, including this one (pages 136-153). The most recent of these fragments to appear on the market was Lot 119 of the October 2002 Forbes Collection of American Historical Documents at Christie's where the eleven-line manuscript (ex Philip D. Sang) sold for $251,500 (with BP). That example was the top half of page thirty-nine. There is no way to predict when the next offering of one of these manuscripts will take place so please bid accordingly. The phrase is, perhaps, overused but this lot truly does represent a "rare opportunity to own a piece of history."
Abraham Lincoln Document Signed, together with Andrew Johnson Document Signed (Stamped). (1) "Abraham Lincoln" signature on one vellum page, 17.5" x 13.75", March 7, 1865, "City of Washington". This partly printed document appoints Horace J. Gambrill "Third Lieutenant in the Revenue Service of the United States". Countersigned by Secretary of the Treasury George Harrington. William P. Fessenden resigned as Lincoln's secretary of the treasury four days before this document was signed. Later on March 9, Lincoln appointed Hugh McCulloch as secretary of the treasury. In the meantime, George Harrington served for six days as ad interim secretary, adding "ad int." to his signature. "Abraham Lincoln" is printed in large letters at the top of the document above the patriotic vignette. Lincoln's signature is clear. Toned with flattened folds; near fine.
(2) The "Andrew Johnson" signature of the seventeenth president was accomplished by a steel stamp as usual for this period; with countersignature by Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch. One vellum page, 15.75" x 13.75", June 4, 1866, "City of Washington". This partly printed document appoints Horace L. Gambrill "Second Lieutenant in the Revenue Service of the United States". "Andrew Johnson" is printed in large letters at the top above the patriotic vignette. With folds and some light paper discoloration; near fine.
[Abraham Lincoln] James Gordon Bennett Sr. Autograph Notes, Unsigned. Two sheets with a total of five and one-third written pages: (1) four integral pages, written on all four, 6" x 7.5"; and (2) four integral pages, written on one and one-third pages, 7.5" x 12", n.d., n.p. The autograph notes are for a newspaper story Bennett, the founder and publisher of the New York Herald, was writing. He has notes relating to the Lincoln cabinet and the roles that Solomon Chase, William Seward, and Gideon Welles would play in the new administration. Bennett writes, "the coming civil war will be violent and bloody . . . it will be as bloody as Robespierre . . . same as the religious wars in England & France." The notes also mention "Jeff Davis", Van Buren, Buchanan, and of course, Lincoln.
The Herald, under the elder Bennett's control, was officially independent in its politics, but supported James Buchanan as tensions rose over slavery. Bennett and the paper endorsed John C. Breckinridge for the 1860 presidential campaign, then later shifted support to John Bell. Bennett promoted George B. McClellan as a candidate in 1864, but endorsed no candidate. Although he opposed Abraham Lincoln, Bennett took the lead to turn the president into a martyr after his assassination. Slight weakness at the folds, light toning, and one spot of ink burn, else very fine. Extremely interesting.
Andrew Johnson and William Seward Signed Pardon. Three pages, 10.75" x 16.5", July 5, 1865. Mostly printed document granting L. Q. Washington "a full pardon and amnesty for all offences by him committed, arising from participation, direct or implied, in the said rebellion." Washington is granted these terms under the condition he never owns another slave or participates in any form of slave trade. Andrew Johnson became the seventeenth president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He led the initial process of reconstruction in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Johnson's (and Lincoln's) secretary of state, William Seward, was best known for his acquisition of the Alaskan territory from Russia. Document does have wear and tearing along the folds making it somewhat delicate; however, the text is still as clear and easy to read. Very good condition.
Andrew Johnson Document Signed "Andrew Johnson" as the seventeenth president and countersigned by Secretary of Treasury Hugh McCulloch immediately below Johnson's signature. One page, 16.5" x 11.25", July 13, 1865, "City of Washington". This partly printed document appoints Stephen Brooks "Surveyor of the Customs for the District of Middletown in the State of Connecticut to take effect from & after July 26, 1865". Minor separations occurring at the folds, with tape repairs thereat on verso. Small spot of discoloration at bottom left corner, else very good.
Ulysses S. Grant Document Signed "U. S. Grant" as president and countersigned by "Geo. M. Robeson" as secretary of the navy. One vellum page partially printed, 15.25" x 19", Washington, D.C., October 26, 1870. This document appoints George T. Douglass "Sailmaker in the Navy" and is engraved with military vignettes and affixed with dark blue U. S. Navy seal. Matted to an overall size of 16" x 20". Folds and creases with attractive Grant signature; fine.
Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Note Authorizing a Congratulatory Letter to Queen Victoria Signed "U. S. Grant". One page, partially printed, 7.75" x 10", Washington, December 30, 1875. In part: "I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to a congratulatory letter addressed to Queen Victoria dated this day, and signed by me." Smoothed folds and in very fine condition.
Ulysses S. Grant Pardon Signed "U. S. Grant" as the eighteenth president. One page, 7.75" x 10", February 15, 1876, Washington, with a large, clear signature. In this partially printed document, President Grant authorizes "a Warrant for the pardon of J. W. Bentley." Light toning, two mailing folds with a tiny separation thereat; near fine condition.
Ulysses S. Grant Naval Appointment Signed "U. S. Grant" as president and countersigned by "Geo. M. Robeson" as Secretary of the Navy. One vellum page partially printed, 15.75" x 19.75", Washington, D.C., January 9, 1877. This document, written two months before President Grant left office, appoints James Fulton "Pay Director in the Navy" and is engraved with maritime and military vignettes and affixed with dark blue U. S. Navy seal. With folds; fine.
Ulysses S. Grant Autograph Letter Signed. Two pages, 5" x 5.75", New York City, March 14, 1881. In his declining years, Civil War leader and former President Ulysses S. Grant responded to a letter written by one Captain Miller, possibly United States Senator John Franklin Miller (a major general in the Civil War), who had been appointed to Congress just ten days before this letter was penned.
Miller queries the former president about the possibility of his having given an endorsement for one gentleman, as well as the prospects of another becoming a district attorney. Grant writes, in full: "My dear Capt. Miller: I have your letter of the 12th inst. I am sure I do not know Mr. Wood. I have no recollection of giving him any endorsement for any position. I have received many letters from all parts of the country to give endorsements for people I do not know, or do not recollect, but have been very careful about giving letters. It is possible that J.D. White - whom I do know and esteem - may have written to me in behalf of Mr. Wood, and I may have endorsed, on his say, Mr. Wood. But I do not recollect such an occurrence and am inclined to think it will prove that I have given no such endorsement. I did write to Mr. Garfield about Col. Evans, and I spoke to President Garfield in person about him. Before going to Washington last week I made special note in my memorandum book of this matter and spoke from the book. Col. Evans is at liberty to use this letter in his behalf if it will help him, and I add that if I have in any manner [injured?] Mr. Wood I do not want it to prejudice the claim of the Col. for the office of Dist. Atty. Very Truly Yours, U.S. Grant."
Most likely, the man Capt. Miller is asking about is Sterling Alexander Martin Wood, a former Confederate general who served as a lawyer, politician, and university professor after the war. Grant also mentions "Col. Evans," who was seeking an appointment as a district attorney at the time. We believe he is referring to Robert G. Evans, who was appointed U.S. district attorney for Minnesota by President McKinley following Garfield's assassination just six months after this letter was written. J. D. White is unknown, possibly James Douglas White, an Illinois attorney. Letter is somewhat age toned with minor fold wear. Large signature. Fine condition.
Frances F. Cleveland Autograph Letter Signed and Autograph Note Signed as First Lady. Eight pages (including two integral blanks), 4" x 6", on Executive Mansion letterhead, Washington, D.C., February 11, 1894. During her second tenure as First Lady (1893-97), Mrs. Cleveland sent this letter of condolence to Emma Bouvier Childs upon the death of her husband George W. Childs, much loved editor and owner of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. Founded in 1836, the Public Ledger was the first daily penny paper in Philadelphia. In 1864, George W. Childes and Anthony J. Drexel purchased the newspaper and turned it into one of the most influential journals in the country. Childs was also widely known for his public spirit and philanthropy.
Here, the First Lady offers sympathy and encouragement to Mrs. Childs. In part: "I had never thought of this world without Mr. Childs in it-and it is not easy to adjust my mind and my heart to the change. I need not surely tell you how my heart aches for you in this separation." Letter is moderately age toned and in fine condition. Accompanied by a 4.5" x 3.5" Executive Mansion note card dated December 5, 1888. Mrs. Cleveland thanks Mr. Billau for a donation to the fund for the American Church in Berlin. Note card bears heavy irregular age toning; pin hole at upper center; glue remnants on verso. Good condition.
William McKinley Military Appointment Signed as the twenty-fifth president and countersigned by Secretary of War Russell A. Alger. One vellum page, 14.5" x 20.5", July 11, 1898, "City of Washington". This document appoints Elias Chandler "Captain of Infantry". Engraved with patriotic and martial vignettes and affixed with a blue U.S. War Office seal. Chandler (1856-1909), who had commanded the First Arkansas Regiment during the Spanish-American War, retired from the military a major in 1906. Toned without folds; near very fine.
William McKinley Document Signed as president. One vellum page, 15" x 17.5", April 14, 1899, Washington [D.C.], countersigned by Secretary of the Navy John D. Long. This document appoints Henry W. Carpenter "First Lieutenant in the Marine Corps" and is engraved with maritime and martial vignettes. Affixed with a dark blue U.S. Navy seal. Folded edges and some wrinkling; near fine.
William McKinley Document Signed as president. One vellum page, 15" x 17", February 9, 1901, Washington [D.C.], countersigned by Secretary of the Navy John D. Long. This document appoints Henry W. Carpenter "Captain in the Marine Corps" and is engraved with maritime and martial vignettes. Affixed with a dark blue U.S. Navy seal. Folded edges and some wrinkling; near fine.
Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft Signed Military Appointment. One vellum page, 15.5" x 19.5", March 24, 1904, "City of Washington", signed "Theodore Roosevelt" as the twenty-sixth president and "Wm H Taft" as secretary of war; both signatures are large and bold. This document appoints Elias Chandler "Major of Infantry". Chandler (1856-1909), who had commanded the First Arkansas Regiment during the Spanish-American War, retired from the military with this rank in 1906. Engraved with patriotic and martial vignettes and affixed with a blue U.S. War Office seal. No folds; near very fine.
Theodore Roosevelt Document Signed as president and countersigned by Acting Secretary of the Navy W. H. Brownson. One page, 16" x 19.5", June 24, 1907, Washington, [D.C.]. This document, affixed with a dark blue U.S. Navy seal, appoints Edwin N. McClellan "Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps". An official Marine Corps appointment with a very nice example of Roosevelt's signature; age-toned with light foxing. The top left corner contains odd marks and stains. Near fine.
Theodore Roosevelt Photograph Inscribed as president and dated January 21, 1909, six weeks before leaving office. With a relaxed countenance, the twenty-sixth president holds a stack of papers as he sits behind a well-organized desk; on the edge of the desk rests a dozen roses. The photograph is affixed to a larger white mat which bears the following inscription: "To Fred Emery/ with the regards of/ Theodore Roosevelt/ Jan 21st 1909". The copyright of the photo studio is in the bottom left corner. Both photograph and mat are framed to an overall size of 15" x 12". Fine.
Theodore Roosevelt Book Signed, "Good luck!/ Theodore Roosevelt" in The Most Interesting American, by Julian Street. New York: The Century Co., [1916], 75 pages, 4" x 7". The signature, located on the front fly-leaf, is clearly written in black ink. Frontispiece portrait of Roosevelt with a printed signature. Some wear on the spine; tight binding. Near fine condition.
William H. Taft Archive includes: William Taft Typed Letter Signed as Secretary of War. Two pages, typed on recto of first page only, 7" x 9", on War Department letterhead, Pointe-au-Pic, Canada, August 10, 1907. The secretary of war writes to Thomas Walsh of Colorado, accepting an invitation to visit as Walsh's houseguest. Light age toning. Fine condition.
William Taft Telegram Sent as President. One page, 7.75" x 6.75", one Western Union Telegraph form, Beverly, Massachusetts, August 18, 1809. the president extends regrets that he is unable to attend the Trans Mississippi Congressional Convention. Moderate age toning; numerous creases; pin hole at upper left corner. Good condition.
William Taft Typed Letter Signed as President. Two pages, typed on recto of first page only, 7" x 9", on White House letterhead, Washington, D.C., April 15, 1912. The president sends thanks to Fred Longnecker of Ohio, for his help in Taft's 1912 re-election campaign. Heavy creases; lightly age toned. Generally very good condition.
William Taft Typed Letter Signed as President. Two pages, typed on recto of first page only, 7" x 9", on White House letterhead, Beverly, Massachusetts, October 22, 1912. Addressed to Dr. Fred Sumner Smith of Connecticut, expressing his thanks for Smith's letter. Accompanied by the original transmittal envelope. Letter is lightly age toned and in fine condition. Envelope shows minor wear and moderate age toning.
William Taft Typed Letter Signed as President. One page, 5.5" x 7.75", on White House letterhead, Washington, D.C., December 9, 1912. To Bishop William Leonard of Cleveland, offering his help in obtaining a Doctor of Divinity degree for another Bishop. Heavy stains along right edge; small areas of paper loss at upper left edge. Good condition.
William Taft Typed Letter Signed one page, 7" x 9", on White House letterhead, Washington, D.C., n.d. Letter has all but faded, leaving just a signature. Heavy age toning.
Warren Harding Archive, Including Two Typed Letters Signed. (1) Typed Letter Secretarially Signed "W. G. Harding" as U.S. senator from Ohio. One page, 8" x 10.5", October 3, 1919, on United States Senate Committee on the Philippines letterhead, to "Hon. Howard Sutherland" of West Virginia. In this letter, Senator Harding tells Senator Sutherland that he is trying to free himself from a previous "tentative promise" so he can accept the invitation and speak at the Parkersburg, West Virginia, Elks Club: "I always enjoy such occasions and Parkersburg appeals to me more than any other engagement proposed, because I can be certain of getting from that City to Washington in time to be present in the Senate on the following day. You may say to Parkersburg that there is a hope that I may be able to accept the invitation." Boldly signed. Also included is a facsimile of the September 29, 1919, invitation for Harding to speak at Parkersburg with two other letters concerning the speaking engagement. (2) Typed Letter Signed "Warren G. Harding" as president. One page, 7" x 9", September 1, 1922, on White House stationery, to Senator Howard Sutherland concerning correspondence with T. C. Davis of West Virginia. Includes other correspondence from and concerning Mr. Davis.
This archive also includes a Harding Memorial Association certificate (6.75" x 9") appointing "K. Huey" an associate member, n.d., with Harding associated vignettes and elaborate border. Plus an engraving of President Harding. All items are near fine to fine.
Calvin Coolidge Autobiography Signed. The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge. New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, [1929], 247 pages. Blue cloth-backed boards, 8vo (6.25" x 9.25"), housed in a slipcase. The signature, located on the limitation page of book number 527 of 1,000, is clearly written in black ink. Overall, the book is clean and the binding is excellent. The previous owner's bookplate affixed to the front pastedown. Fine.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Early Autograph Letter Signed as New York Attorney. Two pages, 5" x 7.5", New York, November 27, 1907.
-Original center fold, minor foxing, else fine. An early handwritten letter, assuring the recipient, that he "shall of course be happy to give any information about you which the bond house may require." Signed "Very sincerely / Franklin D. Roosevelt". Handsomely matted and framed with an early photo to an overall size of 23" x 13.5".
Franklin D. Roosevelt Autograph Letter Signed "FDR" as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. One page, 4" x 6", [Washington, D.C.], circa 1913-1920. In this undated memo FDR writes concerning acquisition of property for the U.S. Navy: "Solicitor Of course we want in time to get this land & it would be good to get it now, but this is a matter which the Sec'y must decide as it is late in the year to ask more money FDR". Paper slightly toned with a central vertical and horizontal fold crease, else very good.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Autograph Letter Signed on Roosevelt & O'Connor letterhead. One page, 8.5" x 11", November 5, 1927. To Mr. Crowley, this handwritten letter refers to the financial dealings of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. FDR refers to checks made payable to Mrs. Edith M. Phelps Stoke and Mrs. L. Fatinas. The letter was received by the Roosevelt & O'Connor law firm and docketed on November 9, 1927. The firm's dated stamp is in the top right corner. Original fold, minor wear, small creases, else near fine.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Autograph Document Signed in the Third Person "F D Roosevelt" Regarding Warm Springs Finances.
One page, 8.5" x 11", on Roosevelt & O'Connor letterhead, New York, September 22, 1928. These being Roosevelt's notes regarding the finances of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. Roosevelt heads his notes, "Paid Cheques for the following bills" and then lists five checks for various paid bills including one each to his secretary Missy Le Hand, his mother Mrs. James Roosevelt, and to himself (thus the third person signature). Written just shortly before his election as governor of New York and shows his active interest and participation in the financial dealings of the foundation. Docketed "File for Warm Springs account". Fine condition with multiple light folds.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Autograph Letter Signed "F.D.R." on Hyde Park-On-Hudson letterhead. Two pages, 5.5" x 9", Poughkeepsie, New York, n.d. To "Doc" (D. Basil O'Connor), New York. FDR writes to his friend and law partner: "Dear Doc-/ I think Louis is right about the importance of this - will you write me as soon as you've seen B.? Also please read enclosed proposed letter to Knight. Julius Henry Cohen drew it. What do you think of the advisability of sending it?/ Yes/ FDR."
In a letter extant to Senator Knight and dated July 19, 1929, Governor Roosevelt invites the senator to join him for an inspection trip of the St. Lawrence and during the inspection tour to discuss important issues. It is possible that this July 19, 1929, letter is the one to which FDR refers in this letter to Doc O'Connor. It's not a stretch to assume that this letter was tied to FDR's desire to open the Midwestern United States to the Atlantic Ocean and harness hydro power from the St. Lawrence River. This move was opposed by the Republican Party and it is likely that FDR was trying to sway Republican Senator Knight, one of his staunchest foes, to see things his way. Slightly toned at the edges, with the usual fold creases, else fine.
Franklin Roosevelt Typed Letter Signed "Franklin D. Roosevelt" as president. One page, 7" x 9", February 24, 1936, Hyde Park, New York, on White House letterhead to Florida Senator Duncan U. Fletcher concerning the controversial Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. In full: "I have carefully checked all the figures and it is really impossible to go ahead with the Canal project very much further under the Work Relief Act of 1935. Therefore, Congressional action is really necessary. Do not forget that the amount was included in the Budget."
The "Canal project" referred to in the letter is the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which stretched through the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Texas and was intended for barge traffic. Originally proposed in the nineteenth century, the canal was strongly opposed by powerful railroad companies who saw the canal as competition. Work on the canal became important when the Great Depression hit and construction jobs were needed. In August 1935, Florida Senator Duncan Fletcher and other canal boosters asked President Franklin for funding. The president complied and allocated $5 million from the Work Relief Act of 1935 for the canal.
Opponents of the project, however, turned public opinion against the canal in late 1935, causing President Roosevelt to distance himself from the controversy. He decided not to give more money from the Work Relief Act of 1935 to the project; instead, he asked Congress to fund it. In this letter, the president notifies Fletcher of his decision, which certainly dismayed Senator Fletcher. Fletcher, Florida's longest serving senator, died four months later. After his death, Congress refused to allocate money to the project and work was discontinued. The canal was finally funded, however, and completed in 1949. The letter is in fine condition.
Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt Signed 1941 Christmas Photo. 10" x 8", matted in 14" x 13.5" folder. An intimate 8" x 10" photo depicting the president and first lady in a casual setting--Eleanor is posed knitting alongside Roosevelt at a table with books. Boldly signed "Franklin D. Roosevelt" with a lightly faded "Eleanor Roosevelt" signature. Minor foxing, else fine.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Signed "Short Snorter" From the Historic Teheran Conference. Signature "Franklin D. Roosevelt" on a series 1935 one dollar silver certificate. 6" x 2.75". This short snorter was likely signed en route to the conference by Roosevelt and several of his aides including Harry Hopkins, Rear Admiral Wilson Brown, Major General E. M. Watson, Dr. Ross McIntire, Admiral William Leahy, and several other military men. The verso of the bill bears the heading "Special Mission 22/11/43".
The Teheran Conference was the first WWII meeting of the "Big Three" countries - Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. It was at this conference that the leading powers planned the final strategy for defeating Nazi Germany and her allies. The conference was held November 28 to December 1, 1943 and was attended by Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt and their combined staffs. Roosevelt has signed his full signature about two thirds of the way down the bill. With fold creases, signatures slightly faded, else very good.
Dwight Eisenhower Archive of Ten Letters, including a denial that he is running for president in 1952 and his feelings on the possibility of war with "our Communist opponents". All are typed letters bearing Eisenhower's signature and were written between 1942 and 1951 concerning his aide-de-camp, Lt. Craig D. Campbell. All are in fine condition.
(1) Typed Letter Signed "DE". One page, 8" x 10.5", September 26, 1949, New York, on "Columbia University Office of the President" stationery, to Craig Campbell. In part: "While I was naturally interested to read the quotation you sent me from the United States News and World Report, I must tell you that that statement is a falsehood manufactured out of whole cloth - I have no intention whatsoever of trying for the Republican Party nomination in 1950 [the '0' is marked through with a handwritten '2'], and I most certainly am not now engaged in any program that has such a purpose. It was heartwarming to have your offer of help if such should be my ambition. However, I assure you that I shall not be calling on you for effort in any such cause." Eisenhower had been pursued by both parties in the 1948 election, but he had remained aloof. Rumors circulated in 1949 that the general would run as a Republican in the 1952 election, but as with all other rumors about his nomination before 1951, Eisenhower denied that he was interested, thus declining Campbell's offer to help with a presidential campaign. Finally after a "Draft Eisenhower" campaign led by leading Republicans and an easy win as a write-in candidate at the New Hampshire primary, Eisenhower decided to run.
(2) Typed Letter Signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower". Two pages, 7" x 10.5", October 10, 1950, n.p., on Eisenhower's personal stationery. Responding to a letter from Campbell asking for advice on a possible job change, Eisenhower responds with a very thoughtful letter full of rational advice: "It would seem to be the part of wisdom merely to work hard, to increase your usefulness to the company . . . and . . . to attempt to develop your talents and qualifications along lines that you have already started." Eisenhower also adds his thoughts on the threat of war with "our Communist opponents": "My own feeling, however, is that our Communist opponents do not wish to force a global war at this time; if one should come, I think it will be the result of an accident or a miscalculation and not as a result of deliberate intent. This conclusion could change as the months go by but, as of this moment, I believe that most students of war would agree with this estimate. Consequently, I will not belabor the point further."
(3) Typed Letter Secretarially Signed "P.S./ Send letter to Mrs. Eisenhower by next pouch./ DE". One page, November 6, 1942, on "Allied Force Headquarters/ Office of the Commander-in-Chief" stationery.
(4) Typed Letter Signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower". One page, 6" x 8", May 31, 1943, on "Allied Force Headquarters/ Office of the Commander-in-Chief" stationery. This letter is written to Campbell's parents in Austin, Texas, concerning their son's capture and imprisonment in a German P.O.W. camp. Campbell was imprisoned for twenty-two months at Oflag 64, the German P.O.W. camp at Szubin, Poland.
(5) Typed Letter Signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower" as "General of the Army, U.S. Army". One page, October 8, 1945, on "Headquarters/ U.S. Forces, European Theater/ Office of the Commanding General" stationery.
(6) Typed Letter Signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower". One page, October 21, 1946, on "War Department/ The Chief of Staff/ Washington" stationery.
(7) Typed Letter Signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower". One page, March 27, 1947, on "War Department/ The Chief of Staff/ Washington" stationery.
(8) Typed Letter Signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower". One page, June 26, 1947, on "War Department/ The Chief of Staff/ Washington" stationery.
(9)Typed Letter Secretarially Signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower". One page, December 31, 1947, on "United States Army/ The Chief of Staff" stationery. With some children's scribbles.
(10) Typed Letter Signed "DE". One page, July 18, 1951, on Eisenhower's personal stationery.
Dwight Eisenhower Archive, including a compassionate autograph letter signed notifying the parents of his aide-de-camp that their son, Lieutenant Craig D. Campbell, is missing. Also with an inscribed signed photo and related letters, all concerning General Eisenhower's aide.
(1) Autograph Letter Signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower". Two pages, 6" x 8", April 12 [1943], on "Allied Force Headquarters/ Office of the Commander-in-Chief" letterhead. This sympathetic letter, both candid and hopeful, is written to Lt. Campbell's parents, notifying them that their son is missing. It reads, "Your son Craig has been missing in action for some days. I've had the best possible searches made of the areas in which he was last seen, but he, and the company of infantry that he was accompanying, has not been found. My personal belief is that he is a prisoner of war, but this is only conjecture. You cannot know how sadly I write these lines. Craig was not only my personal A. D. C., but my favorite young man in these forces. Sometime in late March he and I paid a visit to the front. Because he'd never had an opportunity really to live with soldiers under campaign conditions, I left him with a reserve division, just to get that experience. He was keen to do it, and we agreed he was to stay there three to four weeks. Later that division went in the front line and Craig went along. During an advance he and the company he was with became separated from the remainder of the battalion, and that's all we know of the circumstances. Needless to say I will forward to you by radio any news I may get of him. In the meantime, I hope that you will not become too despondent, because I believe there is a definite chance that he is a prisoner." Lieutenant Craig D. Campbell (1915-2001) began serving as Brigadier General Eisenhower's aide in 1941. He accompanied the general on trips, arranged for transportation and accommodations, and managed appointments and routine correspondence. In June 1943, Campbell was taken prisoner by the Nazis. For twenty-two months he was imprisoned at Oflag 64, the German P.O.W. camp at Szubin, Poland. During that time he desperately tried to keep his close association with Eisenhower secret, but finally, after eighteen months, he was discovered. During the next four months, though, Nazi Germany crumbled and Oflag 64 was abandoned, leaving the P.O.W.s in the care of the liberating Russians. After Campbell resigned from the military at the end of World War II, he and the future president continued to correspond. Fine.
(2) Inscribed Photo Signed, 6.5" x 9", n.d. [ca. 1943], n.p. Black and white photo showing General Eisenhower in military uniform standing before a U.S. flag, inscribed, "To Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Campbell,/ parents of my A. D. C. Lt. Craig Campbell./ Dwight D. Eisenhower". Fine.
(3) Postal Telegram, June 11, 1943: "Confirmation now received through the International Red Cross that your son First Lieutenant Craig D. Campbell is a prisoner of war of the German Government." In original transmittal envelope. Fine.
(4) Colonel Thomas D. Drake Autograph Letter Signed to Mr. and Mrs. Campbell offering them "an idea on the life Craig leads" at Oflag 64. Included are "two mimeographs" which described life at Oflag 64. Both, which include several typed pages signed by Col. Drake and dated November 24, 1944, Washington, D.C., contain fascinating information on life in the prison camp. Fine.
(5) Mamie Eisenhower Autograph Letter Signed, two pages, June 22, 1943, Washington, D.C., to "Lt. Campbell" in response to a letter Campbell had sent her. In part: "I, too am sorry we have not met but I know you are helping a lot to keep 'My darling' in good feather. Needless to say we 'gals' at home miss you all and will be mighty glad when all this war is over." In original transmittal envelope; fine.
(6) Two Western Union telegrams: One from Mrs. Eisenhower, April 4, 1945, to Mr. and Mrs. Campbell following Lt. Campbell's release from P.O.W. camp: "Friends saw Craig at Army Headquarters in Italy April 2 and report him in excellent health and spirits"; the other from Colonel Ernest Lee, March 28, 1945, stating, "All of Craig's coworkers and friends join in your happiness at the news of his release." Both with separation along some folds; near very good.
(7) Mamie Eisenhower Autograph Letter Signed, one page, April 25, 1945, Washington, D.C., to Mrs. Campbell, concerning Craig's arrival in the Capital City: "This A.M. I hear he passed thru Washington . . . I know you are a happy mama to-day." In original transmittal envelope. Fine.
John F. Kennedy Typed Letter Signed as president to California Governor Pat Brown. One page, 6.75" x 9", August 28, 1962, Washington, on White House letterhead. The president has struck through the typed salutation, "Dear Governor Brown", and written above it, "Pat:" In part: "My thanks to you and your associates for your most hospitable welcome to me on my recent visit to California for the groundbreaking ceremonies at San Luis damsite. It gave me great pleasure to participate in that impressive event. . . . It is particularly heartening to know that this is the result of the close cooperation of State and Federal agencies." Some words have been underlined in red ink.
The groundbreaking ceremony of the San Luis Dam was held on August 18, 1962, and was attended by several thousands of people, including President Kennedy and Governor Brown. The dam was completed in 1967. Stamped on the verso, "Received/ Governor's Office/ 1962 Aug 31 AM 9 07". This letter has some separation at the center horizontal fold. A small amount of paper loss from the top left corner due to a staple. Near fine.
[John F. Kennedy] 100 Exciting Minutes: President John F. Kennedy's Visit to Los Alamos, New Mexico. Official photo book with comb binding, 10" x 8", Public Relations Office: University of California, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. This photo book contains over sixty images of President Kennedy's brief, though historic, December 7, 1962, visit to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, beginning with his arrival aboard a Marine helicopter. Three plastic spines have been broken, though the book is still firmly bound. A fascinating piece of Cold War history in near fine condition.
First Ladies Archive. Wonderful collection of items signed by a number of America's First Ladies, including Eleanor Roosevelt (ALS as First Lady; TLS as First Lady), Lou Henry Hoover (TLS), Lucretia Garfield (Card Signed), Mary Lord Harrison (Card Signed; ALS), Edith Bolling Wilson (Card Signed), Mamie Doud Eisenhower (TLS with lengthy Autograph Note; TLS; Card Signed as First Lady), Rose Elizabeth Cleveland (ALS), Pat Nixon (Photograph Inscribed as First Lady; Card Signed and Inscribed as First Lady), Grace Coolidge (TLS; Clipped Free Frank), Helen Taft (ANS), Frances Cleveland (ALS), Nellie Grant Sartoris (ALS), and Edith Kermit Roosevelt (ALS; Card Signed). Many items are accompanied by original transmittal envelopes. Lot also includes two unsigned 8" x 10" photographs (FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt). All items are in very good to fine condition.
David Ben-Gurion Typed Letter Signed as Prime Minister to Moshe Dayan. Four one-sided pages, 8.5" x 11", typed in Hebrew on Prime Minister's letterhead, Jerusalem, January 27, 1958. Moshe Dayan was an important Israeli military leader and politician who served as a fighting symbol to the world for the new state of Israel He served variously as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, defense minister, foreign minister, and minister of agriculture. In late 1957, Dayan requested that he be released from his position as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. After a great deal of consideration, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion sent this personal letter to Dayan, revealing his deep appreciation and admiration for his friend and compatriot.
It reads in part: "Dear Moshe, During the last months I thought over and hesitated if I should accept your request to release you from your duty as the commander in chief of the IDF. Although you extended in this difficult and responsible job more than your three antecedents, but not because of tiredness you ask to be released. I know that your strength today is no less than it was in the day of your appointment to be commander in chief, before more than 4 years ago, although in this four years many hard and crushing assignments were imposed on you - dangers that didn't fall in the hands of IDF commanders since the end of the independence war in the beginning of 1949. After comprehensive inquiries that I have made with senior army commanders, I acceded at last to your request, and the government approved my decision, also not without hesitations, because I felt moral obligation, obligation that I believe all of the country obliged you, to respect your wish and allow you 2 years study in the Hebrew university in Jerusalem. The decision making was made easier after you expressed your wish to stay in the army as a major-general."
Ben-Gurion goes on to describe in detail all the stages of Dayan's life: he writes about Dayan's upbringing, noting that Dayan's parents helped to establish his deep love for Israel and his powerful faith in the freedom of the Jewish people and their strength. He describes the role of Dayan in the "Hagana," his relationship with Orde Wingate, his capture by the British Mandate and the time he did in jail, his service in the "Palmach," his injuries, and his outstanding service in the IDF. Through each stage of Dayan's life, Ben-Gurion praises Dayan's courage, broad political and strategic vision, his unusual military abilities and remarkable results.
The Prime Minister finishes his letter with the following kind thoughts: "I am sure that you will keep on serving your people and your homeland and their safety in your best power in the future as well, and that you will succeed in all of your doings the way you did until this day."
Dayan would go on to fulfill Ben-Gurion's prediction. A year after retiring from the IDF, Dayan joined Mapai, the leftist party in Israeli politics, then led by David Ben-Gurion, while also serving as the Minister of Agriculture. Dayan then joined with the group of Ben-Gurion loyalists who defected from Mapai in 1965 to form Rafi. The new Prime Minister Levi Eshkol disliked Dayan, but recognized Dayan's political value to him and appointed the charismatic and popular military leader minister of defense in order to raise public morale and widen his government's support by establishing a unity government. This remarkable letter is in fine condition, with minor overall age toning and a few light creases; small tear at upper left corner. An outstanding letter of major military and political importance!
[Edward III] Royal Pardon of Richard de Strellary in the Death of William le Deye de Lenton, 1339. One page with docketing on the verso, 10.5" x 6.125", February 12, "anno regni n[ost]ri duodecimo" [1339], Westminster [London], on vellum, in Latin. In the document King Edward III issues a Royal Pardon to Richard de Strellar "for breaking the peace" in the matter of the death of William le Deye de Lenton. Sold with a typed transcript. Lacking the seal and riband. Folds, minor insect holing, and light staining, else fine.
[Edward IV] Indenture of Clemens Court to John Turgeys of Elinestede Parish, 1462. One page, 12" x 5.75", November 30, 1462, Elinestede [England], on vellum, with the original vellum riband and remnants of the red wax seal, in Latin. The document commits Court to pay Turgeys eleven English Marks (£52 3s 4d) for a total of seven acres of land. Sold with a typed transcript. Light toning and folds, else very fine.
[Elizabeth I] Quitclaim of Simon Lynche of Elmeston to William Hales, 1568. One page, 12.5" x 6", March 20, 1568, Elmeston [England], on vellum, with the original vellum riband and remnants of the red wax seal, in Latin. The document is a quitclaim in which Lynche transfers to Hales eighteen acres adjoining land owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Sold with a typed transcript. Light toning and folds, else very fine.
Napoleon Bonaparte Autograph Endorsement Signed "Nap". Two pages, front and verso, 7.75" x 12.5", 12 [June], 1810, Imperial Palace of St. Cloud [France], partially printed, in Italian. The document is a decree establishing a union of grape-sugar producers to refine 5000 kilograms of sugar for the period ending on May 1, 1811. In addition to Napoleon's printed traditional titles in Italian (by the Grace of God, and the Constitution, Emperor of France, King of Italy, and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine) is added in pen, Mediatore della Confederazione Svizzera or Mediator of the Swiss Confederation, a title he took in 1803. In Napoleon's hand, "d'al [?] Imperiale Palazzo dei St. Cloud [?] / d' 12 7e 1810 / Nap". Very fine.
Queen Victoria Document Signed at top "Victoria R" as queen. One page partially printed, 8.25" x 13.5", November 3, 1896, "Given at Our Court at Balmoral". Appointing Captain William Pulteney Pulteney of the Scots Guards "to be a Member of Our Distinguished Service Order". Countersigned by the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne as "The Principal Secretary of State having the Department of War for the same being". Victoria (1819 - 1901), the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837, and the first Empress of India from May 1, 1876, used Balmoral Castle in Scotland as one of her royal residences. This document, which has archival tape around its edges, is matted to an overall size of 12" x 16". With light blue paper seal; horizontal folds. Very good condition.
Louisa May Alcott Autograph Letter Signed "L. M. A." Three pages, 4.5" x 6.75", November 23, 1879, to "Kinsman". This buoyant letter was written only two weeks after Alcott's sister, Abigail, gave birth to her only child, Lulu. Sadly, thirty-six days after the letter was written, Abigail died from childbirth complications. In part: "You will like to know that Louisa May Nieriker arrived in Paris Nov. 8th after a short voyage which left her Momma well & herself a bouncing little lass 'lying in innocent astonishment before admiring eyes', as her proud Papa writes to us. So the name of two great-aunts & one small one as well as of several cousins is given to the young Switzer, & I hope she will live long & do it credit."
Louisa May Alcott based the character "Amy" in her classic Little Women (1868) on her sister, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, who died of childbirth complications on December 29, 1879, six weeks after giving birth to her daughter. That daughter, Louisa May "Lulu" Nieriker, was born in Paris on November 8, 1879. After her mother's death, the infant was cared for by her aunt, Louisa May Alcott, until the author's death in 1888. The next year, the young girl moved back to Europe where she remained until her own death in 1975. At the top of page one in another hand is written, "Postmark? Boston, Nov. 25. 1 p.m./ Redc, Leicester, 26th, 9 a.m." Other notations exist on page four, which is otherwise blank. Fine.
Henry Ward Beecher Autograph Manuscript Signed. Twenty pages, 5" x 8", March 30, 1884, "Brooklyn N.Y./ U.S.A." The text of the manuscript is a sermon outline based on the New Testament verse Matthew 4:19 and delivered during the morning service on January 27, 1884. On the first page of the outline, Beecher has written, "The foregoing point represents the sermon or delivenc [sic] and the M.S.S. following, the sketch on notes which served as a plan./ Henry Ward Beecher." At the conclusion of the manuscript, Beecher has written, "For Miss Ellen Terry" and has signed his name again. The manuscript is tipped-in at the end of the book, The Pulpit of To-Day, written by Beecher. The book, with no publishing information, is bound in gilt stamped red leather (lightly worn) with an Ellen Terry bookplate. On the front free endpaper of the book is written, "From your loving friend/ Katherine[?] Beecher./ March 29th, 1884/ Brooklyn/ N.Y." Following this, actress Ellen Terry has written in pencil, "Ellen Terry/ from the sweet lady Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher my true & most loving friend - E. T."
Ellen Terry (1847-1928) was an English actress most known for her portrayal of Shakespearean characters while working in Henry Irving's company of actors. Preacher and social reformer Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), a fan of Irving's acting company, became acquainted with Terry during the company's visit to the United States in the early 1880s. Book and manuscript are fine.
Sir Richard Francis Burton Autograph Letter Signed. One page, 4.5" x 4.5", "Thursday even", n.p., on stationery embossed with an Arabic inscription. Burton writes, "My dear [Glaber ?]. Thanks for news." He then gives the recipient instructions, ending his letter with, "Hope that you are better./ Ev. Yrs./ R. Burton". Portions of the original letter have been excised. Attractively matted and framed with a portrait of Burton in Middle Eastern dress, 14" x 10.5" overall. Mounting reside on the verso and repair, else extremely fine.
Richard Francis Burton was a Victorian explorer, writer, and translator. The son of an army officer and thrown out of Oxford University, Burton joined the army of the East India Company where he used his knowledge of local languages for his work in intelligence and surveying. In 1853, he took leave from the company and, in disguise, traveled to Mecca on a Hajj, or pilgrimage to the Holy City, one of the few westerners to do so. His account of the trip made his reputation as an author and an explorer. He led expeditions to both the Horn of Africa and Lake Tanganyika. Burton was a prolific author writing mainly books on travel and ethnography. He also translated Classical and Renaissance literature, with a particular interest in eastern erotica--he translated and printed the Kama Sutra (1883) and The Perfumed Garden (1886). He also published a complete edition of the Arabian Nights (1885-88). Upon his death in 1890, his wife, Isabel, a pious Christian, fearing scandal, burned his papers and manuscripts. He and Isabel are buried in a tomb in the shape of a Bedouin tent in Mortlake, southwest London.
George Gordon Byron Signature "Byron" on a paper slip which has been excised from a larger document, 1.5" x .75" [sight], n.d., n.p. This bold signature of the British poet, satirist, and sexual adventurer is near fine. Framed and matted together with an image of the author to an overall size of 16.5" x 14". The signature has not been examined outside of the frame.
F. Scott Fitzgerald Autograph Notes Signed, 4.25" x 4" [sight], 1926, n.p. The Jazz Age author pens, "To my Freddie/ F. Scott Fitzgerald/ 1926". Framed and matted together with an image of the author to an overall size of 12.25" x 20". The note has not been examined outside of the frame but appears in near fine condition other than gentle age toning.
Nathaniel Hawthorne Document Signed "Nath. Hawthorne/ US Consul/ Liverpool". One page, 7.5" x 9.5", October 5, 1856, n.p. A deposition reading in part: "Peter Kevan of Bolton in England . . . [testifies that his sister] Elizabeth Kevan came to the age of Twenty one years on the Eleventh day of August last past." In 1952, Hawthorne wrote a campaign biography for his friend and presidential candidate Franklin Pierce (Hawthorne helpfully failed to mention Pierce's alcoholism). After Pierce was elected, he rewarded the renowned author by appointing him to the lucrative position of U.S. consul in Liverpool, a position Hawthorne served until 1857. With smoothed folds. Somewhat uneven left margin; near fine.
Ernest Hemingway Autograph Note Signed. On card, 4" x 2.5" [sight], with the CBS television network logo in the top left corner. Hemingway pens in full: "Best always/ Ernest Hemingway". and clear signature; very fine. Handsomely framed and matted together with a color image of the author to an overall size of 16" x 23.5".
Ernest Hemingway Autograph Letter Signed. One page, 8.25" x 10.5", on Hotel Ritz letterhead, Paris, November 24, 1956. Signed "Papa." A highly desirable Hemingway letter, mentioning Spain, bullfighting, hunting, and the heroes of several of his books. On October 30, 1956, PiΓ³ Baroja, considered one of the most prolific novelists of twentieth century Spanish literature and a great inspiration to Ernest Hemingway, died in Madrid. At the time, Hemingway was in Spain attending the great Zaragosa bullfight festival with friends and was asked to be a pallbearer at Baroja's funeral, but he declined saying he felt unworthy of such an honor; however, he did attend the services. Following his stay in Spain, Hemingway and his wife Mary traveled to Paris where they relaxed and visited with friends. While in Paris, the great author sent the following letter to photographer, aspiring writer, and sycophant, Peter Buckley, who photographed Hemingway at Zaragosa. The letter reads in full: "Dear Peter, Thank you very much for the lovely big pictures. The ones at Zaragosa and the one of Antonio [Ordonez, Spanish matador; the hero in The Dangerous Summer] and Mary were especially good. Would you do me a very big favour and be a good boy and do it promptly? Please send the pictures you took of Mary and me and Cooch Behar and Gina Egan in the barsera to Miss Gina Egan. . . . I promised to see they were sent and have worried about them. Please do this Peter. We saw a lot of Juanito Madinaveitia [Hemingway's doctor in Spain] and also had lunch once and dinner twice with Juan Belamonte [considered the greatest matador of all time; Belmonte was a close friend to Hemingway and appears prominently in two of Hemingway's novels: Death in the Afternoon and The Sun Also Rises]. We had a wonderful time together. Mary is much better in every way. I've been following Juanito's regime faithfully. When get next pressure taken will assess how things go. Coldest Nov. 23 in Paris since 1914, -4Β°. Shot a lot of partridges in Spain. Got some good pictures. We took Caro [Spanish anthropologist, historian, linguist and essayist; PiΓ³ Baroja's nephew] to the shoot. He sends his best to you. Mary and I send love. Papa." Hemingway closes with a brief post script: "Your father who was gin crazed prior to conception will be here 3 weeks more."
While attending the Zaragosa festival, Hemingway fiercely berated Buckley for intruding on bullfighter Antonio Ordonez' privacy while he was resting before a bullfight. This event most likely led Buckley, hoping to get back into the author's good graces, to forward the photographs discussed in Hemingway's letter, but Buckley was never able to reestablish his sycophantic position. Three years later, Hemingway is known to have called Buckley "a jerk" and told friends to pay no attention to him.
Letter bears occasional mounting residue on verso (along upper, lower, and right edges) which can be scene on recto, though does not affect the text. Faint age toning; generally very good condition. An outstanding addition to any Hemingway collection!
Samuel Johnson Four Words in His Hand. On a 2.5" x .5" strip of paper which is affixed to a 4" x 6" piece of paper. Famed lexicographer, and author of the Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson has written, "You must not wonder". Complete letters by Johnson sell for upwards of $15,000 at auction, making this a unique opportunity to own an original exemplar of his holograph. Together with a 5.5" x 7.5" engraving. Both are fine.
Rudyard Kipling Autograph Letter Signed with Drawing. One and one-half pages, 4.25" x 6.5", December 20, 1893, n.p., with interesting content about Kipling's upcoming "set of tales" on "Jungle life". Kipling writes this letter to editor William H. Rideing who had previously solicited Kipling for an article for his magazine, the Youth's Companion. In part: "I am in receipt of yours on the 18th instant suggesting a 2000/2500 w/ article for the Companion. Now that I have seen some of the mothers of the youths who read the paper I may perhaps be able to come nearer to its demands. It is very difficult for me to concoct[?] notions but I find in my notebooks the story of a young apprentice in the repairing shops of the E. I. R-our great Indian railroad. We will suppose he is 18 or 19-sketch the life of the railway community and a railway town in India (Bengal). . . . I used to know something of our Indian railway line. It's a community apart. Very many thanks for Sir. E.[dwin] Arnolds Jungle life series. I am doing a set of tales on the same subject more or less for St. Nicholas." Earlier in 1893, Kipling's Jungle Book began to be serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine. Those "Jungle life" stories helped propel the English author to the peak of his career in the early 1900s (he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907).
For thirty-seven years, William H. Rideing (1834-1918) of Boston was the editor of the Youth's Companion, a children's magazine published in England from 1827 through 1929, when it merged with American Boy. In the 1890s, the magazine tried to reach more adults by publishing contributions by authors such as Mark Twain, Jack London, Emily Dickinson, and Kipling. The new direction worked for a while with sales peaking in 1893. St. Nicholas Magazine, which serialized the Jungle Book, was one of Youth Companion's largest competitors. Embossed at the top of page one of the letter is "Naulakha,/ Brattlesboro,/ Vermont", the name of Kipling's house. The letter has some toning around the edges, else fine.
Included is a printed sketch of Kipling (with cap and pipe) by artist Thomas Nast, dated December 25, 1896. Highlights in pencil and b/w ink have been added, presumably by Kipling. The sketch has been affixed to a mat to which Kipling has inscribed, "For Wm. H. Rideing/ with compliments of the season". Both pages of the letter are matted and framed with the drawing for an overall size of 23" x 13.5". Fine.
T. E. Lawrence Signature "T E Lawrence", on a card, 3" x 1.5" [sight], July 19, 1919, n.p. Handsomely framed and matted together with a b/w image of Lawrence in Arab garb for an overall size of 14.5" x 19.5". The signature, which is in fine condition, has not been examined outside of the frame.
Herman Melville Autograph Note Signed. One card, 3.75" x 2.75" [sight], March 8, 1882, New York. Melville (1819-1891), The American author boldly and clearly pens the proverb "-Honey is sweet, but the Bee stings", perhaps referring to a passage in Moby Dick: "Only one sweeter end can readily be recalled-the delicious death of an Ohio honey-hunter, who seeking honey in the crotch of a hollow tree, found such exceeding store of it, that leaning too far over, it sucked him in, so that he died embalmed." Near fine. Framed and matted together with an image of an older Melville for an overall size of 15.25" x 21.25". The note has not been examined outside of the frame.
Margaret Mitchell Typed Letter Signed "Margaret" to historian Franklin Miller Garrett. One page, 6" x 9" [sight], May 3, 1949, Atlanta, Georgia, on Mitchell's personal stationery, concerning a claim about Georgia's racial history. This letter, written three years after the publication of Gone With the Wind and seven months before the film premiere, reads in part: "I am enclosing a letter recently received, for I thought some of the information in it might be of interest to you. Because of the manifold errors in the letter I have doubts as to the lady's statement that her father was the first white child born in Atlanta. You will notice that she says her grandfather had fifteen hundred slaves and the plantation covered the 'whole of Dahlonega County'. . . . However, knowing your interest in such matters, I am passing the letter on to you. Please return it when you have finished reading it." Margaret Mitchell, an Atlanta reporter and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, often worked and associated with Franklin Garrett. Garrett, the official Atlanta historian, authored Atlanta and Environs (1954), a massive multi-volume history of the city. Framed and matted together with two photographs of Mitchell to an overall size of 29.5" x 18". The letter, which is in fine condition, has not been examined outside of the frame.
Edgar Allan Poe Autograph Note Signed. Paper slip, 3.25" x .75" [sight], n.d., n.p. The note, which was likely excised from a letter, reads, "God bless you, my dear 'Muddy.'/ Your own Eddy." "Muddy" was Maria Poe Clemm, Edgar's father's sister. She was also Edgar's wife's mother, making her his aunt and mother-in-law. Poe (1809-1849) lived with Muddy after he was discharged from West Point in 1831. The last time she saw the author was when she helped him board a steamboat for Philadelphia on June 29, 1849. He mysteriously died in Baltimore three months later. Framed and matted together with an engraving of the author to an overall size of 14.25" x 18". Near fine. (The note has not been examined outside of the frame.)
William Sydney Porter (O'Henry) Autograph Letter Signed. One page, 8" x 10" (sight), "Tuesday" n.d., n.p., in blue pencil. The letter reads, "Dear Bill,/ Would you as a private and personal temporaneous favor swap your check for this one of mine dated Saturday next?/ About tomorrow I will resume business matters with you./ Yours/ Sydney Porter". The letter is indicative of Porter's continual money difficulties, problems that landed the writer in prison for three years. Attractively matted and framed (23" x 19" overall) with a modern photograph of the author. Dark toning and light soiling, else fine.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Autograph Letter Signed "H B Stowe". One page, 5" x 8", November 3, 1884, n.p., to an unnamed recipient, containing Stowe's emphasized presidential choice for the 1884 election written on the day before the election. In part: "I find it in my drawer this morning & tho it be late in the day, I say I am and ever have been avowedly, strongly enthusiastically for Blaine & that I abhor as a mother should, the vile example set by Grover Cleveland." Stowe, abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, was certainly disappointed with the election outcome. With small tape discoloration below the signature, else fine. Included is a 5" x 7" engraving of Stowe.
Salvador Dali Dry Point Etching Signed. One page, 11" x 15", n.d. The untitled, limited edition, dry point etching is of Hermes, the messenger god of Greek mythology. Dali, a Spanish born painter and printmaker, also worked in film, sculpture, and photography. He is best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. Boldly signed and numbered in graphite "Dali" below right corner of image; "85/150" below left corner of image. Minute foxing, peripheral mat burns, and three slight areas of mounting tape residue, else excellent.
Amelia Earhart Typed Letter Signed. One page on Cosmopolitan magazine letterhead, 7.25" x 10.5", New York City, January 28, 1929. Less than a year after her famous Atlantic crossing, and during an exhausting lecture tour (1928-29), the famed aviatrix sent this letter to a young aviation fan, Robert J. Braly of Los Angeles. Earhart's letter reads in full: "I am glad you are interested in aviation. I hope your interest will extend beyond reading books. You don't tell me whether you have ever flown in an airplane. I am sure you will like it, if you do so. The opportunities will no doubt be as common as those for automobiling, by the time you are grown up. Sincerely yours, Amelia Earhart."
Amelia Earhart was an accomplished and articulate writer who served as aviation editor for Cosmopolitan magazine from 1928 to 1930. She authored numerous magazine articles and essays, and published two books based upon her experiences as a flyer. Letter is lightly age toned; paper clip indentation at upper right. Very fine condition. Although Earhart signed photographs are relatively easy to obtain, letters from the great aviatrix are somewhat rare.
Charles Lindbergh Photo Signed "C. A. Lindbergh". B/w, 4.75" x 8" [sight], n.d., n.p. "Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh" is printed below the photograph of the young aviator and above the large, bold signature. Together with a banquet program for "Banquet Commemorating the Visit of Col. Charles A. Lindbergh to the City of Philadelphia October Twenty-Second 1927", 7.25" x 10". Both photo and program are in fine condition and are framed and matted together to an overall size of 22.5" x 18.5". They have not been examined outside of the frame.
William Lendrum "Billy" Mitchell Typed Letter Signed. One page, 6.5" x 10.5", Middleburg, VA, January 26, 1929. One of the most famous and controversial figures in the history of American airpower, Mitchell is generally regarded as the father of the United States Air Force.
Mitchell writes to Los Angelino Robert J. Braly, extolling the future of air travel in glowing terms. The letter reads in full: "Your interest in aviation will be repaid by study and investigation, if you live to your allotted three score years and ten, you will see aircraft circling the globe in every direction, north, south, east and west, over land and water. Air power will determine the destinies of the world and who knows but what, before your life is finished, aircraft may go even beyond the atmosphere which surrounds the earth? Hoping that your enthusiasm for aviation will keep up, I remain Yours Truly, Wm. Mitchell." Excellent, large signature.
Of course, Mitchell's predictions would come true, both regarding commercial air travel and high altitude flight. Mitchell's letter is accompanied by the postal mark and Air Mail postage stamp which were trimmed from the original transmittal envelope. Letter is moderately age toned with a paper clip indentation at upper left. In fine condition. An important addition to any aviation collection!
Orville Wright Kitty Hawk Signed Postcard Photo image of the "First Man-Flight", 6.25" x 4.25", Dayton, Ohio, January 25, 1929. Black and white image of the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, NC, on December 17, 1903. This photocard and the accompanying transmittal envelope were both apparently custom designed and produced for use in responding to autograph requests.
Following the death of his brother Wilbur in 1912, Orville carried their legacy alone towards an exciting future. He built an aeronautics laboratory and dedicated himself to developing and inventing aeronautical devices and equipment. He also stayed active in the public eye, promoting aeronautics, inventing, and utilizing such marketing tools as the image offered here, which has been signed by Wright at lower left.
A small tear at upper center and creases along the lower edge affect only the white borders of the image. Paper clip crease at upper left of border. Very good condition. Accompanied by Orville Wright's imprinted transmittal envelope which features a five-cent air mail stamp. Envelope shows occasional wear along edges; small tear at upper center edge. The image has been attached to the envelope, and the envelope is attached to a 7.75" x 7.75" backing board.
Clara Barton Autograph Letter Signed with Two Red Cross Pins. Two one-sided pages, 4.5" x 7", Washington, D.C., November 21, 1898. Brief letter of effusive thanks to Mrs. Harriett D. Glover for her hard work on behalf of the American Red Cross. Her letter reads in part: "I pray you allow me the privilege of thanking you for the opportunity given me of expressing my heartfelt gratitude to one who has taken up the burden of this last hard year's work, and in the name of the organization dear to us both, labored for the welfare of the heroes who patiently and bravely suffered. . . . The reward of well doing is yours." Beautifully penned and signed "Clara Barton, President, Am Natl Red Cross." World renowned Civil War nurse Clara Barton was a pioneering teacher, nurse, and humanitarian, who founded the American Red Cross in 1881. Letter is in magnificent condition; bright, sharp and clean. Glue remnants on verso. Very fine.
Accompanied by a red and white enameled pinback in the shape of a cross, 15/16" x 15/16", stamped "Sterling" on verso. Very fine. Also, a 7/8" diameter enameled medallion hanging from a 1" blue and white striped grosgrain ribbon. Medallion bears a raised enameled red cross against a white enameled background which is circled by a blue enameled band with "Service - American Red Cross" in gold lettering around edge. Stamped on verso of medallion, "Tiffany & Co., N.Y." and "Bronze." Ribbon is slightly frayed at upper left where it wraps around the pin mechanism. Near fine condition. A wonderful addition to any Civil War or nursing collection!
Early Women Reformers' Archive. This interesting and wide-ranging collection features letters, notes, and associated items, either endorsed or signed by five important female leaders in the fields of women's rights, temperance, writing and journalism, politics, and social services. It includes the following items:
Three Julia Ward Howe Autograph Letters Signed. Two on 4" x 6" paper, one on 5" x 7.75" paper, all three written on recto and verso. Letters are dated June 14, 1895, April 19, 1900, and April 26, 1900. Slight to moderate age toning, occasional staining along edges. Very good.
Three Clare Booth Luce Typed Letters Signed. Each on colored stationery ranging in size from 5" x 7.25" to 6.5" x 8.5", dated February 28, 1947; November 11, 1959; January 28, 1953. All three are thank you letters, two written on her imprinted letterhead. All Fine.
Clara Barton's Personal Calling Card. Approximately 4" x 3.5" calling card reading: "Clara Barton, President of the American National Association of the Red Cross, Government Delegate to the Conference of Carlsruke [Karlsruhe, Germany] 1887," and identifies Ms. Barton as being a delegate from Washington, D.C. Inscribed in an unidentified hand. Creases and age toning. Glue remnants on verso. Very good condition.
Sarah K. Bolton Autograph Note Signed. One page, one sided, 4.5" x 6.75", Cleveland, October 19, 1998. Thank you note bears two punch holes at upper center. Lightly age toned. Fine.
Margaret Sangster Inscribed On the Road Home Title Page. One page, 4.5" x 6.75", n.p., n.d. Inscribed "For Mr. Alexander Black, The Brooklyn Times." Not signed. Moderate age toning and soiling. Very good condition.
Dorothea Dix Autograph Note Signed. Two pages including integral address leaf, written on recto of first page only, approximately 4" x 6.75", Savannah, February 23, 1859. Minor age toning and soiling. Seal tear; glue remnants on verso. Very good condition.
F. R. Southmayd Autograph Letter Signed. American Red Cross Agent at New Orleans. One page, one sided, 8.25" x 10.75", on American Association of the Red Cross letterhead, New Orleans, January 5, 1885. Letter mentions meetings for Ms. Barton. Moderate age toning, moderate wear. Good condition.
Prospective buyers are advised to view all items in the lot carefully prior to bidding.
Susan B. Anthony Autograph Letter Signed. One page, 8" x 10", May 17, 1881, New York, to "Mr. Editor", concerning the release of Anthony's upcoming book, The History of Woman Suffrage. In part: "By my request our publishers mail to you, tonight, the advance sheets of 'The History of Woman Suffrage', that you may be able to bring out your notice of it as early as our New York papers. The book will not be handed them until Friday." Written on "Office Phrenological Journal and Science of Health" letterhead. Susan B. Anthony, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mitilda Joslyn Gage, published The History of Woman Suffrage after the early women's suffrage leaders realized that newer, younger leaders were soon to replace them. On blue paper with some small pieces of tape along edge-tears and fold separations, else fine.
Albert Einstein Autograph Note Signed "A. Einstein 54." on a printed card, 5" x 3.5", 1954, n.p. The card is printed with the following: "May I send you my warm thanks for your gracious message of congratulation on the occasion of my birthday. It was most thoughtful of you to remember me." Following this, the eminent scientist has written in German in black ink, "Freundlichen Dank, Bruder in der [?]" (Thank you kindly, brother in the [?].) At the top of the note has been written in pencil and then erased, "To Dr. Dan Q. Posin". Einstein and Posin, a nuclear physicist, were colleagues; Einstein wrote the introduction to Posin's 1948 book, I Have Been to the Village.
Einstein's birthday was March 14, 1879. In 1954, he celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday at home at 112 Mercer Street, Princeton, New Jersey. He only lived to celebrate one more birthday before dying in April 1955. The note is in fine condition and is framed and matted with an image of Einstein to an overall size of 12" x 15.5".
Martin Luther King Jr. Photo Signed. Image size 8" x 10", [early 1960s], [Denver, Colorado]. This formal studio photograph of the great civil rights leader standing behind a chair is inscribed, "Best Wishes/ Martin Luther King". On verso is the Faingold Studios photographer's copy stamp. Photographer Bernie Faingold, whose studio was located in the Denver Hilton Hotel, photographed individually Dr. and Mrs. King in a ten minute session during the Kings' stay at the hotel. With mounting residue on verso. Fine.
Gertrude Lawrence Archive of Letters and Photographs, including Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning; NoΓ«l Coward; and Bobbie Andrews. The Gertrude Lawrence signed items are: a typed letter signed, "Gertrude Aldrich", one page, 8.5" x 11", November 11, 1943, n.p., on British War Relief letterhead; a signed photograph, "Gertrude Lawrence", 3.25" x 4.75", ca. 1933; and two signed photographs, 5" x 7", also signed "Gertrude Lawrence", ca. 1948. Daphne du Maurier, TLS "Daphne du Maurier Browning", three sheets, four and one-half pages, 8" x 10", April 12, 1965, with holograph correction, and original transmittal envelope. Du Maurier's letter is a revealing and insightful look at Gertrude Lawrence: "I soon sensed (and this could be the novelist's eye) that the 'glamorous Gertie' of the 'Twenties and 'Thirties was something of a myth, or if not strictly a myth, more of a faΓ§ade. The star quality was there all right, to bewitch the audience, and the 'trooper's' guts to put all she knew into her part, but underneath all this was an apprehensive woman in her late forties who was wondering 'Can I make it? Will 'they' (i.e. the audience) love me as they once did? And not only the audience, but the actors and actresses working with her." NoΓ«l Coward, signed first day cover honoring the United Nations, 6.5" x 3.5", postmarked October 24, 1955, New York. Bobbie Andrews, two letters, (1) typed letter signed, "Bobbie", one and one-quarter pages, front and verso, 8" x 10", July 23, 1966, London, with holograph correction, and original transmittal envelope, and, (2) autograph letter signed, "Bobbie", two pages, front and verso, 7" x 9", July 20, 1968, London, with original transmittal envelope. Also included are ten 8" x 10" black and white photographs; six photographs from Lawrence's personal scrapbook used as research for the 1968 film, Star, with Julie Andrews as Lawrence; a still of Gertrude Lawrence and Raymond Massey from the 1945 Broadway revival of Pygmalion; and three photographs of NoΓ«l Coward at the London premiere of Star with Lord Louis Mountbatten, Darryl F. Zanuck, Robert Wise, and others.
Passionate letters written between Lawrence and du Maurier were published in Daphne du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller by Margaret Forster in 1993. Lawrence also appears to have had a much earlier affair with du Maurier's own father, Sir Gerald du Maurier; in fact, Daphne du Maurier referred to Lawrence as "the last of Daddy's actress loves".
Jim Thorpe's History of the Olympics Signed, "To/ Richard Hasslen/ From/ Jim Thorpe/ July 20th, 1932" on verso of the final Forward page. Authored by Thorpe in collaboration with Thomas F. Collison. Los Angeles: Wetzel Publishing Co., Inc., [1932]. First edition, blue cloth, 8vo. Thorpe, one of the greatest American athletes of the early twentieth century, won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 decathlon and pentathlon; however, the medals were taken away when it was revealed that he was paid for playing two seasons of minor league baseball. In 1983, thirty years after his death, his gold medals were restored.
Below the inscription is a small newspaper clipping announcing the death of Thorpe in 1953. The article has been taped to the page, resulting in yellowing around the tape. A bit of wear all around the frame with some stains; back hinge starting. Contains a bookseller's small label on back pastedown. Fine.
William A. "Billy" Sunday Two Autograph Letters Signed and Mrs. W. A. Sunday Autograph Letter Signed. (1) Billy Sunday A.L.S. One page, 6" x 9.5", February 17, 1935, Tampa, Florida, on "Hotel Collier Coast Hotels" letterhead, to Bert. In part: "I will send you some jack [money] when I get the sermon. how about law suit." Written nine months before the popular evangelist's death and signed "W. A. Sunday". Toned; fine.
(2) Billy Sunday A.L.S. Two pages, 5" x 8", n.d., n.p., to Shaw. In part: "I knew you had nothing to do with that report so don't you worry. I never hated to refuse any one so badly in my life as I did you but I was so worn out I felt I could not add to my burdens by the trip." Signed "W. A. Sunday". The two lined pages are stapled together at the top left; fine.
(3) Mrs. W. A. Sunday (Billy Sunday's wife) A.L.S. On postcard, November 23, 1955, postmarked Winona Lake, Indiana. In part: "Mr. Sunday had a half brother who lived in Kansas. his name is Bert. That is the only one I can think of just now - that his letters were written to. I am preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for George M. Sunday my grandson & his wife." The postcard is signed, "Mrs. WA Sunday". Toned; fine.
John Wesley Autograph Letter Signed "J Wesley". One page, 6" x 7.5", November 1, 1775, n.p. A noted Christian theologian, Wesley is credited with founding the Methodist movement. Among the reasons for Wesley's success was that he organized societies throughout England and then sent unordained ministers to teach and care for those societies. In this letter, which nicely exemplifies Wesley's organizational abilities, the theologian writes to an unnamed recipient giving detailed instructions on what should be done so that "there will be no inconsiderable increase in the Societies this year". In full: "[?] at Discipline exceeding well for a young, raw Beginner. But he could not have so much weight as an experienced Preacher; you will therefore supply what was wanting in Him. And C. Linnell will more than supply the place of honest [?] David Evans: So that I expect there will be no inconsiderable increase in the Societies this year: Particularly at Whitehaven & Carlisle. Everywhere fail not to declare to them, the whole Counsel of God, & that in the plainest manner you can devise. But above all, visit from house to house!" The letter, which has two tears along the left edge, is affixed to a reinforcing paper-backing of the same size. Toned with minor soiling; near fine. Two engravings of Wesley are included; both contain foxing.
Session 2
Colonial Kings County Early Land Indenture For Land Sold in "Brookland" (Brooklyn). One page, June 20, 1695, Kings County [New York], with two signatures and their undamaged red seals. Some paper loss along the left and right edges resulting in some text loss. Tape repairs and docketing on verso. Near good.
[Maryland] Yellow Fever Document. Three pages, 7.5" x 12.25", ca. 1793, likely written in Baltimore to Governor Thomas Sim Lee of Maryland and signed by nearly forty Baltimore citizens. The document concerns "the dreadful [yellow] Fever, then prevailing in the City of Philadelphia". Page one is backed with tissue; page two and three have been reinforced at folds and restored at lower margin. Very good.
[19th Century U.S. Elections] John Bright Autograph Letter Signed to Lord John Russell. Four pages, 4.5" x 7", December 12, 1852. Bright, citing American electoral success, asks Lord Russell to work for English electoral reforms. Together with a 6" x 9.5" photo of Bright. Toned; fine.
Monterrey, New Spain Broadside Printed on Revenue Stamped Paper: Edict Regarding Payment of Taxes on Mulatto and Freed Black Labor. Four integral pages, 8.25" x 12.25", 1657, Nueva EspaΓ±a, printed in Spanish, untranslated. Some paper loss at the fold, where it was removed from a bound volume. Modest dampstaining, else fine.
[New Spain Broadside] Edict from the Inquisition Court in Mexico Denouncing the ChuchumbΓ© as Immoral. One page, 12.5" x 17", December 2, 1802, [Mexico City], printed. The document bears the original embossed paper seal. Some paper loss, damp staining, and weakness at the folds, else near fine.
Queen Kapiolani of Hawaii Card Signed "Kapiolani". The card, 3.75" x 2.25", has "Queen Hawaii" printed and "1887" handwritten along the lower border. Slight stain along lower border; fine. The card is affixed to a slightly larger mounting card.
[Noah B. Orr] Carte de Visite of Noah B. Orr, the "Union County Giant", 2.5" x 4". Very fine.
Samuel F. Smith Autograph Quotation Signed "S. F. Smith". One page, lined, 5" x 7.5", n.d., n.p., containing two stanzas from Smith's poem "Softly Fades the Twilight Ray". Ink has faded to 75%, remaining legible, otherwise good.
[Chief Belly Fat] Stereoview of Chief Belly Fat, 7" x 3.5". The stereo card was published by G. H. Nickerson of Provincetown, Massachusetts, with the reverse marked "Belly Fat/ a sub chief of the Uncapapas". Light toning, else fine.
[Chief Joseph] Stereoview of Chief Joseph, 7" x 3.5". The stereo card was published by G. H. Nickerson of Provicetown, Massachusetts, with the reverse marked "Chief Joseph/ Chief of the Nez Perce Indians". General toning, else fine.
[Chief Thunder Hawk] Stereoview of Chief Thunder Hawk, 7" x 3.5". The stereo card was published by G. H. Nickerson of Provicetown, Massachusetts, with the reverse marked "Thunder Hawk/ Next Chief to Sitting Bull". Fine.
[Patrick F. Garrett] Telegram to His Wife. One page, 8" x 5.25", Dec. 15, 1901, Washington, D.C., on Postal Telegraph-Cable Company billhead. In part: "Don't worry just left the president am collector of Elpase [El Paso]." With a reprint photograph of Garrett in suit and tie. The telegram is unevenly toned; near fine. The photo, on cardboard backing, is 4" x 5.75" and fine. Ex. Richard C. Marohn Collection.
[Slavery] Partly Printed Receipt from Davis, Dupree & Co. for the Slave "Armistead". One page partially printed, 7.75" x 3", February 28, 1861, Richmond, [Virginia]. Very fine.
[John Brown] Jason Brown Autograph Letter Signed to his brother John Brown Jr. Four pages, 7.75" x 9.75", January 3, 1859, "Akron O[hio]". Written exactly six months before John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and discussing financial matters, Kansas, and the Brown family. With usual folds; fine.
Booker T. Washington Group of Four Typed Letters Signed. All on Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute stationery and dated 1901, 1905, or 1906 (one is not dated). All are addressed to the Advertiser of Portland, Maine, and all are signed "Booker T. Washington". Fine.
Early 20th Century Motorcycling Journal. Seventeen pages of handwritten entries on lined paper, 3.5" x 6", September through November 1914. The unnamed author records the events of six road trips through southwestern Pennsylvania on an Indian motorcycle. The front and back cover cloth has become detached in places. Included is a penciled drawing (5.5" x 7.25") of an Indian motorcycle from the period. The journal is in overall near good condition.
Books
A Dissertation on the Gout, and all Chronic Diseases, Jointly Considered, As proceeding from the same Causes; What those Causes are; and a rational and natural Method of Cure proposed. Addressed to all Invalids. By William Cadogan; Fellow of the College of Physicians. [Philadelphia]: London, printed: Philadelphia: re-printed and sold by William and Thomas Bradford., M.DCC.LXXII [1772]. 51 pages. 5.5" x 8.5". Paper wrappers; stitched binding. Moderate age toning and occasional faint water stains throughout. Cover has been professionally reinforced; modern stitching. Very good condition.
Autographs
Two Washington, D.C., Building Imprints: (1) To the Hon'ble President Fillmore and the Building Committee for the Capitol. Publisher and location unknown. 5.5" x 9.25", written by Charles Anderson. Six pages. Glued binding. Light age toning; overall fine condition. Accompanied by (2) Speech of Mr. Marsh of Vermont, on the Bill for Establishing The Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C.; Printed by J & GS Gideon.5.75" x 8.5". 15 pages. Disbound and stitched. Lightly age toned. In fine condition.
Revolutionary War Manuscript Document listing military expenses for Connecticut, 1780-1785. One page, 12.5" x 8", [1785], on laid paper with some nicks along edges. Very good.
Oliver Ellsworth Two Revolutionary War Documents Signed "O. Ellsworth". Both are near 7.5" x 6.5", March 29, 1777, and May 18, 1778. Both are pay orders and are countersigned by John Lawrence and have docketing on the verso. Toned; fine.
Lord George Germaine Autograph Letter Signed. One page, 7.25" x 9.25", Pall Mall, Oct. 15, 1773, to Lady Macartney, assuring her that he "shall take the first opportunity of laying the Contents of [her Lord's letter] before his Majesty". He writes: "Nobody can be more sensible than I am of Lord Macartneys merit. . . . Your Ladyships anxiety must be great . . . you hear more of Lord Macartneys situation, whatever intelligence I receive shall be immediately sent to you." The document is very lightly and evenly toned, with dark ink that has feathered in a few places. Near fine condition, save a few tiny tears along left margin.
Miscellaneous
[Revolutionary War Newspaper] Massachusetts Gazette or General Advertiser. Four pages, 10" x 15", December 16, 1783, Springfield, with a full front page story of "The Definitive Treaty between Great-Britain and the United-States of America, signed at Paris the 3d day of September, 1783." Toned with some foxing and weakness at the folds; near very good.
Autographs
Oliver Wolcott Jr. Lot of Three Documents Signed. Each is a Connecticut pay voucher, 6.25" x 5.75", signed "Oliv: Wolcott Jun" and dated between 1782-1784. With some folds and docketing on verso. Near fine.
Oliver Wolcott Jr. Early Connecticut Pay Order Signed "Oliv. Wolcott Jr" with paraph. One page, 6.75" x 5", February 27, 1784, Connecticut. Another signature (possibly "Huntington") runs perpendicular through Wolcott's signature. Fine.
West Point - United States Military Academy Diploma, 1880, with accompanying U.S. government documents related to the diploma recipient, Elias Chandler. Three of the documents are secretarially signed by presidents; all are dated from 1819-1906 and are very good to fine.
John Butler Two Documents Signed. One, dated 1770, is addressed to Major Jellis Fonda and concerns the purchase of "a gallon of your wine". The second is a court document signed "John Butler Judge". Both are toned with light stains; very good.
[Massachusetts] Group Lot of Three Military Documents, containing partly printed officers oaths signed (dated 1813) and two military returns (dated 1787 and 1801, one partly printed). Separations at some folds, else very good.
West Point: 19th Century Military Archive of Nine Letters, most of which relate to West Point. Topics are varied and include West Point appointment help from Supreme Court Associate Justice John McLean, West Point disciplinary action, and a job recommendation from a West Point alumnus. Includes a John McLean Autograph Letter Signed. All are fine.
[George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman]Edward D. Townsend Autograph Document Signed "E. D. Townsend/ Adjutant General" to General W. L. De Beck. 3pp, 7.75" x 10", August 19, 1874, Washington, on "War Department, Adjutant General's Office" letterhead. A listing of all individuals who have held the title of Chief Commander of the Armies of the United States. Noted leaders include: George Washington, Arthur St. Clair, Anthony Wayne, Winfield Scott, Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman. Age-toned on lined paper; fine.
Benjamin F. Butler Group of Five Letters. All dated between 1872 and 1885 and signed by Butler, the Civil War Union commander of occupied New Orleans. These letters deal with a variety of topics, such as business matters, legal cases, and the People's Party and election of 1888. All near fine to fine.
Miscellaneous
[Civil War Tax Archive] Three Confederate Tax Receipts and Three Union Tax Documents, plus an 1888 tax broadside. All tax forms have been completed and are very good to fine.
Autographs
[Civil War] Confederate Archive of Five Items. Includes special orders, one letter, and a 1916 congressional speech concerning pensions for Confederate veterans. All very good to fine.
Alfred Pleasonton Autograph Letter Signed. Four integral pages, written on page one, 5" x 8", May 30, 1870, New York, United States Internal Revenue, Collector's Office, 32d District letterhead, addressed to C. H. Wildman. Folds, else very fine.
William T. Sherman Autograph Letter Signed "W. T. Sherman". One blue-lined page, 5" x 8", December 30, 1882, Washington, D.C., to Edgar F. Goodwin, concerning an inscribed photograph. Fine.
John E. Wool Document Signed "John E. Wool Capt./ in 13th Regt. Infty US Army". One page, 7" x 10", June 27, 1812, Troy [New York]. The document is a weekly enlistment return for the Thirteenth Regiment stationed in Troy. Dark, uneven toning with docketing on verso; fine.
Miscellaneous
[Civil War] Group of 3 Currier & Ives Engravings. All hand-colored lithographic prints near 13.25" x 9.5", with sentimental depictions of Civil War soldier and family. Published by Currier & Ives, Nassau St. New York, 1860s. Some dampstaining; very good.
Autographs
Collection of Fifteen Civil War Imprints: Mostly Congressional Speeches. Lot contains fifteen published speeches delivered by various members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. All tracts are disbound (except Authentic Speeches of S. P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, During his Visit to Ohio, which has paper wrappers), most with string binding. Pamphlets show light to heavy age toning; some brittle pages. Generally very good to fine condition. Prospective buyers are advised to view lot carefully prior to bidding.
George Bancroft Albumen Signed. B/w, 3" x 5.5", 1861, n.p. An elegant photograph of Bancroft, founder of the Naval War College. With gentle fading, though the signature remains bold and clear. Very good.
Simon Cameron Autograph Letter Signed as Secretary of War. Two pages, front and verso, 6.5" x 7.75", November 30, 1861, Washington, D.C. The letter, addressed to "Colonel Fitz Henry Warren, Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri", tells of "Paymaster [Thomas J.] McKean" being appointed brigadier general by "The President [Lincoln]". With dampstaining and minor paper loss, else good.
Matthew Griswold Signature "Matthw. Griswold Assistant". ("Griswold Assistant" is written twice.) One page, 6.25" x 1", March 11, 1760, Hartford. Excised from a larger, partly printed document. Toned; very good.
[Samuel Huntington et al.] Connecticut Civil Expenses, 1787-1788, Including the Salaries of Many State Officials such as Samuel Huntington, Oliver Wolcott (Sr. and Jr.), Roger Sherman, William Samuel Johnson, and Oliver Ellsworth. One page, 18" x 19", four columns, with heading, "An Account of Expenses charged on the Civil List Funds in the State of Connecticut from the 1st Day of May to 1st [sic] 1787 to the 1st Day of May 1788." Toned; fine.
Robert F. Kennedy Signed Photograph. One page, 8.25" x 6.5", photographic paper, black and white matte finish. On an accompanying black sheet is the notation, "Signed in person Oct. 30, 1966 in New Haven, Conn." Very fine.
Henry Lee IV Autograph Letter Signed. Six pages, 7" x 9.25, December 4, 1836, Paris. Folds and light toning, else very fine.
Thomas McKean Land Patent Signed "Tho M:Kean" as governor of Pennsylvania. One page, partly printed, 20" x 11.75", August 18, 1803, Pennsylvania. In near fine condition save usual folds.
[John McLean] Humphrey Marshall Autograph Letter Signed to U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John McLean asking permission to write a biography about McLean with Justice McLean's one and one- half page response on verso. Together with two letters by John Livingston, all to Justice McLean. Near fine to fine.
[Presidential Election of 1844] Group of Five Letters all dated between January 13, 1843, and July 29, 1843, with topics on the upcoming presidential election and the possible candidacy of Supreme Court Associate Justice John McLean. All are near fine to fine.
[John McLean] Group of Four Financial Content Letters, all dated between 1842 and 1849 and written to Supreme Court Associate Justice McLean whose home was in Cincinnati, Ohio. Topics of the letters include the Cincinnati Bank Riot of 1842, the Supreme Court case of Strader v. Baldwin (1850), and Justice McLean's personal financial matters with the Franklin Bank of Cincinnati. All fine.
Early 19th Century Statesmen Group of Seventeen Letters, all dated between 1828 and 1858 and written to Supreme Court Associate Justice John McLean covering a wide range of topics. The letter writers include congressmen, governors, diplomats, officers, judges, editors, and vice presidents. All are very good to fine.
Thomas Mifflin Document Signed "Tho Mifflin". One vellum page, 15.5" x 13", April 12, 1792, [Philadelphia] Pennsylvania. With blind embossed paper seal of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the upper left corner above Mifflin's bold signature. Docketing on verso. Some wrinkling, else fine.
John Wanamaker Autograph Letter Signed to Erastus Brainerd. One page, 5.75" x 8.75", September 1, 1918, Philadelphia, concerning the anti-prohibition work of Brainerd, which Wanamaker praises. Toned; fine.
Daniel Webster Autograph Note Signed in the third person. One page removed from a book, 6" x 9.25", February 28, 1849, n.p. With a trace of dampstaining. Boldly written and near fine.
Collection of Early Nineteenth Century Imprints: Congressional Speeches. Lot contains ten published speeches delivered by various members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and one delivered by Reverend John Mitchell Mason. All tracts are disbound, most with string binding. Pamphlets show light to heavy age toning; faint to heavy foxing. Most are in very good condition. Prospective buyers are advised to view lot carefully prior to bidding.
19th Century Political Content Letter. Three pages, 8" x 9.5", May 5, 1829, n.p. to "My dear John [Homans]" of Valparaiso and signed "Smith" with contemporary political news. A small amount of text is missing at the seal tear, yet fine.
Miscellaneous
Group of Three Imprints, dated 1814, 1822, and 1824, containing "Message[s] from the President", concerning Florida, "The Treaty with Spain", and "Peace with Great Britain". Some foxing; very good.
Autographs
Two 1840s Imprints. Lot includes An Address to the Mechanics and Laboring Men, Who are Native Born Citizens of the U. States, with Reasons Why They Ought to Withhold Their Support from Men who Seek Foreign Aid. Philadelphia: Sharpless & Thompson, Printers. [1845]. 5.25" x 8". 16 pages. Disbound and stitched. Light age toning with occasional foxing throughout. Also, The North and the South: A Review of the Lecture on the Same Subject, Delivered by Mr. Elwood Fisher, before the Young Men's Mercantile Association of Cincinnati, Ohio. Charleston: James & Burges. 1849. 5" x 8.25". 39 pages. Paper wrappers; stitched binding. Lightly age toned; occasional foxing. Generally fine.
George Washington Autograph Docket on Christmas Beer Receipt. One page, 6.25" x 2.75", December 22, 1772. The beer was ordered and delivered on the same day. Washington has written three lines on verso docketing this receipt: "Wales N. 82/ £8.010/ 22nd Decr [?] 1772". Following this is a handwritten block letter "W", very possibly written by Colonel Washington. Washington's holograph is tightly trimmed and bears dampstaining. Near very good.
[George Washington] Two Commemorative Ribbons. Both 7". One with an angel placing a wreath on Washington's head; the other has text and images commemorating the Battle of Bunker Hill. Both are slightly frayed on both ends; near very good.
James Monroe Soldier's Land Grant Signed as president. One vellum page, 13" x 9.75", November 29, 1817, "City of Washington", countersigned by Josiah Meigs, Commissioner of the General Land Office. Handwritten text, including Monroe's signature, has faded. Age-toned with some foxing. Very good.
John Quincy Adams Land Grant Signed "J. Q. Adams" as the sixth president. One vellum page, partly printed, 15.5" x 10", May 12, 1828, "City of Washington". With some small separations at fold intersections; very good.
Andrew Jackson Cover Addressed in His Hand to "Jonathan Harvey/ Member of Congress/ Washington City" with postmark "NASH. T[ennessee]. May 7 [ca. 1837]" stamped in upper left. With remnants of the red wax seal; slightly stained and a bit fragile. Near very good.
[William Henry Harrison] Jonathan Dayton Steele Autograph Poem "The Death of President Harrison", unsigned. Two pages, front and verso, 7.75" x 12.5", April 10, 1841, Elmira, New York. The poem, titled "The Death of President Harrison", was published, in part, in the Elmira Republican of the same date. Toning, staining, and weakness at folds, else very good.
James Buchanan Naval Appointment Signed as the fifteenth president and countersigned by Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey. One vellum page, 15" x 18.25", November 20, 1858, "City of Washington". With folds; near fine.
[Mary Todd Lincoln] Two Address Panels Addressed to Mary Lincoln From Gideon Welles and Charles Sumner, With Franking Signatures "C Sumner" (also addressed in his hand) and "G Welles". Each lightly soiled and near 5.5" x 3"; excised from envelopes. Near fine.
[Abraham Lincoln] Edwin Stanton Autograph Letter Signed to Associate Justice of the Supreme Court John McLean. One page, 7.75" x 10", July 18, 1859, Washington, concerning Hussey v. McCormick. Age-toned with two small marginal nicks, else fine.
[Abraham Lincoln] Archive of Seventeen Autograph Letters Signed with Lincoln Content. All dated between February 22, 1861, and March 28, 1899, and covering various topics such as Lincoln's inauguration, enemies, and assassination. All letters are good to fine.
[Abraham Lincoln] 1860 Letter Written on Lincoln Stationery. Three pages, 5.25" x 8", October 25, 1860, Stafford [Connecticut], on a printed patriotic sheet with an engraved portrait of a beardless Abraham Lincoln in the upper left corner of page one. Light weakness at the folds, else fine.
[Abraham Lincoln] George Bancroft Book. Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln, Delivered at the Request of Both Houses of the Congress of America, Before Them, in the House of Representatives at Washington, on the 12th of February, 1866. [1866]. Pebbled-cloth over boards with gilt-lettering. Near fine.
[Abraham Lincoln] Group of 4 Engravings, 3 of which are by Currier & Ives (the fourth by an unknown engraver). All are b/w lithographic prints, near 10" x 15", with depictions of Lincoln's family, assassination, and burial. Published by Currier & Ives, Nassau St. New York, all 1860s and very good.
[Abraham Lincoln] Our American Cousin Souvenir Playbill reprinted shortly after President Lincoln's assassination. One page, 6" x 18.5", advertising the performance of Our American Cousin during which President Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth. With very minor tears; otherwise, near fine.
[Andrew Johnson] Military Appointment with a stamped "Andrew Johnson" signature, countersigned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. One vellum page partially printed, 16" x 19.5", "City of Washington", August 20, 1866. Original red-ink notations in top left; folds and light wrinkling. Overall fine condition.
[Ulysses S. Grant] Funeral Card, black-bordered, 4.5" x 3", admitting one to "Westminster Abbey./ Memorial Service for General Grant,/ Tuesday, 4th August, 1885". Small tear along right edge. Also, [James Garfield] Unsigned Carte de Visite, 2.5" x 4", n.d., n.p., with basic printed information about Garfield on verso. Some slight discoloration on photo. Both are near fine.
Rutherford B. Hayes Autograph Note Signed as president. One page, 4.5" x 2.75", May 15, 1880, Washington, D.C., on Executive Mansion card. This note of introduction is mounted on cardstock 8.5" x 7" overall. Light soiling and a minor smudge to the first three letters of Cincinnati, else fine.
Rutherford B. Hayes Document Signed "R B Hayes" as the nineteenth president and countersigned by Secretary of War Alexander Ramsey. One page, 15.5" x 19.5", December 28, 1880, "City of Washington". With flattened folds; fine.
James A. Garfield Manuscript Letter Signed. One page, 4.75" x 8", March 6, 1880, Washington, D.C., on United States House of Representatives lined paper, to R. P. Cannon of Aurora, Portage County, Ohio. Mounted on cardstock 8" x 11" overall. Very fine.
Grover Cleveland Naval Appointment Signed as the twenty-second president. One vellum page, 17.75" x 11.75", November 17, 1886, "City of Washington". Countersigned by Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney. Flattened folds; very good.
Grover Cleveland Document Signed as the twenty-second president and countersigned by Secretary of War William C. Endicott. One page, 15.5" x 19.5", February 1, 1888, "City of Washington". With folds; fine.
Grover Cleveland Printed Document Signed and Engrossed as sheriff of Erie County, New York. One page, partly printed, 5" x 8", July 24, 1871, Buffalo [New York], concerning fees for serving papers. This early Cleveland signature is written above the crossed-out name of Charles Darcy, the previous Erie County sheriff. Fine.
Grover Cleveland Signed Marine Appointment. Partially printed DS "Grover Cleveland", 17.25" x 13.25" (sight), City of Washington, April 1, 1896, appointing "Henry S. Mathewson... an Assistant Surgeon in the Marine Hospital Service of the United States." Framed to an overall size of 21.25" x 17.5".
Benjamin Harrison: This Country of Ours. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1897], 12mo. With a BEP engraving of the White House signed "Benj. Harrison" mounted on the front paste-down. The book has very minor wear; near fine.
Benjamin Harrison Two Autograph Documents Signed in pencil. Individual telegraphs sent to "Mrs. Benj Harrison" and John E. Patterson. Neither are dated. Both are signed "Benj Harrison"; with irregular edges. Near fine.
William McKinley Signed and Annotated Document. One page, 7.5" x 5.5", January 17, 1871, Stark County, Ohio. A legal document notarized by McKinley with the notary information in his hand. McKinley practiced law in Canton, Ohio and served as prosecuting attorney of Stark County from 1869 to 1871. Repairs on the verso and residue from mounting, else near fine.
William McKinley Document Signed as president and countersigned by Attorney General John W. Griggs. One page, 18" x 14", March 7, 1901, "City of Washington". Both signatures are large and bold. Some separation, including through the "ley" of McKinley's signature. Document has been affixed to poster board. Toned; very good.
Theodore Roosevelt Typed Letter Signed. One page, 6.25" x 7" (sight), July 3, 1912, New York, on The Outlook letterhead, matted to 9.5" x 10.25" overall. Roosevelt is thanking the recipient, M. A. Gunst of San Francisco, for a telegram. Folds, repair to the verso, with a printed image of TR attached to the verso, else, near fine.
Theodore Roosevelt Document Signed as president and countersigned by Secretary of War Elihu Root. One page, 21" x 16", December 7, 1903, "City of Washington". Both signatures are large and bold. Toned with no folds; near very fine.
Theodore Roosevelt Document Signed as president and countersigned by Secretary of War Elihu Root. One page, 21" x 16", August 10, 1903, "City of Washington". Both signatures are large, bold, and clear. Toned with no folds; very fine.
Theodore Roosevelt Typed Letter Signed "Theodore Roosevelt". One page, 8.5" x 11", on Roosevelt's Kansas City Star letterhead, New York, July 15, 1918, to Major General David C. Shanks, Hoboken, New Jersey, with the usual fold creases, signature slightly faded, else bold and in near fine condition. Roosevelt includes a post script declining an invitation for a speaking engagement.
Theodore Roosevelt Letter Signed as President. LS, "Theodore Roosevelt", one page, 7.25" x 9", White House stationery, Washington, D.C., October 25, 1901, to William P. Flood. Light horizontal fold across page crosses top of capital letters in signature.
Theodore Roosevelt Signed and Inscribed Photograph, 7.5" x 9.5" Harris & Ewing print, chest-up portrait. Signed beneath the albumen on the mount: "With all good wishes for the success of the movement for Pan-American Peace and Friendship. Theodore Roosevelt April 27th 1908." An important inscription as President. Albumen has considerable fading as well as a dark spot and cracking at lower left. Mount has chipping at right margin, with a bold and prominent inscription. In a period frame to an overall size of 15.5" x 18".
William Taft Photo Signed "For Fred A Emery with best/ wishes of Wm. H Taft", 6.75" x 8.75", sepia toned, showing a smiling Taft using a candlestick telephone. With embossed copyright stamp in lower right of famed Washington photographers Harris & Ewing. Mounting remnants on verso, else fine.
William H. Taft Autograph Letter Signed. Written on "Charles D. Hilles/ Washington, D.C." stationery, 8" x 4", n.d., thanking "Harry" for his organization's hard work. Fine.
William Taft Autograph Letter Signed as chief justice on Supreme Court Letterhead, to West Virginia Senator Howard Sutherland. One and one-half pages, January 7, 1922, Washington, D.C., declining an invitation by "the Mason's Club" to give a speech. Fine.
William H. Taft Document Signed "Wm H. Taft" as president and countersigned by Acting Secretary of the Navy Beekman Winthrop. One page, 16" x 19.5", August 12, 1910, Washington, [D.C.]. This document, affixed with a dark blue U.S. Navy seal, appoints Edwin N. McClellan "First Lieutenant in the Marine Corps". This official Marine Corps appointment has a very nice example of Taft's signature; age-toned with some stains and foxing. Near fine.
William H. Taft Document Signed "Wm H. Taft" as president and countersigned by Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer.. One vellum page, 14.5" x 17", April 13, 1911, Washington, [D.C.]. This document appoints Henry W. Carpenter as "Major in the Marine Corps" and is engraved with maritime and martial vignettes; affixed with a dark blue U.S. Navy seal. Both signatures have faded, making Meyer's signature difficult to read. Some wrinkling; fine.
Woodrow Wilson Document Signed as president. One page, 15" x 19.5", September 14, 1916, Washington, [D.C.]. Countersigned by Secretary of Navy Josephus Daniels. This document officially appoints Edwin N. McClellan "Captain in the Marine Corps." Contains bright blue Department of the Navy seal. Slight soiling; fine condition.
Warren G. Harding Signed White House Card, .5" x 2.75", n.d., Washington, D.C., Mounted on cardstock 8.25" x 7" overall. Light soiling, else near very fine.
[Warren G. Harding] Presidential Appointment Signed by Edwin Denby, Secretary of the Navy Washington, D.C., December 21, 1922, 14.5" x 18.5" document appointing Rudolph Owen a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the U.S. Navy. Secretary of the Navy Framed, minor creases, toning and wear, else near fine.
Calvin Coolidge Document Signed as president. One page, large oblong folio, 23" x 19", Washington, February 15, 1925, promoting Harold L. Williamson to Foreign Service Officer. The United States seal is attached in the lower left portion of the document. Together with an 8.25" x 11.5" engraving of Coolidge. Both near fine to fine.
Herbert Hoover Booklet Signed on the cover. American Ideals Versus the New Deal. New York: Scribner Press. Undated, though likely 1936 (all of the nine speeches contained therein were delivered in 1935 and 1936, making this likely a campaign book for the 1936 election.) The booklet, authored by the former president, is in fine condition. The ink in "Hoover" has smeared.
Herbert Hoover Book Signed, "To Parker Sr Pillsbury/ With the good Wishes of/ Herbert Hoover" on the front endpaper. The Challenge to Liberty. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1934], 212 pages, red-cloth binding with gold lettering, 8vo (5.5" x 7.75"), authored by Hoover. Near fine.
Herbert Hoover Typed Letter Signed "Herbert Hoover", two pages, 7.25" x 10.5", personal letterhead, April 6, 1943, to William D. Mitchell. In fine condition, with two folds and a paper-clip mark in the upper left corner.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Typed Letter Signed as New York Governor on State of New York letterhead. One page, Albany, New York, March 11, 1929. To Herman Gedaly, Chairman of the City Trust Company Depositors Protective Association (in part): "I am very grateful to you for your telegram and no one could be happier than I am that the depositors of the City Trust Company will have complete security for every cent of their deposits..." Original folds, some soiling, heavily faded type, signature faded to brown, else good.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Typed Letter Signed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. One page, 7" x 9.25", Washington, D.C., May 5, 1913. To Gustavus A. Rogers of New York acknowledging a letter received, "I am doing all I can to help you out in this matter and have taken it up in person with the proper officials of the War Department." Paper slightly toned with the usual fold creases, else near fine.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Typed Letter Signed as president. One page, 7" x 8.75", February 8, 1944, Washington, D.C., on light green White House stationary. Included is a letter of transmittal by William V. O'Connor gifting the the FDR letter to the recipient. The FDR letter has a central fold and light toning around the edges, else very fine.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Typed Letter Signed as president on White House letterhead with original transmittal envelope. One page, 7" x 9", Washington, D.C., August 14, 1933. To Reverend Robert Maxwell Bradner declining an invitation to attend a service. Even toning, one fold, very good.
Dwight Eisenhower Signed Copy of The White House Years: Waging Peace, 1956-1961. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., [1965]. This special signed edition is number 456 of 1,434 copies. Fine condition.
Dwight Eisenhower Signed Copy of The White House Years: Mandate for Change, 1953-1956. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., [1963]. Special signed edition limited to 1,434 copies; this is number 456. Fine condition.
Gerald Ford White House Card Signed in bold, black ink, 4" x 2.5". "The White House/ Washington" is printed in blue ink at the top right. Very fine.
Gerald Ford Signed Copy of Global Stability: An Address by Gerald Ford Visa International-Quebec, September 8, 1980. Signed on last page, "Gerald R. Ford." (Northridge, California: Lord John Press, 1981), number 43 of 400. Miniature book, 29 pages. Gilt-stamped blue leather backstrip over marbled boards. Fine.
Gerald Ford Signed Photograph. Color, 8" x 10", n.d. Boldly signed. Fine.
Jimmy Carter Signed and Numbered Limited Edition of His Farewell Address: Farewell Address of President Jimmy Carter. Palaemon Press, first and only separate edition. 9pp, blue cloth binding with gilt lettering on the spine, 4to (6.25" x 10.25"), housed in a blue cloth original slipcase with a title plate affixed to the front board. Signed "Jimmy Carter" on the title page. Limited to 300 numbered copies, of which 150 were reserved for Mr. Carter, and 50 reserved for hors-commerce distribution by the publisher, thus leaving only 100 copies available for public distribution. Mint
[Charles I] Land Grant from Berthelemy Caulier of London to Alice Wevells of Canterbury, 1630. One page with docketing on the verso, 11.5" x 6.75", February 12, 1630, [London], on vellum with a velum riband. Folds, light toning, else very fine.
[Queen Elizabeth I] Manuscript Document, one page (docketing on verso), 20.5" x 14.25", vellum, June 9, in Old English. The document has its original Elizabethan wax seal, though approximately 20% of it has broken away and is missing. Still, much of the detail remains on both sides of the seal. Hole in the upper right of the document, one small repair, and two minor holes at the bottom fold, else, near very fine.
George III Signature "George R." as King of England, 5" x 3", n.d., n.p. A strong signature. Toned paper is slightly soiled. Fine.
[Henry VII] Grant of Tenement, the Hart and the Swan, Sandwich, 1475. One page with docketing on the verso, 10.5" x 5", October 10, "anno Regni reg[is] Henric[i] post conq[uestu]m Angli[e] septimi decimo" [1475], Sandwich [England], on vellum with a velum riband and remnants of the red wax seal, in Latin. Folds, light soiling on the verso, else very fine.
[Pope Sixtus V] Papal Bull. One page with docketing on the verso, 33" x 24", May 25, 1585, Rome, on vellum, in Latin. Although untranslated, the document appears to deal with the appointment of apostolic delegates. The document has some text weakness and small holes at the folds. The lead "bulla", or seal, and cords are missing, else fine.
Empress Victoria of Germany and Princess Victoria of Prussia Autograph Letter Jointly Signed, a two-part letter written and signed by both the daughter and granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain expressing royal grief at the death of Prince Leopold. Four integral pages, 4.5" x 7", bordered in black for morning and topped by the princess' crowned cypher, April 8, 1884, Berlin. Fine.
Rockwell Kent and Raphael Soyer Signed Reproductions. Three individually signed reproductions, each between 6.5" x 9.25 and 7.5" x 10.5". The Raphael Soyer has a second image on the verso. All fine.
Andy Warhol Signed Printed Catalogue Illustration of Liz, Warhol's Portrait of Elizabeth Taylor. One page with printed copy on the verso, 8.75" x 5.5", boldly signed in felt-tip pen. Very fine.
Andy Warhol Signed Printed Catalogue Illustration of Campbell's Tomato Juice Carton. One page with printed verso, 5.75" x 9.125", boldly signed in felt-tip pen. Very fine.
Matthew Arnold Autograph Letter Signed. One page, 4.5" x 7" mounted and framed to an overall size of 8.5" x 10.5", Cobham, Surrey, February 9, 1888. Arnold grants permission to print two of his poems, "Morality" and "Monica's Last Prayer." Bold ink and light age-toning; fine condition. From the Estate of Glenn Ford.
Charles George "Chinese" Gordon Note Signed. One page, 7" x 3", sight size, n.d., n.p. Gordon writes, "No. 88/ [?]/ If [?] can spare you. Report yourself to Mr. James who will see to you. C.G. Gordon / Govr Genl / Soudan." Attractively matted with a portrait of General Gordon, 19.5" x 13.5" overall. Light filing pin hole in upper left corner of note, else extremely fine.
Thomas Hardy Autograph Quotation Signed. One page, 4.5" x 7", February 1890, Dorchester, on "Max Gate [Hardy's home], Dorchester" stationery: "Every object in nature seems to bear evidence of an unfulfilled Intention." Toned; fine.
Ernest Hemingway Signature "Ernest Hemingway", on caramel-colored heavy stock, 2.75" x 2". Bold and clear signature; very fine.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Autograph Letter Signed "O. W. Holmes". One page, 4.75" x 8", January 6, 1882, Boston, to "I. K. Funk & Co.", declining the opportunity to review a book published by the New York publishing company. With a small tear along top edge; fine.
Henry W. Longfellow Autograph Letter Signed. Two and one-quarter pages, 4.5" x 7", January 8, 1878, Cambridge, declining an invitation to send unpublished poems to be included in a proposed volume "relating to the sea"; with references to some of his previous works. Mounting remnants on verso of last page; fine.
James Whitcomb Riley Autograph Note Signed on the back of an envelope, 5" x 4", [ca. December 27, 1902], concerning the death of author Mary Hartwell Catherwood. Fine.
John Ruskin Autograph Letter Signed "J Ruskin" (one page, 4.5" x 7", n.d., n.p.) concerning a personal visit. With an Autograph Note Signed in the Third Person, one page, 4.5" x 6.5", 1883, on "Brantwood, Coniston, Lancaster" letterhead, explaining that he "has no mind for writing autographs after his day's work". Both are fine.
J. D. Salinger Signed Note on First Day Cover, postmarked February 2, 1952, New York, N.Y. The cover, 6.5" x 3.75" [sight], commemorates southern author Joel Chandler Harris. Framed and matted together with an image of Salinger for an overall size of 14.5" x 1".
[Authors] Upton Sinclair Typed Letter Signed (1919); Julian Hawthorne Typed Letter Signed (1908); and Edwin Markham Autograph Letter Signed (1908). Concerning various literary-related topics. All are near fine to fine.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Autograph Quotation Signed. One page, 5" x 7.5", August 20 [n.y.], Ferry Park Hotel, Saco, Maine, quoting two Bible verses (Psalms 37:7 and Isaiah 42:4). On lined paper; toned. Fine.
John Greenleaf Whittier Autograph Letter Signed "John G. Whittier". One page (front and back), 4" x 5", November 8, 1878, Danvers, Massachusetts, to "Dear frd [friend]", referring the recipient to some of Whittier's poems and to "my publisher J. R. Osgood & Co." for "the permission to use these poems". Fine.
Charles Lindbergh Signature, "Charles A. Lindbergh", one page, 6" x 4", April 17, 1939, Washington, D.C., in black ink. Fine.
Azzario Flavio Aereoplane Printed Facsimile Manuscript. One page, 19.75" x 13.25", n.d., n.p., with text in Italian on left and early airplane diagrams on right. Age-toned with some separation at the folds; some have been repaired with tape. Very good.
Glenn L. Martin Typed Letter Signed. One page, 8.5" x 11", July 16, 1929, on the Glenn L. Martin Company letterhead. Martin congratulates "Master Robert Braly" on his interest in aeronautics and encourages the young man to continue his studies. Sold with the original transmittal letter. Folds, general toning, and a slight rust spot in the upper left corner, else very fine.
Photography
Photo Signed by Three Astronauts: Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Scott Carpenter. B/w, 8" x 10", n.d., photo of President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson and group, including seven astronauts, at the White House Rose Garden. With bold signatures within the white signature border; near very fine.
Autographs
Henry Ward Beecher Autograph Letter Signed. One page, 4.75" x 8", October 10, 1885, Brooklyn, New York, on Beecher's personal stationery, to "Pach Bros.", concerning "a framed copy of the military group which you took at Peekskill Camp ground". Toned; fine.
Edwin Booth Autograph Letter Signed. One page, 5" x 8", March 5, 1891, Gramercy Park, thanking the recipient for a book. Toned and in fine condition. Matted and framed with an image of the actor to an overall size of 11" x 23.5".
Luther Burbank Photo Signed and Autograph Quotation Signed. The photograph, (6" x 8.5", n.d.) shows a seated, gray-haired Burbank. The quotation (one page, 5.75" x 9", February 12, 1918, Santa Rosa, California) is from the poem Success. Both items are fine.
Rowland Hill Autograph Letter Signed "Rowl. Hill". One page, 6.25" x 7.75", August 27, 1821, recommending a communicant to Surrey Chapel. Addressed to "Rev. R. Neroth" on verso. With folds; fine.
Belva Lockwood Signed Sentiment and Printed Booklet. One card, 4.25" x 2.5", n.d., "619 F. St. N.W. Wash. D.C.", with sentiment "Yours/ For equal rights/ Belva A. Lockwood". Along with printed booklet containing a poem by Marabus Oglethorpe. Fine.
Frances E. Willard Autograph Quotation Signed. One page, 4.5" X 7", "New Year, 1897", n.p.: "Only the Golden Rule can bring the Golden Age." This quotation was written by the women's suffragist and temperance reformer a year before her death. Toned; fine.