London, United Kingdom: likely late 1800s. Single four page letter measuring 4 ½ x 7 inches. Frances Anne “Fanny” Kemble (1809–1893) was a British actor, writer, and later abolitionist. After her initial retirement from acting, she married Pierce Mease Butler, maternal grandson of American Founding Father Pierce Butler. Butler and.....
Mostly Atlanta: 1940s-1950s. Leatherette album measuring 12 x 9 inches. With over 225 images, most 4 ½ x 2 ¾ inches. Very well preserved and nearly complete with three empty slots, about fine overall. A compelling visual record of the childhood of Mable Williams of Atlanta, Georgia, a high school.....
New York City: Bruno of Hollywood and other uncredited photographers, 1950s–1960s. Photo album measuring 9 ¼ x 11 ¼ inches, containing forty-seven photographs, mainly 4 x 5 inches and smaller with some 8 x 10. Most photos loosely affixed with some having detached. An album of photographs of African American.....
Evansville, Indiana: N.p., 1920s. Poster on heavy cardstock measuring 14 x 10 ¾ inches. A poster advertising a fundraising drive to preserve Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. The drive was organized by the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, an early civil rights group then.....
Washington, D.C. 1971. Approximately 7 x 9 inches. Editorial mark to text recto, World Wide Photos stamp verso. Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005) was a Democratic politician and the first Black woman elected to US Congress, representing New York’s 12th congressional district from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first.....
Tallahassee, Florida: September 1971. Single photograph measuring 6 ¼ x 9 inches. Manuscript caption verso reading “Joyce Warner, Tallahassee, / Miss Black America” with newspaper article affixed and stamped “SEP231971”. A press photo of Joyce Warner, who was crowned Miss Black America in 1971. The Miss Black America competition was.....
New York City: 1936. Single photograph measuring 8 x 9 ½ inches with editorial overpainting. Verso with “Tribune Engraving Room” stamp dated November 1937, two articles featuring the photo with stamps dated March 1936 and December 1937, barcode sticker, and manuscript reading “Josephine Baker”. A photograph of Josephine Baker seated.....
Washington, D.C. Shirley Chisholm for President Headquarters, 1972. 4 + 4 pp. A scarce pair of positional papers published by the Shirley Chisholm campaign, outlining her positions on foreign aid and the Middle East. During the campaign, Chisholm consistently affirmed Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, aligning with other.....
[Sycamore, DeKalb County, Illinois]: April 2 and April 12, 1865. Two autograph letters, signed “Rosa,” docketed on rear likely in Everell Dutton’s hand, 4 and 5 pages, 8 x 5 inches. Two letters written in the final weeks of the Civil War by Rosina Adelpha Paine Dutton of Sycamore, Illinois.....
Virginia City: Sutterley and Co., 1864-1867. Albumen photograph on mount, 4 x 2 ½ inches. Pauline Cushman was an actress and one of the most successful spies for the Union Army. She ingratiated herself with the Confederate army by toasting Jefferson Davis after one of her performances. She was eventually.....
1927-1945. Various sizes and dates. Clara Adams was a wealthy widow who took up air travel in its early days, setting records for transatlantic flights and circumnavigation as a commercial airline passenger. In doing so, she helped popularize flying as a safe and comfortable way to travel. She was friends.....
Taunton, Province of Massachusetts Bay: November 28, 1776. Sheet measuring 7 ½ x 12 inches, docketed on the verso. A legal document dating from near the end of the American colonial era, documenting a 1773 verdict against Lydia Curtis, an Attleboro resident, for fornication and bastardy; that is, intercourse and.....
Wilcox County, Alabama: November 1857. Two documents, totaling five double-sided pages measuring 8 x 13 inches and six double-sided pages measuring 7 ½ x 12 inches. Two legal documents from an Alabama chancery court suit brought against Susannah Nettles by her husband, James C. Nettles, concerning ownership of an enslaved.....
Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Ontario: 1885–1909. Seventy-four letters in thirty-seven envelopes, mainly dating between 1885 and 1895. With two undated and one empty envelope. Conditions vary with a few letters having damage intersecting with significant amounts of text and others Near Fine. A collection of letters mainly sent between Captain.....
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; and others: 1910s or 20s. Eleven photographs, approximately 7 x 9 ½ inch and smaller. With stamps for Brown Brothers, Illustrations Bureau, and E.J. Reily verso; most with captions verso. Open-air schools became popular in the United States in the early 20th century in response to public.....
Holyoke and Northfield: Litho Inc. / American Youth Hostels, 1939. First Edition. Includes: Bicycle for Adventure on the Youth Hostel Trail. Holyoke, Massachusetts, c. 1939: Valley Litho Inc. Lithographed poster, 19 x 25 inches; Take to the A.Y.H. Trail. Northfield, 1939: American Youth Hostels . Lithographed poster, 17 x 22.....
Elliott Mission, Choctaw Nation: April 29, 1820. Four pages bifolium, 10 x 8 inches. Stampless cover bearing the scarce “Choctaw Agency May 25” manuscript marking and “Via Philadelphia” routing notation, described in the original philatelic history sale as possibly “one of the earliest, if not the earliest, cover known from.....
San Francisco, California: c. 1915. Single photograph measuring 6 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches. Brown Brothers stamps with manuscript caption verso, with other manuscript markings. In the early 20th century, in order to appease increasing anti-Japanese sentiment in California without offending the growing world power, the US and Japan reached.....
Southern California: c. 1900–1910. Ten photographs measuring 8 x 10 inches and smaller, with most measuring 5 x 7 inches. Brown Brothers stamps and manuscript captions verso; some with editorial overpainting; some mounted on heavy cardstock. Japanese immigration to the US began at a large scale following the midcentury loosening.....
United States: 1905–1910. Fourteen photographs measuring approximately 6 ¾ x 8 ½ inch and smaller. Brown Brothers stamps and manuscript captions verso. Fourteen photographs of men and women at work in an unnamed shoe factory, dated 1905–1910. Most have captions at least naming the task that the workers are engaged.....
Nashua: J. Riley, 1880s-1890s. Albumen photograph, 5 ½ x 4 inches on larger mount. A portrait of seven women holding weaving shuttles, most likely mill workers in Nashua. Two large mills, the Nashua Manufacturing Company and the Jackson Manufacturing Company, were active during this period, though we cannot confirm if.....
Newport: 1880s. Single page with writing on both sides, signed by Howe. Fine condition. A short but interesting note from Julia Ward Howe to Albert Bagby, the Illinois-born musician who trained with Liszt in Germany and would eventually be a longtime host of “Mr. Bagby’s Musical Mornings” at the Waldorf-Astoria.....
Boston, Massachusetts: G. Schirmer, Jr., 1886. Forty page booklet measuring 4 ¼ x 6 ½ inches, in paper wraps. A biography of German pianist Anna Clark-Steiniger by English writer and cremation proponent John Storer Cobb. The biography details Steiniger’s early years as a student of Theodor Kullak and Ludwig Deppe.....
Quincy, Massachusetts: unpublished, 1926. 201 pp, cardstock wraps. Alice Brackett (White) Coolidge (1864–1927) was a Boston socialite of the prominent Richardson family; her grandfather was merchant and Massachusetts State Legislator Jeffrey Richardson. Coolidge was also the author of three children’s books: The Bunnies of Evergreen Village (1917), The Refugees in.....
Sandusky, Ohio: c. 1865. 2 ½ x 4 inch CDV. A photograph by Sandusky, Ohio-based photographer A. C. Platt showing the new Ladies Hall at Oberlin College, around 1865. Oberlin was the first college in the US to admit women, initially offering them a degree from the “Ladies Department” but.....