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.....
Lexington, Kentucky: 1980s or 90s. 10 ¾ x 16 inch sheet. Poster for an event at the University of Kentucky featuring KRS-One and Kwame Ture (misspelled “Toure”), formerly known as Stokely Carmichael. Ture was a central figure in the civil rights and Black power movements: among numerous other activities, he.....
California: 1950s. Three 8 x 10 inch photographs. Brown Brothers stamps verso. Marked on negatives with numbering; one also reading “RUBY DEE Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer”. One marked recto with copyright to United Artists Corporation. Ruby Dee (1922–2014) was an acclaimed actress and civil rights activist. She began her career with the American.....
Sedalia, Missouri: 1929. 11 x 18 inches, heavy cardstock. Manuscript note verso reads “Flor Alpino Vals / Vanderbeck”. An advertisement for a performance by the Original Eleven Clouds of Joy, likely an iteration—of which there were many—of the popular Kansas City-based swing jazz band Clouds of Joy. The group was.....
San Francisco, California: c. 1910. Single photograph, approximately 6 ½ x 9 inches, manuscript verso reading “SF Barbary Coast 500 Block of Pacific ”THE SO DIFFERENT” now 550 Pacific Ave 1911”. Appears to be trimmed from a larger photograph. Portion of image cut and pasted with editorial overpainting. A photograph.....
Homestead, Pennsylvania: October 1952. 7 x 9 inch photograph. International News Photos and Tribune 4th Edition stamps verso, with newspaper clipping. Marked “623” in pencil recto. Olive Moorefield (b.1932) is an American opera singer and theater and film actress from Homestead, Pennsylvania. As the newspaper clipping on the back of.....
Cooperstown, New York: likely 1940. Eight postcards: one 3 ½ x 8 inch and seven 3 ½ x 5 ½ inch. All with Brown Brothers stamps and captions verso. James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) was an American author from Cooperstown, New York - the town was named for his father, William.....
Sonora and Groveland, CA; Portland, OR; and Orange, NJ: February–October 1896. 8 ½ x 13 ½ inch cash book, thirty-two pages, with nine loose sheets. A cash book for an unnamed business selling out of California, Oregon, and New Jersey in 1896. The book records total merchandise value, cash and.....
Benton Harbor, MI: early 1920s. Single 3 ½ x 5 ½ inch real photo postcard, captioned “House of David Ball Players”. The Israelite House of David is a millenarian religious group, formed in 1903 by Benjamin and Mary Purnell. Its members are abstinent and vegetarian, and in its earlier days.....
El Dorado County, California: 1879–1902. Sixteen items, mainly letters and descriptions of mining claims which total thirty-seven handwritten pages. Of the written pages: one 7 ½ x 7 ½ inch, three 8 x 5 inch, twenty 8 x 10 inch, seven 8 x 12 ½ inch, and six 8 x......
Eureka, California: 1868–1873. Single 5 ½ x 12 inch ledger book with five small pages of notes and one short letter. Forty-two pages of the ledger filled out with many more blank. Offered here is a wharfage fee account ledger from Eureka, California, with dates between 1868 and 1873. The.....
Eureka South, CA: 1866–1868. 7 ½ x 12 inch ledger book, 33pp with many more blank. Front cover near detached and back cover detached, missing spine, some staining of inside pages. Many inside pages torn out. An accounting ledger with some annual meeting notes of the American Exchequer Gold Mining.....
Orangevale, California: 1901–1911. 4 ½ x 7 ½ inch notebook, 124 pages. A notebook belonging to Charles W. Landis (1877–1943), an Oakland-based civil engineer with Landis Bros. It is unclear with which brother Charles W. was in business, as both of his brothers are listed as ranchers. The notebook contains.....
Sacramento, California: 1922. 17 ½ x 24 inches. In 1922, the United States Supreme Court decided United States v. Southern Pacific Company et al., declaring the Southern Pacific Company’s ownership of a controlling part—46%—of the Central Pacific Railroad’s stock in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and requiring that this.....
Santa Cruz and Stanford, California: c. 1901. Approximately forty-nine 7 x 10 inch pages with ninety-four 3 ½ x 3 ½ inch photos; five 1 ½ x 2 inch photos; one 1 ½ x 4 ½ inch photo; and one 5 x 6 ½ inch photo. Scrapbook of photographs, mainly.....
Shasta County and Siskiyou County: c. 1890s. Fifteen photographs, approximately 4 ½ x 7 ½ inches. Each mounted on heavy cardboard backing approximately 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, which is mounted on heavy cardboard of approximately 8 x 10 ½ inches. Unknown if photographs are stamped verso due to.....
Sears Township, California: 1880. 10 ½ x 16 inch ledger, seventy-five pages. A ledger of the Sears Township assessor, documenting assessment of property values. Sears Township does not appear to exist anymore, but a November 1891 census bulletin lists a Sears Township in Sierra County, with a population of 400.....
California, Texas, Illinois, and others: 1851–1935. 369 pieces: fourteen empty envelopes, 108 pieces of unsorted ephemera, and 247 letters. Of the letters, twenty-one are undated; three date from 1851–1909; nineteen from 1910–11; thirty-five from 1912; thirteen from 1913–17; forty-two from 1921; thirteen from 1922–24; sixty-eight from 1934; and thirty-three from.....
Seneca County, Ohio, and Iowa City, Iowa: 1856–1864. Five letters. Offered here are five letters, dating between 1856 and 1864, from Josiah Selby (1822–1888) to his younger brother William Selby (1826–1918) in El Dorado County, California. The letters mainly consist of fairly droll commentary on politics and current events. In.....
Washington, D.C. 1951. 10 x 12 inch sheet. A 1951 poster produced by the FBI explaining the national structure of the Communist Party USA, including names and photographs of the thirteen National Committee members and their nine alternates. During this time—slightly predating the formation of COINTELPRO—Hoover’s FBI was already engaged.....
Oakland, California: 1986. 18 x 25 inch poster on heavy cardstock. Poster for Run-DMC’S Raising Hell Tour featuring Whodini, LL Cool J, and R&B group Timex Social Club. Run-DMC were touring on their third studio album, Raising Hell, which went triple platinum. Later tour dates, including New York City, Pittsburgh.....
Queens, New York: 1982. 6 x 8 ½ inch flyer. Flyer for the “Great M.C. Showdown” at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, New York, hosted by Mr. Sweety-G. According to his personal website, Mr. Sweety-G—aka Glenn Toby—was working with some of the biggest hip hop artists of the.....
Oakland, California: 1987. 14 x 22 inches. Poster for the 87 Def Jam Tour date at the Oakland Coliseum with LL Cool J and Whodini headlining, and featuring influential hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, R&B singers New Choice, Roxanne Shante—known for the “Roxanne Wars”—and rapper Too Short.
Sacramento, California: 1990. 22 x 28 inch poster on heavy cardstock. Poster for the “Sizzling Summer” tour featuring Public Enemy, Heavy D. and the Boyz, Digital Underground, and others. Heavy D. and Digital Underground had recently released Big Tyme and Sex Packets respectively, both of which went Platinum in the.....
San Jose, California: 1989. 17 x 22 inch poster on heavy cardstock. Poster for “Rap Off ‘89”, a sizable hip-hop festival and possibly (as the name suggests) rap competition, held at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, California. The event features acts from Oakland (“Oak Town”), San Jose.....