
Please note that the results listed on this page are inclusive of any Sotheby's Premiums and exclusive of any applicable taxes and costs, unless otherwise noted.
Please note that the results listed on this page are inclusive of any Sotheby's Premiums and exclusive of any applicable taxes and costs, unless otherwise noted.
American Manuscripts & other Property from the Collection of Elsie and Philip Sang
30 September - 14 October 2020 • New York
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Your local time • 16:00 PM GMT

1. GEORGE WASHINGTON | George Washington plans the retaliatory Sullivan Expedition against Upstate New York Tories and their allies from the Iroquois Confederacy

2. JOHN ADAMS | In a letter candid even by the standards of his correspondence with Benjamin Rush, John Adams discusses the site of the Federal government, appointments to the first Supreme Court, and his view of the vice presidency

3. THOMAS JEFFERSON | In a compelling and wide-ranging letter to his old friend Philip Mazzei, Thomas Jefferson expresses confidence in the "incalculable value" of the just-completed Louisiana Purchase

4. JAMES MADISON | An appointment for a tax assessor in Pennsylvania signed by James Madison and James Monroe

5. JAMES MONROE | James Monroe, as 5th President of the United States, addresses his Scottish ancestry, evidencing that the biographical dictionaries of the period were wrong

6. JAMES MONROE | A presidential land grant, signed by James Monroe, as 5th President, and countersigned by Josiah Meigs, as Commissioner of the General Land Office

7. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS | John Quincy Adams explains the motivations for President Washington's retirement to Jean Luzac, editor of the highly influential Gazette de Leyde

8. ANDREW JACKSON | A warm and open letter from Andrew Jackson to his wife, Rachel

9. MARTIN VAN BUREN | A letter from the President-elect Martin Van Buren to his son Abraham imploring him to write more frequently

10. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON | Autograph note signed by the shortest-serving president in U.S. history

11. JOHN TYLER | Against the backdrop of continuing boundary negotiations with Mexico and Texas, President Tyler offers assistance to a young relative of Chief Justice Roger Taney

12. JAMES K. POLK | A scarce James K. Polk presidential land grant reassigning a tract originally deeded to a member of the Creek people

13. ZACHARY TAYLOR | A letter signed by one of the shortest-serving U.S. presidents, to the father of vegetarianism and inventor of the Graham cracker

14. MILLARD FILLMORE | Vice President Fillmore responds to a request for assistance

15. FRANKLIN PIERCE | A letter from President Pierce, noting the character of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis

16. JAMES BUCHANAN | A letter from President Buchanan to Robert Tyler, discussing the merits and appointments of various candidates

17. ABRAHAM LINCOLN | A great Lincoln letter rediscovered: The President thanks a schoolboy on behalf of “all the children of the nation” for his efforts to ensure "that this war shall be successful, and the Union be maintained and perpetuated."

18. ANDREW JOHNSON | President Andrew Johnson paroles five leading Confederate politicians, including the former Vice President and two cabinet members

19. ULYSSES S. GRANT | Ulysses Grant directs General Philip Sheridan to achieve a racial balance among the volunteer troops under his command

20. ULYSSES S. GRANT | President Grant invites Senator George Vickers of Maryland to attend an extraordinary session of the Senate

21. ULYSSES S. GRANT | President Grant pardons the three Rochester, New York, election officials who allowed Susan B. Anthony to vote in the 1872 presidential election

22. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES | A presentation copy, with autograph letter, of a scarce Civil War pamphlet sponsored by Rutherford B. Hayes

23. JAMES GARFIELD | A letter by the future president, destined for assassination sixteen years later, mentioning the death of President Lincoln

24. JAMES A. GARFIELD | A warm letter, written and signed by President Garfield in office, thanking George Bancroft for roses sent to the First Lady

25. CHESTER A. ARTHUR | A warm letter from the 21st President, thanking W.B. Dinsmore for this attentions

26. GROVER CLEVELAND | A document suspending Warren A. Worden from his position as Consul of the United States at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

27. GROVER CLEVELAND | A lengthy letter from the President to Lemuel Clarke Davis, editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger

28. BENJAMIN HARRISON | Senator Harrison recommending Col. William Holloway to President Garfield, and asking that he be given official recognition

29. WILLIAM MCKINLEY | William McKinley bestows a special commendation on the Eighth Army Corps for their service in the Spanish-American War

30. WILLIAM MCKINLEY | William McKinley expresses gratitude for the end of the Spanish-American War in his 1899 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation

31. THEODORE ROOSEVELT | A vacationing Teddy Roosevelt decries the proliferation of "faked" news

32. THEODORE ROOSEVELT | Roosevelt addresses a crowd at Cairo, Illinois, about international and domestic affairs, and governmental regulation on the eve of Panic of 1907

33. THEODORE ROOSEVELT | Proof Photographic Frontispiece of Roosevelt in his Rough Riders Uniform from Big Game Hunting in the Rockies, 1899

34. THEODORE ROOSEVELT | Theodore Roosevelt. Photograph signed ("Theodore Roosevelt"), circa 1918

35. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT | William Howard Taft writes to Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson regarding malfeasance and personnel changes at the Bureau of Chemistry

36. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT | As his doomed reelection campaign draws to an end, President Taft thanks John Wanamaker for his support

37. WOODROW WILSON | President-elect Woodrow Wilson assures Edward Filene that he holds Louis Brandeis "in very high esteem"

38. WOODROW WILSON | Woodrow Wilson confides to a pacifist supporter that the involvement of allied nations in World War I constrains him from publicly speaking for peace

39. WARREN G. HARDING | A very rare autograph letter signed by Warren G. Harding as President

40. CALVIN COOLIDGE | A rare autograph letter signed by Calvin Coolidge as Vice President

41. CALVIN COOLIDGE | Calvin Coolidge congratulates Myron Herrick, the U.S. Ambassador to France, on his speech at Saint-Nazaire, defending the Mellon-Bérenger Accord

42. CALVIN COOLIDGE | An unusually fine Calvin Coolidge presidential appointment signed

43. HERBERT HOOVER | Herbert Hoover accepts the Republican nomination, as the shadow of the Great Depression looms large in the American psyche

44. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT | President Franklin Roosevelt discusses an extension of Social Security benefits to include hospitalization—the germ of Medicare

45. HARRY S. TRUMAN | President Truman congratulates Emily Greene Balch on being awarded the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize, providing direct refutation of the claim on the official website of the Nobel Prize that Balch "received no congratulations from the US government."

46. HARRY S. TRUMAN | A series of thank-you letters from former President Truman

47. HARRY S. TRUMAN & BESS TRUMAN | Two vintage photographs signed by both Harry and Bess Truman, 10 June 1961

48. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER | Dwight D. Eisenhower discusses Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in Chief