Manuscripts, Documents, Ephemera

Album of signatures of nearly every <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=U.S.+President&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. President</a> from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=George+Washington&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">George Washington</a> to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, mostly clipped or franking <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signatures</a>.<ul><li>[assembled circa 1950].</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Each autograph mounted or tipped onto White Ace Presidential Series printed pages, with engraved portraits of each president mounted on facing leaves. </li><li>Not including James K. Polk (present as a printed signature only).</li><li>Twentieth century full navy blue morocco, seal of the U.S. in gilt on the upper cover, in a later blue slipcase.</li></ul> Signature Details:1) George Washington. Franking signature, on an address leaf addressed in his hand to Mrs. A. Stockton.2) John Adams. Franking signature, in an old and very shaky hand, on a clipped address panel addressed to General Dearborn, dated November 28, 1822, with the word "Roxbury" added in Adams's hand. 3) Thomas Jefferson. Franking signature, on a clipped address panel addressed to Mr. Isaac Briggs. Approx. Irregularly trimmed.4) James Madison. Franking signature, on a clipped address panel addressed in his hand to "Cutts, Esq. Washington"5) James Monroe. Clipped signature.6) John Quincy Adams. Franking signature, on a clipped address panel addressed in his hand to M. M. Jones in Utica, NY. 7) Andrew Jackson. Franking signature, clipped from an address panel. 8) Martin Van Buren. Clipped signature.9) William Henry Harrison. Clipped signature and valediction.10) John Tyler. Franking signature, clipped from an address panel addressed to Mrs. Elizabeth Watter. 11) James K. Polk. Printed signature, on small clipped sheet. 12) Zachary Taylor. Clipped signature and rank. 13) Millard Fillmore. Franking signature, on a clipped address panel addressed to Thurlow Weed. 14) Franklin Pierce. Franking signature, on a clipped front of a mourning stationery envelope.15) James Buchanan. Clipped signature and valediction.16) Abraham Lincoln. Clipped signature and valediction, "Yours truly."17) Andrew Johnson. Clipped signature and date, in pencil, on ruled paper. 18) Ulysses S. Grant. Signature, on card.19) Rutherford B. Hayes. Signature, on card with bevelled edges. 20) James A. Garfield. Clipped signature, on yellow paper. 21) Chester A. Arthur. Signature, on Executive Mansion card.22) Grover Cleveland. Signature, on Executive Mansion card. 23) Benjamin Harrison. Signature, on card with bevelled edges.24) William McKinley. Signature, on card. 25) Theodore Roosevelt. Signature, on White House card.26) William Taft. Signature, on card. 27) Woodrow Wilson. Clipped signature, from the bottom of a typed letter to George W. Whyte.28) Warren G. Harding. Clipped signature, from a partly-printed document. 29) Calvin Coolidge. Signature, on White House card. 30) Herbert Hoover. Signature, on small card. 31) Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Clipped signature, on blue ruled paper.

Album of Signatures of Nearly Every U.S. President from George Washington to Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Aaron Burr | Samuel Otis

Original subpoena issued in the name of President of the U.S. Senate, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Aaron+Burr&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aaron Burr</a>, requesting that the individuals named appear for testimony in the impeachment of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=US+Supreme+Court&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Supreme Court</a> Justice Samuel Chase.<ul><li>For Aaron Burr (American).</li><li>Named Individuals: Samuel Otis, William Rawle, Jared Ingersoll, Samuel Wheeler, and Thomas Carpenter.</li><li>Washington D.C.: 1804.&nbsp;</li><li>Signed twice (front and back) by Secretary of the U.S. Senate, Samuel Otis.</li></ul>

Samuel Chase | Subpoena For Impeachment | Twice Signed by Samuel Otis

Group of binders containing primarily inter-office memos from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Lyndon%20B.%20Johnson&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lyndon B. Johnson</a> pollster Fred Panzer, dating from January 1966 to January 1969.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 10 binders.</li><li>(Washington, D.C.):&nbsp;n.p,&nbsp;(1965-1969).</li><li>Primarily carbon, some typed and some photocopy on a variety of paper stocks.</li><li>Various other documents: photocopied reports, newspaper and magazine articles, et cetera.</li><li>Also includes: two 3" binders dating from July 1966-Feb 1967 containing memos by or to Tad Cantril; two 3" binders containing research for a position paper addressing the "credibility gap"; two 1.5" binders containing information on administration accomplishments from 1965; two folders containing transcripts of the LBJ Library Oral History Project interview with Panzer; and relating ephemera.</li><li>Approximately four linear feet in all.</li><li>Original binders unsalvageable and now perished; rehoused in new three-ring binders, maintaining original divisions and order.</li></ul> An exhaustive archive of polling, public opinion, and related papers (including memos and other internal communications, research materials, and like) belonging to Fred Panzer, President Lyndon B. Johnson's chief pollster. More than any other president preceding him, Johnson relied on polling. Similar statements could also have been made of JFK (and arguably Truman…and even FDR), but Johnson commissioned more than four times the number of polls as Kennedy. And while Kennedy utilized polling primarily in crafting his message, LBJ was the first president to extensively use polls in his decision- and policy-making. Therefore polling — and by extension Fred Panzer — helped shape the presidency in a way that hadn't been seen before. Ten binders from the desk of Fred Panzer make up the bulk of the archive, creating an exhaustive survey of his work at the White House. Several additional binders of related materials (research, file copies, etc.) round out the archive. Together, a comprehensive look at executive branch polling, both its directions and effects, during a particularly turbulent time in American history, all from the point of view of a man at the center of modern political public opinion.

Archive of White House Memoranda and Other Documents from Lyndon B. Johnson Pollster Fred Panzer

Martin Luther King, Jr.

An undocumented <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first printing</a> of The Riverside Church Speech by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Martin%20Luther%20King%20Jr&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Martin Luther King Jr</a>.<ul><li>Martin Luther King Jr. (American).</li><li>Later titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence.</li><li>n.p.:&nbsp;n.p,&nbsp;[1967].</li><li>8 pages.</li><li>Printed rectos only.</li><li>Top stapled self-wrappers.</li></ul> Previously unrecorded first printing of one of King's most important speeches: his anti-war address at The Riverside Church, delivered exactly one year to the day before his assassination. "If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." King's Riverside Church Speech (later titled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence," but here untitled) was the civil rights leader's first sustained and major public statement regarding the Vietnam War. Before a crowd of more than 3000, King called for not only an end to the war, but explicitly linked the anti-war movement to the larger movements for civil rights and economic justice: "Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem." This edition is unknown and unrecorded. It is not mentioned in the major King bibliographies. The introductory paragraph ("The following is the exclusive and authorized publication of the address [...] sponsored by Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam") suggests it was likely printed either by that group or King's camp. Such a printing could have been issued for members not in attendance, for press distribution at or immediately following the event, or simply to secure copyright. (The text also ends with a copyright notice by King, dated 1967.) This version differs in a number of significant ways from final published versions that appeared later. Some of these differences are accounted for by this printing's "slightly condensed" version. Others, however, clearly predate King's later revisions and finalizations which, along with the lack of title on this edition, all clearly mark the text as an early version, contemporaneous or nearly so with the event itself — and almost certainly preceding the earliest (also very rare) reprints undertaken by a number of California groups (where Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam were based, and all under the title "Beyond Vietnam") in the subsequent months. Indeed, the ditto'd presentation strongly suggests a smaller, more immediate circulation. The speech was widely criticized at the time. In the following days, more than 150 newspapers around the country condemned King, and in the aftermath of the address President Johnson dis-invited King from the White House, a rift in their relationship from which they never recovered. Among Black leaders the reception was also decidedly mixed, with many believing King's focus on the war distracted from more pressing concerns. As journalist Tavis Smiley, who produced a documentary on the speech, explained: "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. It was the speech he labored over the most [and] got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever seen or done." Nevertheless, its reputation has only grown in the ensuing years. James Bevel considered it King's greatest speech, and King's intersectional understanding has been increasingly recognized as prescient. A rare and revealing document from one of King's most enduring public addresses.

The Riverside Church Speech: "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence"

Peter R. Betz

An archive of more than 1100 photos from the service of a single soldier before, during, and immediately after World War II.<ul><li>Sold as a set of over 1100 photos, contained in 5 albums.</li><li>Peter R. Betz (American).</li><li>Various places, (1927-1946). </li></ul> Contents and Condition Notes: Oblong string-tied commercial album, imitation leather titled "Photographs" with small portrait photo, cut to the shape of a key-hole, fixed to front cover.<ul><li>163 photographs of various snapshot sizes, corner-mounted to leaves recto and verso, most with holograph captions and several small doodles. </li><li>Approximately half are colorized. </li><li>Photographs depict family vacations, bicycle racing, aviation, scouting, and other subjects, dated from 1927 to 1935. </li><li>Five photographs and a bicycle race program laid-in. </li><li>Four hand-made title pages dividing album into sections. </li><li>Album is generally in good condition, with some rubbing and wear and a tear at the front cover to which tape has been applied. </li><li>"Aviation Section" of nine leaves is lacking most photographs. </li><li>First painted title page adhered to the cover opposing it. </li><li>Most photos about fine.</li></ul> Oblong commercial photo album, lacquer cover with surfing scene and "Aloha Hawaii" at rear; lacking front cover. <ul><li>226 black and white photographs, most with captions, corner mounted to 25 leaves recto and verso. </li><li>Photos primarily military scenes in Hawaii and Panama from 1937-1938 with several family photographs.</li><li>Album in poor condition: lacking the front cover, rear cover and leaves edge-worn and many photographs loose from their mounts. </li><li>Still most photographs about fine. </li></ul> Oblong string-tied commercial album titled "Photographs," hand-lettered title page "G.I./ Memories/Feb. 6 1942-Nov. 17 1945" (above right) with domestic and Pacific theatre place names listed. <ul><li>202 photographs, various sizes.</li><li>Photos primarily from Hawaii and New Guinea. </li><li>Laid in at rear is a promotional calendar for 1944, upon which a rendering of a B-2 has been drawn. </li><li>Album generally good. </li><li>Front cover detached but present. </li><li>Covers edge-worn.</li><li>Leaves suffer some chipping to edges. </li><li>Some photographs have come loose from their mounts, but most in fine condition. </li></ul> Oblong string-tied album, brown imitation leather with "Photographs" printed at front cover. <ul><li>252 photographs of various snapshot sizes, a handful larger, mounted recto and verso to 36 leaves plus leaf of photo-strips with a total of 50 images. </li><li>Most photos with holograph captions from Oahu, New Guinea, and various locations throughout the Philippines. </li><li>Dated 1945. </li><li>Album suffers some edge-wear, front joint starting. </li><li>Several pages disbound. </li><li>Some photographs dismounted, most generally fine. </li></ul> Oblong string-tied commercial album, imitation leather embossed with a horse bust design and "Photographs" at front cover. <ul><li>Hand-lettered title page "Nanking China/Nov. 9th 1945/ to/ Feb. 12th 1946". </li><li>Approximately 290 black and white photos, corner-mounted to 14 leaves recto and verso, most with hand-written captions. </li><li>Photographs depict scenes from an airfield, the city of Nanking (Nanjing,) Shanghai, aboard the transport ship USS General Scott, arrival in Seattle, train journey, domestic family scenes and a welcoming parade in Buffalo, NY. </li><li>Laid in are four photographs of various sizes. </li><li>Album lightly edge-worn. </li><li>Some pages disbound but present.</li></ul> Collection by Peter R. Betz with detailed and captioned photographs of the Philippines Campaign, as well as many other experiences of a soldier's life during the WWII. Peter R. Betz (identified by his name and postwar address in the rear of two of the albums) served with the U.S. Army in the Pacific, and his photographs document that theater and the Philippines Campaign in detail. Nearly every photograph features Betz's neat, holograph captions, and the albums in general are highly organized, making for an incredibly thorough photographic biography of a soldier. The earliest photographs are dated 1927 and feature images of a Boy Scout troop and camping trip. Two of the albums also contain several images of the Betz's family, including parents, siblings, and cousins. Many of these family portraits are hand tinted. Betz's documentation of his Army career begins in 1937 and '38, with his service in Hawaii and Panama. The photographs regarding this time are casual and candid: soldiers relaxing in barracks and off-base in Honolulu and Waikiki beach, hiking trips in the mountains of Hawaii, native Hawaiians in traditional dress, a visit from President Roosevelt, as well as (separately) from Gracie Allen and George Burns. And photographs of the Panama Canal lock system in action reveal a keen interest in mechanics and engineering. Wartime photographs are contained primarily in two albums. The first, titled "G.I. Memories, Feb. 6, 1942 - Nov. 17, 1945" (above) features over 200 images. These include stateside images of Camp Croft and Sand Hill, SC. A second deployment to Hawaii also features heavily, including many of the same kinds of images as appeared earlier. The album contains a notable series of 28 photographs taken in New Guinea, identified by Betz as "Native dance...started Friday thru Sunday night." 47 photos from December 1944 to January 1945 in Leyte, Philippines show US Army barracks and soldiers, native Filipinos (mostly children), countryside, numerous aircraft and ships, and the aftermath of one or more unidentified battles (as left). The second album focuses almost entirely on operations in the Philippines. These include eighteen photographs, with aerial shots, labeled "Air Drop," eleven photographs "taken from" and of Japanese soldiers, and six showing a Japanese surrender on an unidentified airfield. Most importantly, however, over 60 photos that trace the U.S. effort to retake islands from the Japanese, including the January 29, 1945 beach landing at San Narciso, which marked the beginning of the Battle of Bataan. Also noteworthy: Mariveles and the aftermath of fighting in Zig Zag Pass, preparing for the detonation of Fort Drum in Manila Bay on April 12, 1945, followed by images of a beach landing on and aerial shots of Carabao Island on April 16. Additionally: 100 photos, dated January-October 1946, of Luzon after the liberation of the island. The photographs show soldiers and native Filipinos, including Negrito resistance fighters armed with bow and arrow, as well as villages and buildings, many showing the effects of the war. A final album documents, in over 200 images, Betz's experience immediately after the end of hostilities, where he served out his enlistment in Nanking and Shanghai, China. Dated Now. 9, 1945 - Feb. 12, 1946, these photographs show various aspects of the city, soldiers, and people, as well as US and Japanese planes, ships, and like. The album concludes with photographs taken from the deck of the USS General Scott during Betz's return voyage to the United States. Betz was a serious student of photography, and his images demonstrate a keen eye for framing and documentary. As comprehensive an archive of a soldier's WWII service as we've encountered. While vernacular albums from this era do turn up, we aren't aware of any as large, or as comprehensively-captioned, that focuses on a single person as this one. Indeed, both circumstances of life in the Pacific theater, as well as formal censorship policies and security restrictions made assembling such a large collection extraordinarily difficult. A rare, compelling, and significant collection.

Photograph Archive of a WWII Soldier's Life In The Pacific Theater

A pair of muster rolls from the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Civil%20War&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Civil War</a>, 1863, documenting the pay of the Union company just before their fateful role in turning back Pickett's Charge, "the high-water mark of the Confederacy." <ul><li>With incomplete payments offering poignant evidence of their losses during the battle.</li><li>Handwritten ledger.</li></ul>

Civil War Muster Rolls for Alonzo Cushing's Battery, Company A of the 4th US Artillery

Jacqueline Kennedy

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=photograph&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en&amp;filters.type=Buy%20Now" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">photograph</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=kennedy&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">JFK</a> and Jackie, signed by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=Jackie%20Kennedy&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en&amp;filters.type=Buy%20Now" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jackie Kennedy</a>.<ul><li>Printed February, 1964.</li><li>Inscribed on the photo "For Dr. Tavell-with deepest appreciation for everything/ With affection/ Jacqueline Kennedy."</li><li>Mounted.</li><li>Laid into green morocco spine and cloth drop box.</li></ul> Dr. Janet G. Travell (1901-1997) was a New York physician was and medical researcher. She was appointed the personal physician to President John F. Kennedy in 1961. She graduated from Wellesley College and Cornell University Medical College. She was the first female doctor to be the personal physician to a sitting United States president and retained that post until March,1965. Her specialty was treating muscular pain. Kennedy's injuries from WW II were the beginnings of his back pain problems. She helped him in the late 1950s so much that he chose her as his personal physician while he was in the White House. The photo is accompanied by a small typed note on White House stationery signed by Tavell which explains that this photo was taken when the Kennedys were in Mexico at the end of June, 1962.

Photograph of President John F. Kennedy and Jackie | Inscribed by Jackie Kennedy

The Executive Reports from the Congress of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=james%20monroe&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Monroe</a>'s presidency.<ul><li>House of Representatives, United States.</li><li>Volume I, Complete.</li><li>Washington D.C:&nbsp;Gales &amp; Seaton,&nbsp;1823.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>First edition thus.&nbsp;</li><li>11, 16, 15, 206, 4, 5, 3, [3], 8, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 25, 5, 24 pages.</li><li>Full brown calf, with chipped gilt-lettered spine label.</li></ul> Contains all 16 numbers appearing in Volume I of the U.S. House-ordered printing. Appears to contain all folding tables (41 in total).

Executive Reports, At The First Session Of The Eighteenth Congress Of The United States

Lyndon B. Johnson

A signed and inscribed presentation photograph of the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson.<ul><li>Inscribed and signed by President Johnson, "To The Right Honorable Harold Wilson, O.B.E., M.P. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with warmest personal regards and best wishes, Lyndon B. Johnson [signed]."</li><li>Presented in silver frame bearing the Seal of the President of the United States, marked "Sterling Hand Made."</li></ul> An excellent portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson, hands clasped. A unique inscribed photograph thus, affectionately presented to then Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Harold Wilson and Lyndon B. Johnson had initially enjoyed a positive relationship during Wilson's first tenure as Prime Minister, but the Anglo-American "special relationship" had been strained to quite some degree by Wilson's refusal to assist America in the Vietnam War. This was largely due to a political lack of will among the Labour Party and the British people, but was also borne from the economic difficulties Britain was facing for having maintained a military presence East of Suez.

Signed Photograph Portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson

Mark Twain

A single leaf from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's work The Gilded Age.<ul><li>Single manuscript leaf, taken from a set.</li><li>Written in Mark Twain's hand.</li><li>This page is from chapter 34.</li><li>Removed from binding.</li><li>Embossed stamp at top left.</li></ul> Written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age was hatched over the dinner table when Clemens and Warner were challenged by their wives to write a work that would be better than those they were busy complaining about. Clemens wrote the first eleven chapters, based on members of his family including his father and mother, while Warner wrote the next twelve chapters, purely fictionally. The remaining chapters were generally written by one or the other, while the resolution was written in tandem.

The Gilded Age Manuscript Leaf

Mrs. John N. Pearce

Second-edition copy of The White House: A Historic Guide inscribed by JFK and Jackie Kennedy.<ul><li>Mrs. John N. Pearce (American).</li><li>Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 1962.</li><li>Limited numbered edition of 75, this being number 62.</li><li>Inscribed by John and Jackie Kennedy on the limitation page, "For Chris with the affectionate regards of his friends John Kennedy and love from Jackie. Christmas 1962."</li><li>Bound in the original full red morocco, title gilt to spine, covers double ruled in gilt, with marbled pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul> The publication of this book was overseen by Jackie Kennedy as part of her restoration and preservation of the White House.&nbsp;These were earmarked by the Kennedys to be given away as Christmas gifts to each member of the Kennedy administration and very close friends.&nbsp;This edition was from their last Christmas together.

The White House: A Historic Guide

Margaret Mitchell

First edition copy with original dust jacket and a typewritten letter by the author.<ul><li>Margaret Mitchell (American).</li><li>First edition, with “Published May, 1936” on the copyright page.&nbsp;</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Macmillan,&nbsp;1936.</li><li>1037 pp. 1 vols.</li><li>8vo.</li><li>Original gray cloth lettered in blue.</li><li>Unclipped, with “$3.00” cost and with the “Spring Novels” advertisement on the lower panel, showing this work as the second title in the right-hand column.</li><li>Half green morocco slipcase and cloth chemise.</li></ul> Laid in is a one-page typed letter, signed (“Margaret Mitchell Marsh”), from Mitchell to bookseller Robert Wilson, then a student at Johns Hopkins University, on a sheet of personal stationery headed “Margaret Mitchell,” dated Atlanta, Georgia May 21, 1941 and reading in full, “My dear Mr. Wilson, … I have read the letter which my secretary wrote to you and I find I have little to add to it. As she wrote to you, I am no speaker and have never made any lectures of any type, so I regret that I must refuse your invitation. I do feel so flattered that The Johns Hopkins University wanted me to make this talk, and I thank you so much for asking me. Cordially, [signed in ink] Margaret Mitchell Marsh. Mrs. John R. Marsh.”

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After Aaron Burr, Samuel Otis