Three Letters from Frederick MacMonnies to Thomas Dewing Concerning Sculpting the Players’ Club’s Edwin Booth Monument
by [Art History – New York City – Theater] MacMonnies, Frederick
France, 1910. Three letters totaling twenty-two pages, 5 x 8 inches and smaller. Folded; some with large tears at folds though entirely legible. Overall excellent.. Frederick MacMonnies (1863–1937) was an American expatriate sculptor and painter, known in the US for works including Nathan Hale and Bacchante and Infant Faun. In 1907, New York City’s Player’s Club commissioned MacMonnies to design and produce a monument to the club’s founder, Edwin Booth. Offered here are three letters from MacMonnies... Read More
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Portrait of a Young Union Army Soldier
by [Civil War – Union Army] Unknown Artist
United States, N.d.. Overpainted albumen photograph measuring approximately 6 ¾ x 8 ½ inches, mounted on heavy cardstock. Slight marginal wear; excellent to Near Fine.. An overpainted albumen photograph portrait of an unknown Union Army soldier who appears to be quite young, dressed in Union fatigues. Though boys under 18 were not supposed to be able to enlist, many did so anyway, with some estimating that around 200,000 underage boys joined the Union Army all told.[1] Despite General... Read More
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Painted Poster Advertising Psychedelic Band Locksley Hall at the Che House, Pasadena, 1971
by [Concert Posters – Psychedelia – Independent Music – California] Unknown Artist
Pasadena, California, 1971. Approximately 22 x 28 inch painting on heavy cardstock with 7 x 9 inch photograph affixed. Some spotting on a portion of the lower left; overall excellent.. Locksley Hall was a Spokane-based psychedelic rock group formed in 1967, who nearly had a record deal with Epic in 1969. The project was scrapped and was not rediscovered until 1996, when it was finally released by Indianapolis-based Or Records. This hand-painted poster advertises the band playing for... Read More
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Unique Bowling-Themed Wooden Scrapbook Album
by [Folk Art] Unknown Artist
United States, 1970. Wooden scrapbook album measuring 10 ½ x 13 ½ inches containing approximately fifteen photographs measuring 8 x 10 inches and smaller, with approximately ten newspaper clippings and pieces of ephemera. Near Fine. A wooden scrapbook album with a bowling ball and pin design. The contents, which document a California woman’s various ladies’ bowling teams, suggest that the album is from the 1970s. The album does not have any branding or identifying marks, and appears to... Read More
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An Illustrated Courtship Poem
by [History of Dating – Folk Art – Poetry] Unknown Artist
Sing Sing (Ossining), New York, unknown year. Three approximately 8 x 10 inch pages. Excellent to near fine.. An illustrated poem from an unknown sender to Miss Cornelia Marshall in Sing Sing, New York. Sing Sing was the name of Ossining—which is home to the eponymous prison—until 1901. It was named for the Sint Sinck (Wappinger) people, whose traditional territory lay east of the Hudson River in what is now Westchester County. The poem is chastely flirtatious,... Read More
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![Exodus Is An Illumination Theatre of Madness An Laughter Poetry and Thieves to Steal Your Soul [Flyer for a Berkeley Performance by the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Others]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/479/906/1692906479.0.l.jpg)
Exodus Is An Illumination Theatre of Madness An Laughter Poetry and Thieves to Steal Your Soul [Flyer for a Berkeley Performance by the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Others]
by [San Francisco Bay Area – Theater – Art] Unknown Artist
Berkeley, California: N.p., 1966. Attractive flyer measuring 7 ½ x 10 ½ inches. Fine.. A flyer for a 1966 music, arts, and theater night at the Blind Lemon folk club in Berkeley, California. Acts include a performance by the psychedelic rock band Notes from the Underground, films from Canyon Cinema co-founder Herb de Grass, and “visionary photography” by photographer and noted poster designer Paul Kagan. Perhaps most well-known among the performers is the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Formed... Read More
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Ten Posters Advertising Nebraska Territory Bands, 1930s–1960s
by [Nebraska – Music History – Territory Bands] Multiple Artists
Nebraska and Minnesota: multiple publishers, 1960. Ten posters, mainly measuring approximately 14 x 21 ½ inches, with some smaller. Many with slight damage and wear to edges, all having been stored in tubes; bright and attractive; overall very good to excellent.. Territory bands were dance bands that toured around particular regions of the US. Usually swing or big band jazz groups, they mostly covered popular songs, playing in smaller cities and towns that nationally touring groups would skip.... Read More
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Archive of Children’s Art from Two Young Students in the Bronx, c. 1937–1945
by [Art – Juvenilia – History of Education – New York City] Legg, Joan Meredith; Winkelhoff, Adrian C.
The Bronx, New York, 1945. Approximately 120 drawings with one short school essay and one photograph, captioned verso. Drawings generally measuring 9 x 12 inches. Conditions vary; drawings generally fairly delicate with damage to margins. Overall very good to excellent.. A collection of artworks produced by Joan Meredith Legg (1931–2012) and her future husband Adrian C. Winkelhoff (1924–2016) when they were children in the Bronx, about 1937 to 1945. Based on one caption, the two were likely students... Read More
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Three Letters to Thomas Dewing, 1902-1910
by [Art] MacMonnies, Frederick
V.p., 1910. Ink on paper, each sheet approx. 9 x 7 in., 1-4 sheets each, variously paginated, one with orig. envelope. Celebrated American Beaux-Arts sculptor Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937) studied with Augustus Saint-Gaudens and many of his best commissions emerged from his relationships with Saint-Gaudens and the architect Stanford White. He lived primarily in France but traveled frequently to New York and was part of a circle of artists that formed around White at Edwin Booth’s Players Club in Gramercy... Read More
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Sears Township Assessment Ledger Book, 1880
by [California – Sierra County – Mining – Chinese-Americans] Sears Township Assessor
Sears Township, California, 1880. 10 ½ x 16 inch ledger, seventy-five pages. Staining and damage to corners, not affecting legibility. Very good to excellent.. 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 in 1890 and 585 in 1880. This is likely the same Sears Township, as many of... Read More
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“Opportunity Knocks”: A Broadside Concerning the “Unmerger” of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads
by [California – Railroad History – Antitrust Law] California Producers & Shippers Association
Sacramento, California, 1922. 17 ½ x 24 inches. Folded, small tears at folds, overall excellent.. 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 monopoly be dissolved. Offered here is a broadside produced by the Sacramento-based California Producers & Shippers Association which presents a collection... Read More
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Collection of American Student Movement Ephemera, 1972-1974
by [Attica Brigade] [Revolutionary Student Brigade] et al.
New York, 1974. First Edition. Fifteen items, including broadsides, leaflets, and newspapers, related to the Attica Brigade and the Revolutionary Students Brigade. Near fine with minimal wear. Near Fine. [Attica Brigade] [Revolutionary Student Brigade] et al. Collection of American Student Movement Ephemera, 1972-1974. [New York, Illinois, et al.]. Various formats, as listed below. Fifteen items, including broadsides, leaflets, and newspapers, related to the Attica Brigade and the Revolutionary Students Brigade. A... Read More
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Playbill for Run Little Chillun at the Mayan Theatre, Los Angeles
by [African-Americana – Theater – New Deal – Harlem Renaissance] Unknown Author
Los Angeles, California: Stationers Corporation, 1937. Double-sided sheet measuring 5 ½ x 11 ½ inches. Toned with one fold; excellent to near fine.. A playbill for the production of Hall Johnson’s "Run Little Chillun" at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles. Considered an important product of the Harlem Renaissance, "Run Little Chillun" premiered on Broadway in 1933. Its production in Los Angeles from 1935 to 1937 was funded by the Federal Theater Project, a New Deal program supporting... Read More
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Scrapbook of an African-American Family’s 1947 Road Trip from New York Through Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula
by [African-Americana – Auto Tourism] Unknown Author
United States and Canada, 1947. Eleven double-sided scrapbook pages measuring 7 x 11 inches, containing forty-five 2 ½ x 3 ½ inch photographs, six postcards, four maps, four guides, and nine typed pages. Scrapbook pages fragile with significant marginal damage; scrapbook contents generally excellent.. A scrapbook documenting an African-American family’s road trip during July and August of 1947, which took them from Dutchess County, New York, through Quebec and New Brunswick, and then Maine and Cape Cod. The... Read More
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Everyone Agrees that Lynching is the Chief Crime Against the Colored Man in the United States
by [African-Americana – Hate Crimes – 1920 Presidential Election] Unknown Author
Chicago or New York, 1920. 6 x 9 inches single sided. Toning, several small stains, small fold at top left corner; near fine. An anonymous handbill decrying lynching in the United States and advertising the differences in anti-lynching policy between the Republican and Democratic parties. The header states that “Everyone agrees that lynching is the chief crime against the colored man in the United States”, and the remainder illustrates the great disagreement over just what to do about... Read More
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1884 Letter from an American in Cannstatt, Germany, Discussing Fashion, Student Culture, and Emigration of the Poor who “hardly know what butter is”
by [Americans Abroad – German Empire] Unknown Author
Cannstatt, German Empire, 1884. Single eight-page letter measuring 8 x 10 ½ inches. Quite delicate with tears at some folds, often intersecting with text. Slight odor. Good to very good.. A letter from a man to his daughter Jennie, written from the Hotel Hermann in Cannstatt in 1884. Cannstatt was founded around 90 CE, and is now a borough of the city of Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg. It is not clear who the writer is, nor does he discuss... Read More
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Cash Book of a Merchant Working in California, Oregon, and New Jersey, 1896
by [American West – History of Commerce] Unknown Author
Sonora and Groveland, CA; Portland, OR; and Orange, NJ, 1896. 8 ½ x 13 ½ inch cash book, thirty-two pages, with nine loose sheets. Fine. 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 accounts, liabilities, individual sales, and so on. The business sold a variety of items, from raw cloth and furniture to food, coffee and tea, and soap. Most of... Read More
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1830 Letter Written from Mauritius, Describing Economic and Social Conditions on the “Ebony Isle”
by [British Empire – Mauritius – Slavery] Unknown Author
Mahébourg, Mauritius, 1830. Single unsigned fourteen-page letter measuring 8 x 12 ¾ inches. Folded with some stains and pencil marks. Overall near fine.. In 1830, Mauritius was a British colony, captured from the French in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. It was originally a Dutch colony, and the Dutch had introduced enslaved labor to the islands. Enslaved people were imported from Madagascar, India, and Southeast Asia to harvest the valuable ebony trees, and later to farm sugarcane. It... Read More
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Menu for May Day Dinner at Camp Hancock, 1877
by [Dakota Territory – US Army – Food History] Unknown Author
Bismarck, Dakota Territory, 1877. 4 x 8 inches. Folded, some stains and foxing, excellent.. Camp Hancock, in what is now Bismarck, North Dakota, was built in 1872 as facilities for US troops. The troops were stationed there to guard supplies, equipment, and crews as the Northern Pacific Railway was constructed through the area. In 1877, it became a quartermaster depot and signal office. Offered here is a menu for the Camp’s May Day celebration in 1877, presenting five... Read More
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“The Lament of a Friend O’er the Grave of the Hero of his Country, Commodore Stephen Decatur,” A Lengthy Testament to Early Republic-Era Intimacy Between Men, Written by an Unknown Friend
by [Early Republic Era – Male Friendships – US Navy] [Stephen Decatur] Unknown Author
United States, 1850. Bound lined notebook measuring 8 x 10 ¼ inches. Inscribed “Stephen Decatur / U.S. Navy / 13 W. Cedar St. Boston.” on flyleaf. Eighty-nine pages filled out, totaling appx. 17,000 words. Spine missing, covers coming detached, with wear especially to corners; contents excellent to Near Fine. Overall very good plus.. An unpublished manuscript poem mourning the death of Stephen Decatur (1779–1820), written by a friend who “had known Commodore Decatur upwards of twenty years:— a... Read More
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Scrapbook Documenting an Unconventional Marketing Campaign for The Carpetbaggers (1964) at Loew’s Metropolitan Theatre in Downtown Brooklyn
by [Film – Marketing – Brooklyn] Unknown Author
Brooklyn, New York, 1964. Twenty-eight page scrapbook measuring 11 x 14 inches. Containing forty-one photographs measuring 5 x 7 inches and smaller and fifty-eight pieces of ephemera, forty-three of which are filled-in entry slips from a contest. Cover with wear and large stain, contents generally excellent; overall very good to excellent.. The Carpetbaggers is a 1964 film directed by Edward Dmytryk, based on the controversial 1961 novel of the same name, which was banned in several US cities... Read More
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![Die Franziskaner Missionen des Suedwestens [Franciscan Missions of the Southwest, Vol. 1]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/200/887/1692887200.0.l.jpg)
Die Franziskaner Missionen des Suedwestens [Franciscan Missions of the Southwest, Vol. 1]
by [American Southwest – Catholic Missionaries – Indigenous History] Multiple Authors
St. Michaels, Arizona: Anselm Weber and Berard Haile, 1913. Sixty-eight page booklet measuring 6 ¾ x 10 inches. Wear mainly to covers; excellent.. Catholic missionaries—Franciscans in particular—have been present in what is now the American Southwest since the 16th century. For most of this time, these were Spanish missionaries missioning to the Pueblo people, mainly in New Mexico; these missionaries’ presence waned over time. In 1898, several decades after the Navajo were allowed to return to a reservation... Read More
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Collection of Letters Sent from California Prisons, 2006–2015, Including Inmates’ Art and Descriptions of the Inmate Firefighting System
by [California – Prison Art – Inmate Firefighting] Multiple Authors
California, 2015. Eighty letters, ten artworks, and two photographs. Anonymized for writers’ and their families’ privacy, with more information available on request. Overall excellent.. Offered here is a collection of letters and art sent from people incarcerated in the California State Prison system, primarily from a husband (“P.”) and wife (“A.”) to P’s mother and stepfather. A., who served a shorter sentence than P., worked as an inmate-firefighter. Currently, about twenty to thirty percent of California’s... Read More
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Wharfage Account Ledger for Humboldt Bay, Eureka, California, 1868–1873
by [California – Eureka – Humboldt County – Maritime History] Various Authors
Eureka, California, 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. Some damage to spine on exterior, otherwise very good to excellent.. Offered here is a wharfage fee account ledger from Eureka, California, with dates between 1868 and 1873. The first Euro-American settlement at what is now Eureka, on the Humboldt Bay, was founded in 1850. It... Read More
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Collection of Esperanto Materials, Including Bulletins of the Quaker Group “The Friends’ Esperanto Society” and the Indonesian Periodical “Hinda Esperantisto”
by [Esperanto – Quakers – Indonesia] Various Authors
Austria; Java, Indonesia; London, England; and Los Angeles, California, 1947. Sixteen pieces: two “Friends’ Esperanto Society” bulletins, 8 x 12 ½ inch each; two letters, 8 ½ x 11 inch each; seven “Hinda Esperantisto” pamphlets, 5 ½ x 8 inch, four pages each; two “Declaration” forms, 4 x 6 inches; one BES pamphlet, 4 ½ x 6 inches, eight pages; one set of tickets for membership information, 2 x 5 inches (missing one tear-off ticket), and one “Universala Ligo”... Read More
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