Autograph letter signed as President to Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas [with] American flag bunting from Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theatre. Washington, Executive Mansion, May 27, 1861

Abraham Lincoln, writing at the outset of the Civil War, recommends that the Army admit three volunteers from the highly divided city of Baltimore. He advises Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas, “I hate to reject any offered from what is called a Southern State.” [offered with] Bunting from the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre.

two items: $275,000

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Washington, D.C.: Philp and Solomons, [1865-66]

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of the most famous photographically illustrated American book of the nineteenth century.

$275,000

Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America, … the city of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, in the year M,DCC,LXXXIX.. New York: Francis Childs and John Swaine, Printers to the United States, 1789

$200,000

United States flag flown to the Moon on Apollo 11. NASA, July 16-24, 1969

This American flag, flown to the Moon on Apollo 11, is one of the most sought-after relics of space exploration.

$150,000

The Complete Writings. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1902

First edition of “the first comprehensive collection of Whitman’s work.” This is the rare deluxe issue printed on Japan vellum, number 2 of only 10 such sets, in the magnificent original morocco binding.

$45,000

Flowers from My Garden. Sketched and Painted from Nature. [New York], [1864]

FIRST EDITION, a unique pre-publication copy with 18 fine watercolors, the original art used as the basis for the lithographs in the published edition.

$37,500

The Pocket Book of Baby and Child Care. No Place, [ca. 1946.]

Spock’s book helped to revolutionize child-rearing in post-war America. Within one year of its first publication the book sold 750,000 copies, and it has since sold more than 50 million copies in ten editions and more than 40 languages. “When it appeared in 1946, the advice in Dr. Spock’s now classic book was a dramatic break from the prevailing ‘expert’ opinion. Rather than force a baby into a strict behavioral schedule, Spock, who had training in both pediatrics and psychiatry, encouraged parents to use their own judgment and common sense” (NYPL Books of the Century).

$35,000

Carey’s American Atlas. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1795

FIRST EDITION of the first true American atlas, the earliest atlas of the United States engraved and published in America. This important volume contains several important state maps including the first American map representing Virginia after statehood. In the preparation of this atlas, Carey drew primarily on existing sources including Guthrie’s Geography. Many of the maps were drawn by Samuel Lewis.

$35,000

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885

First American edition, in publisher’s morocco with the rare first state of the illustration on p. 283.

$30,000

Autograph letter signed to Sophia Hawthorne. Andover, 22 June 1863

Harriet Beecher Stowe arranges a visit to Hawthorne’s Concord home. Stowe wrote this letter the year before Nathaniel Hawthorne’s death. She tells Hawthorne’s wife Sophia,

“Mr. Stowe & I have long desired to renew our acquaintance with you, but Concord is rather too far off for a card-case call & this leads me to say that on Sunday next we shall pass your house on our way to a friends’ with whom we pass Sunday, & we propose to ourselves then the pleasure of calling & seeing you & Mr. Hawthorne & your family once more.”

$22,500