The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York and London: Longmans, Green, 1902

FIRST EDITION. Presentation copy inscribed by James to the president of Harvard: “Charles W. Eliot with affectionate regards, from William James June 21st. 1902.” Eliot, who served as president for forty years, had recruited James to join the Harvard faculty in 1872, and the philosopher remained there until 1907.

$28,000

American Mahogany Butler’s Desk from the Holmes family home at 296 Beacon Street, Boston. American, ca. 1830

Justice Holmes’s butler’s desk from the family home on Beacon Street.

$22,000

Important Pair of Daguerreotypes: Black Caregiver with White Baby and the Child’s Parents. Talbot County, Maryland or Texas, c. 1853

This striking pair of daguerreotypes evokes the complex relationships between enslaved people and their enslavers in the American South, especially between white families and the trusted women who cared for their children.

the pair: $18,500

Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital; From its First Rise, to the Beginning of the Fifth Month, called May, 1754. Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1754

FIRST EDITION of Benjamin Franklin’s account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital established in the British colonies, co-founded by Franklin with his friend Dr. Thomas Bond. It remains a leading medical institution in Philadelphia.

$17,500

A collection of all six portraits of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution. Hartford: Moore, 1864

These is a complete collection of original carte de visite photographs of all six Revolutionary War veterans still surviving in 1864: William Hutchings (aged 100), Samuel Downing (aged 102), Daniel Waldo (aged 102), Adam Link (aged 102), Alexander Millener (aka Muroney) (aged 104), and Lemuel Cook (aged 105). A seventh man, James Barham, was believed to be alive but could not be located for the series.

$15,000

A collection of four printed and manuscript items relating to the end of slavery in New York. New York, 1816-1840

This collection documents the struggle to end slavery in New York in the early nineteenth century.

4 items: $12,500

The Home of Washington, as it appeared May 14th 1859. Baltimore, H.E. Hoyt & Co., 1859

The earliest dated photograph of Mount Vernon, this is one of the very earliest known photographs of George Washington’s home.

$12,500

Atomic bomb core hemisphere. No place, c. 1942-44

This evocative relic of the first atomic bomb was preserved by the first metallurgist of the Manhattan Project’s Metallurgical Laboratory, Jules Simmons.

$11,000

Teletype covering the Normandy landings on D-Day. Associated Press, 5 and 6 June 1944

First announcement of the D-Day landings, perhaps the most important event of the 20th century.

$9,500

A Collection of Three Reports on the Treasury’s Receipts and Expenditures. Philadelphia: Childs and Swaine, 1790-1793

A collection of rare Treasury reports on the finances of the United States during its earliest years.

3 items: $8,500