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

Autograph manuscript on Elias Hicks. No place, [ca. 1880]

In this fine working manuscript Whitman reflects on the life of Elias Hicks, a major spiritual influence on the poet. The spellbinding Quaker preacher was a key source of Whitman’s prophetic style and poetic vision. “Hicks’s presence persisted in Whitman’s passions of oratory and ‘natural eloquence’ in the loosely cadenced verse of Leaves of Grass. … In the making of a poet’s vision of reality and identity Hicks preceded Emerson and outlasted him” (Justin Kaplan, Walt Whitman).

$22,000

The Papers of James Madison purchased by order of Congress; being his correspondence and reports of debates during the congress of the confederation and his reports of debates in the federal convention . . . [edited by Henry Gilpin]. Washington: Langtree & O’Sullivan, 1840

FIRST EDITION of Madison’s papers, consisting of his correspondence relating to the Constitution and his journal of the Federal Convention. A very rare presentation copy from Dolley Madison, with a letter by her and inscriptions from the recipient, a friend and leading American diplomat.

$18,000

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

Profiles in Courage. New York: Harper, (c.1956)

Presentation copy inscribed by Kennedy: “For Alfred Eisenstaedt with every good wish John Kennedy.”

$17,000

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

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.

$12,000

The American Builder’s Companion; or, a new system of architecture particularly adapted to the present style of building in the United States of America. Boston: Etheridge and Bliss, 1806

First edition of the second book by Asher Benjamin, America’s first great writer on architecture.

$10,000

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