Marble column being carried on a cart to the Capitol. Washington, 1860

This rare salt print shows a colossal marble column being carried to the Capitol during its construction. The enormous cart is being drawn by team of twelve or more horses.

$7,500

The Vermont State House. Vermont, [c. 1859]

A fine salt print of the Vermont State House.

$7,000

An enormous run of Goodspeed’s rare book and manuscript catalogues. Vols. 1-370 and 381-575. Boston: Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1899-1973

Founded in 1898, Goodspeed’s published its first catalogue in 1899. For decades to come the firm would be a dominant force in American bookselling. These catalogues are a witness to that golden age.

$6,500

Ode recited at the Commemoration of the Living and Dead Soldiers of Harvard University, July 21, 1865. Cambridge: Privately printed, 1865

$6,000

East Front of the Capitol. Washington, August 31, 1864

This rare photograph shows the East Front of the U.S. Capitol during construction. Sawhorses and construction debris are visible in the foreground, while a number of figures, perhaps builders and the architect, stand at the head of the main stairs beneath Thomas Crawford’s pediment of The Progress of Civilization.

$5,500

Autograph letter signed [to Henry Arthur Bright]. Brunswick, 7 January 1854

$4,500

East Front of the Capitol. Washington, c. 1864

This photograph by Alexander Gardner shows the Capitol as it was during Lincoln’s presidency. Scaffolding, cranes, ladders, and other construction equipment are visible. The East Front of the Capitol was the site of Lincoln’s inaugurations in 1861 and 1865.

$3,800

Dred Scott decision – “Important Decision of the Supreme Court:” in National Intelligencer. Washington: Gales and Seaton, March 7, 1857

This is the announcement of the Dred Scott decision, brought as breaking news by a leading Washington newspaper.

$2,800

An Explanation of the Map of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Printed for the Author and sold by Nicholas Brooks, 1774

FIRST EDITION. This pamphlet was published in conjunction with “Reed’s Plan of First Purchasers,” a large and now rare landownership map, documenting the “First Purchasers” of Pennsylvania. The text includes copies of the original abstracts of communications from William Penn to the “first adventurers and purchasers in Pennsylvania,” abstracts of the charter of the city, reasons why the plan of the city was altered by Benjamin Eastburn, an alphabetical list of the first purchasers, and the courses, distances and dates of surveys of all the lots in the city of Philadelphia. Reed prepared this valuable document to bolster his family’s claims to land in the Philadelphia area.

$2,800

A collection of 3 Wall Street cartoons in The Daily Graphic. New York: The Daily Graphic, 19 July 1880, 1 March 1882, 27 June 1882

These splendid front-page illustrations show the great bogeymen of Gilded Age Wall Street during the era of the robber barons.

$2,800