[Manuscript] Circular. During and after an engagement …. Lake Providence, La., March 14, 1863

This remarkable document provides detailed instructions for the medical officers of XVII Corps. The corps was organized in December 1862 as part of U.S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. It formed the center of Grant’s forces in the siege of Vicksburg, which was taken on July 4, 1863.

$2,000

Grand Concert in Aid of the Russian Jewish Refugees, Monday Eve’g, March 27, ’82, by the Handel and Haydn Society, in conjunction with Salem Oratorio Society, Lynn Choral Union, Taunton Beethoven Society, A Grand Orchestra…. Boston: Printed By Jewish Watchman Print[ers], 1882

This is the rare original announcement and program for a major early benefit concert supporting Jewish refugees from Russia. The concert was held at Mechanics Hall in Boston in 1882. The featured conductors are Carl Zerrahn and George Henschel. Henschel had become the first conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra a year earlier. Here he leverages his position to support Jewish refugees.

$1,900

Liberty’s Torch in Madison Square Park. no publisher, negative ca. 1876, made from a print, late 19th century.

The torch of the Statue of Liberty was exhibited in Madison Square Park, New York to raise funds for the statue’s completion.  The torch remained in the park from 1876 through 1882.

$1,800

Collection of papers of John M. Bailey, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, concerning the convention. Various places, 1968

The 1968 Democratic National Convention of 1968, held in Chicago, was a landmark event in American political history. John M. Bailey of Connecticut, who had helped to orchestrate Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964, oversaw the contentious presidential campaign of 1968, in which Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and others sought the Democratic nomination. This is a collection of papers to and by longtime Democratic National Committee Chairman John M. Bailey.

$1,800

Extra. Senseless Panic. New York: New York Daily Bulletin, September 24, 1873

The Panic of 1873 was set off by the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., the leading American banker of its day. Because of financial crises in Europe , the Credit Mobilier scandal, and related problems, the firm declared bankruptcy on September 18, 1873. The bank’s failure set of a chain of events including the failure of many insurance companies and banks and the ten-day closure of the New York Stock Exchange starting on September 20. Within two months 55 railroads had failed. The downturn, which lasted for the rest of the decade, was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s depression took that name.

$1,200

Haymarket Affair in The Chicago Daily News. Chicago: Daily News, May 5, 1886

The Haymarket Affair in Chicago was the most important event in American labor history. This dramatic Chicago newspaper reports on the events at the Haymarket, police actions, rioting, efforts to catch the bomb thrower, the roundup of anarchists, the discovery of the printed flyers for the mass meeting, and the reaction of Chicago businessmen.

$1,200

An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans called Africans. New York: Taylor, 1836

SECOND EDITION of Child’s Appeal, the landmark in American abolitionist literature.

$750

Horse-Hoeing Husbandry: or, An Essay on the Principles of Vegetation and Tillage. Designed to Introduce A New Method of Culture; whereby The Produce of Land will be Increased, and the Usual Expense Lessened. Together with Accurate Descriptions and Cuts of the Instruments Employed in it … fourth edition, very carefully corrected. London: Millar, 1762

The edition that Thomas Jefferson owned.  Jefferson wrote from Monticello in 1817, “While I was an amateur in Agricultural science (for practical knowledge my course of life never permitted me) I was very partial to the drilled husbandry of Tull.”

$600

A History of the City of Brooklyn Including the Old Town and Village of Brooklyn, the Town of Brunswick, and the Village and City of Williamsburgh. Brooklyn: Published by Subscription, 1867, 1869, and 1870

FIRST EDITION. It is very difficult to find fine, complete sets of first editions of this work, published individually by subscription over the span of three years.

This is the best history of Brooklyn up to its time. Stiles was an indefatigable author, historian, and genealogist, in addition to his day job as a physician.

A lovely set.

$500

Printing and the Mind of Man: a descriptive catalogue illustrating the impact of print on the evolution of western civilization during five centuries. Munich: Pressler, 1983

SECOND EDITION, revised and enlarged.

$125