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

Leaves of Grass: the original printed paper wrappers. [Brooklyn], [1855]

Although the green cloth bindings for the 1855 first edition of Leaves of Grass are familiar, the rare paper wrappers are little known. This set survived only because Whitman preserved them until his death in 1892.

$5,500

The Double Helix. In Atlantic Monthly. Boston, January and February 1968

FIRST EDITION of The Double Helix, preceding the publication in book form in late February 1968. Signed by James Watson on the front cover of each issue.

$4,800

Original drawing of Walt Whitman. no date, no place, 19th century

This original pen and ink drawing of Walt Whitman is mounted at the front of an 1888 edition of Leaves of Grass. The likeness of a jaunty, casual, Whitman wearing his trademark slouch hat takes its cue from the famous 1855 Hollyer engraving, but here we see an older Whitman with a full beard.

$4,800

Autograph note signed to John H. Johnston. Camden, March 7, 1887

Whitman writes to his good friend and benefactor John H. Johnston, the New York jeweler, evidently congratulating him on the birth of his child: “Bless the dear baby, & all babies – Love to you & wife, Walt Whitman.”

$4,800

View of Rome from the Tiber River with Castel Sant’Angelo and Saint Peter’s Basilica. Rome, ca. 1870

$4,500

“The Ocean” in The Salem Gazette. Salem, Massachusetts: Ferdinand Andrews and Caleb Foote, 26 August 1825

$4,500

Peter Parley’s Universal History, on the Basis of Geography. Boston: American Stationers’ Company and John B. Russell, 1837

$4,500

Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1863

$4,500

The Redskins; or Indian and Ingin: being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts. New York: Burgess, Stringer, & Company, 1846

First American edition, in original printed wrappers. This is the conclusion of Cooper’s Littlepage Manuscripts trilogy, a series of novels examining the leasehold system in New York. Cooper saw attacks on the system as a threat to private property. “He was particularly incensed when tenants, disguised as American Indians, resorted to violence” in opposition to the landowners” (ANB).

$4,500