Autograph manuscript diagrams and text. [n.p., n.d.],

Goddard (1882-1945), the “father of modern rocket propulsion,” launched the world’s first liquid-propellant rocket on March 16, 1926, at Auburn, Massachusetts, a “feat as epochal in history as that of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk” (NASA). Goddard had a rare genius for invention and these notes suggest the endless refinement necessary to create a dependable, operational rocket engine.

$35,000

Armstrong and Aldrin raising the U.S. flag on the Moon’s surface. NASA, [1969]

Signed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first two men on the Moon. This image was taken by the Maurer Data Acquisition Camera (DAC, pronounced “dak”). The DAC made films through the Lunar Module Pilot’s window during the approach and landing of the LM and took stop motion photographs during the EVA at the rate of one frame per second.

$32,000

Apollo 11 Philatelic Cover signed by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin. [Houston], 1969

Signed by the crew of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the Moon: Neil Armstrong (commander), Buzz Aldrin (lunar module pilot), and Michael Collins (command module pilot). From the collection of Neil Armstrong.

$32,000

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885

First American edition, in publisher’s morocco with the rare first state of the illustration on p. 283.

$30,000

Tanglewood Tales, inscribed to Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1853

First American edition, first printing of Hawthorne’s final children’s book. A spectacular American literary presentation copy inscribed by Nathaniel Hawthorne to Oliver Wendell Holmes: “O.W. Holmes from his friend N.H.”

$30,000

The French Revolution, a History. Boston: Little & Brown, 1838

First American edition. A splendid presentation copy inscribed by Ralph Waldo Emerson to his brother: “Wm. Emerson from his brother Waldo.” The inscription is in pencil in the second volume. Emerson used this intimate signature only with his immediate family. Page 270 of the first volume bears a pencil correction apparently in Emerson’s hand.

$30,000

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.. London: Strahan and Cadell, 1776-1788

First editions of all six volumes of the most celebrated historical work in English literature. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall covers the thirteen centuries from the age of Trajan to the fall of Constantinople with unmatched erudition, clarity, and organization. “Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equaled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose” (PMM).

$28,000

Autograph manuscript on Ralph Waldo Emerson. No place, [ca. 1870s]

In this fine manuscript Whitman writes, “It is very plain after reading Emerson’s forenoon essays, and then those of his elder age that the latter are not the consecutive fruits or crowning results of the former.”

$28,000

Photograph of the Lunar Module and Buzz Aldrin deploying a scientific experiment on the moon, signed by all three crew members: Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins and by NASA Administrator Thomas Paine. NASA, 1969

A RARELY SIGNED SPACE PHOTOGRAPH, signed by the crew of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the Moon: Neil Armstrong (commander), Buzz Aldrin (lunar module pilot), and Michael Collins (command module pilot) and by NASA Administrator Thomas Paine.

$28,000

La Historia di Italia. Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1561

FIRST EDITION. A “masterpiece of scientific history,” Guicciardini’s History of Italy was “undoubtedly the greatest historical work that had appeared since the beginning of the modern era. It remains the most solid monument of Italian reason in the 16th century, the final triumph of that Florentine school of philosophical historians which included Machiavelli …” (Britannica, 11th ed.).

$28,000