Autograph manuscript account of his brother George’s movements in the Civil War. No place, [1863]

Whitman’s brother fights in the war: the origin of the poet’s nursing service.

$35,000

“Whereas a great many false reports have been raised, by Deserters from the Virginia Regiment …” in The Maryland Gazette, 5 September 1754, p. 3. Annapolis: Jonas Green, 1754

FIRST EDITION of George Washington’s second appearance in print. This rare document shows George Washington at the dawn of his military career, building the experience and reputation that would ultimately lead to his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.

$85,000

Atomic bomb core hemisphere. No place, c. 1942-44

This evocative relic of the first atomic bomb was preserved by the first metallurgist of the Manhattan Project’s Metallurgical Laboratory, Jules Simmons.

$11,000

Important Pair of Daguerreotypes: Black Caregiver with White Baby and the Child’s Parents. Talbot County, Maryland or Texas, c. 1853

This striking pair of daguerreotypes evokes the complex relationships between enslaved people and their enslavers in the American South, especially between white families and the trusted women who cared for their children.

the pair: $18,500

A Compendious Exercise for the Garrison and Field Ordnance, as Practised in the United States. Washington City: Weightman, 1810

FIRST EDITION of “the first official drill manual for either the American regular or militia artillery” (Graves). This manual constrains detailed instructions on procedures in firing and handling artillery and training soldiers in its use.

$2,200

Bust portrait of Whitman wearing a hat. New York, 1878

Boldly signed and dated 1879 by Whitman. Whitman observed of this delightful portrait, “It is one of my good-humored pictures. … This is strong enough to be right and gentle enough to be right, too: I like to be both: I wouldn’t like people to say ‘he is a giant’ and then forget I know how to love.”

$7,200

Autograph letter signed to Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Camden, New Jersey, 9 August 1878

“The Good Gray Poet” to the Poet Laureate. Tennyson was the most important of of the many English literary figures who subscribed to the “Author’s Edition” of Leaves of Grass, privately issued by Whitman in 1876. Hearing that Whitman was “in great straits, almost starving,” Tennyson sent him five pounds virtually as an outright gift, rather than the more modest subscription price (Kaplan, Walt Whitman).

$60,000

Autograph manuscript notebook, the working notebook for the verses later published in The Seraphim, and Other Poems.. No Place, 1835-1837

This extraordinary manuscript is Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s heavily revised autograph working notebook for The Seraphim, and Other Poems, the book that first brought her fame.

$550,000

Two 16 mm films of the first Russian and the first American to walk in space. No place, 1965

Films of the space walks of Aleksei Leonov and Edward White.

$9,500

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