Autograph letter signed as President to Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas [with] American flag bunting from Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theatre. Washington, Executive Mansion, May 27, 1861

Abraham Lincoln, writing at the outset of the Civil War, recommends that the Army admit three volunteers from the highly divided city of Baltimore. He advises Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas, “I hate to reject any offered from what is called a Southern State.” [offered with] Bunting from the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre.

two items: $275,000

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Washington, D.C.: Philp and Solomons, [1865-66]

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of the most famous photographically illustrated American book of the nineteenth century.

$275,000

Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday. No place, 1860s

This is a rare large format portrait of the famed general Abner Doubleday. Doubleday played a prominent role in the Union Army from the war’s outset. He was was second in command at Fort Sumter when the war started. He later commanded a division at Antietam, Gettysburg and other major battles.

$9,500

Mortar Dictator, in Front of Petersburg. Petersburg, Va., October 1864

This fascinating photograph is a variant of the image shown in Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War. In that image, a group of Union officers including the chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac stands in the foreground, while five members of the mortar crew stand in the background. In the present photograph, shells have been moved to the foreground, and the full crew of nine men is present. The photographs are otherwise essentially identical.

$3,500

Pontoon bridges across the James River at Richmond, Virginia. Richmond, 1865

This rare photograph shows two parallel pontoon bridges stretching across the James River at Richmond, Virginia, near war’s end. The Army Corps of Engineers constructed these bridges after retreating Confederate forces burned the bridges in 1865. The Dunlop Mills are seen on the other side of the river.

$2,200

Inspection of Union Troops at Cumberland Landing, Pamunkey, Virginia. Cumberland Landing, Virginia, May 1862

This famous view shows a Union Army encampment at Cumberland Landing on the Pamunkey in Virginia.

$3,500

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

Abraham Lincoln. Washington, November 8, 1863

This famous “Gettysburg portrait,” with Lincoln looking directly into the camera, was made just days before he delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.

$32,000

Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign, embracing scenes of the occupation of Nashville, the great battles around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the campaign of Atlanta, march to the sea, and the great raid through the Carolinas. [New York: Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck], [1866]

FIRST EDITION. George N. Barnard’s Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign is, together with Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book, one of the two greatest photographic monuments of the Civil War. Its 61 original mounted photographs include some of the most famous images of the war.

$390,000

Madonna backstage at the Danceteria. New York: Eric Kroll, 1982

Signed and numbered 3/10 and with Kroll’s inkstamp dated 1982.

This photograph shows Madonna backstage at the legendary Danceteria in New York in 1982, at the dawn of her career

$2,500