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Gilded Age (1876 - c.1900) |
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Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Doll
[THEODORE ROOSEVELT],
Rough Rider Doll, ca. 1900. Made of felt, brass, leather and linen. The face appears to be hand-painted. The head and body are filled with straw or wood shavings. 10 in.
Item #24200, $1,100
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Carrie Chapman Catt Signed 1899 Receipt to Fellow Suffragette Harriet Taylor Upton
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT,
Autograph Document Signed. Check. New York, N.Y., December 31, 1899. 1 p.
Item #21678.22, $375
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Rear Admiral Schley on his Recent Victory over the Spanish Fleet in the Battle of Santiago Bay
WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY,
Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs. L. B. Shriver. San Juan, P.R., October 21, 1898. 1 p., 8 x 10½ in. On “Headquarters Army of the Commission of the United States of America for Porto Rico” stationery.
“If it has been the means of bringing peace then my sacrifice to that end would not have been too great.”
Item #21615, $1,500
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Susan B. Anthony Plaster Relief Medallion Copyrighted by Her Sister
SUSAN B. ANTHONY,
Plaster Bas-Relief Medallion by [Sidney H. Morse], June 1897. 7¾ in. round. 3 x 2 in. brass plate on verso with inscription, “Copyright, June 1897, By Mary S Anthony / Endorsed by the Political Equality Club of Rochester, N.Y.”
Item #26052, $3,500
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NYPD Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt Argues the Police Entrance Exam Keeps “Blockheads” Off the Force
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
Typed Letter Signed as New York City Police Commissioner, to W.C. Sanger, defending the police entrance exam, February 5, 1897, New York, N.Y. On “Police Department of the City of New York” stationery. 8 pp., 8 x 10½ x ¼ in.
Theodore Roosevelt, as New York City Police Commissioner, defends his reforms, including his implementation of an entrance exam for candidates, a year before his victory in the gubernatorial election. “We have appointed sixteen hundred patrolmen under these examinations ... If they were strong, hardy young fellows of good character and fair intelligence they got their appointments. As a whole, they form the finest body of recruits that have ever been added to the New York police force.”
Item #21122.99, $20,000
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Henry Du Pont Signed Stock Certificate
[HENRY DU PONT],
Printed Document Signed (“H. du Pont”). January 22, 1897. 1p. oblong quarto.
Item #20061, $500
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Civil War Veteran School Board Chair Cautions Teacher to Discipline Carefully
[EDUCATION]. GEORGE N. SHEPARD,
Autograph Letter Signed, as Chairman of the School Board, to Mary D. Webster, October 5, 1891, West Epping, New Hampshire. 2 pp. and envelope.
“...neither have the right to inflict punishment or impose restrictions that will maim, or injure the health of, the children. As to the particular case under consideration, I cannot believe that you are unduly severe or that your restrictions and exactions will hurt a robust, stubborn pupil.”
Item #25493, $390
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Benjamin Butler Signed Stock Certificate
[BENJAMIN BUTLER],
Stock certificate of fifteen shares of the Georgia Investment and Development Co. signed by Benjamin Butler as President. March 14, 1891.
Item #23084, $1,000
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin Advertised by Local Maine Drama Club
[HARRIET BEECHER STOWE],
Broadside. Uncle Tom’s Cabin playbill. Announcing performance by the Prospect Harbor, Maine, Dramatic Club, managed by E.W. Cleaves. Ca. 1890s. 1 p., 15⅜ x 27⅜ in.
Item #24716, $1,800
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A Map of the Baruch College Area of New York City
ALEXANDER STEWART WEBB,
Autograph Letter Signed “Webb,” as President of City College of New York, to General F.A. Walker. New York, N.Y. March 20, 1888. 3 pp., 8⅜ x 13 in. With holograph map.
Stewart sending thanks, urging General Walker to visit.
Item #22259, $1,250
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After Lightning Strikes on the Washington Monument, Benjamin Butler Asks About Similar Strikes on the Pyramids
BENJAMIN F. BUTLER,
Typed Letter Signed, Boston, May 25, 1886, to Gen. J.B. Kinsman in Alexandria, Egypt. 2pp, 7.75 x 9.875 in. Stationery from the Law Offices of Butler, Washburn, and Webster.
The former Union major general discusses the Washington Monument in relation to the Egyptian pyramids and shares other news and happenings back home. Reading in part:
“The Washington Monument had got a crack of a thunderbolt which knocked the top of it somewhat, and as the pyramids are the next highest things, and had stood so many years, I wondered whether there were any thunder claps there, and whether the lightening [sic] had ever troubled them --whether there was any such thing in Egypt, and I did not know where to turn to the authorities. Because if the pyramids have been open to thunder claps during the ages they have stood there must have been a good deal of demolishment, apparently, as in the year the Washington Monument was finished the top of that got badly knocked, although great pains had been taken to draw off the lightening [sic] by conductors, and I did not suppose they had lightening [sic] rods on the pyramids….
If you see something quite rare and not too expensive that would adorn the mantlepiece in my new office, which is a very fine room, and will send it to me, I should be very glad of it for I know you have taste in bric-a-brac. You are now Judge in Egypt. I think the administration is inclined to let you alone. Batchelder has tried to make mischief but I don’t think he has succeeded…”
Item #26793, $550
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Jefferson Davis’ Hope for a Future Union Based on Confederate Principles
JEFFERSON DAVIS,
Autograph Letter Signed, “Jefferson Davis”, to Mr. Clegg, Beauvoir, Mississippi, September 3, 1885. 2 pages.
Davis expresses his hope for a future Union based on Confederate principles: “…The sentiment to which you refer as ‘common,’ is I hope the utterance of time serving self seekers, rather than of the people who dared and did and sacrificed so much for principle, and the rights their Fathers left them. I trust your four boys will imbibe the patriotism of their Father and when in the fullness of time the restoration shall come that they may enjoy the blessings of liberty and community independence which the Constitution of the Union was designed to secure. With this I enclose the autograph for which you asked…”
After the North’s retreat from Reconstruction, Davis’s vision of individual rights, limited government, and white racial superiority still held great sway in the South.
Item #7543, $3,900
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Sherman’s “Insanity” For Saying 200,000 Men Would be Needed to Fight the Civil War
WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN,
Autograph Letter Signed, to E.V. Smalley. St. Louis, Missouri, November 13, 1883. 3 pp., 5 x 8 in. On Sherman’s imprinted stationery. With an endorsement initialed by Smalley requesting the change be made if possible.
After having recently stepped down as Commanding General of the Army, Sherman reviews a biographical article. While explaining the story of his being labeled insane in 1861 for believing that 200,000 Union troops would be needed, he asks that Secretary of War Simon Cameron’s name be left out. Smalley published his article in the Century Magazine, January 1884.
Item #23562.07, $3,800
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Sherman on His Saddle – His One “Honest Relic” of the March to the Sea
WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN,
Autograph Letter Signed, to Colonel Herbert E. Hill. Washington, D.C., December 6, 1881. 4 pp., 5 x 7¾ in. On “Headquarters Army of the United States” stationery. Laid onto a larger sheet of paper.
“Yesterday the Hon. S. B Bowman called … asking the loan of “the sword or sabre I wore” during the famous March to the Sea … I explained to Mr Bowman that the truth was I did not have a sword or sabre during that march, nor at any time after I succeeded General Grant in the command of the Western Armies at Nashville March 1864.”
Item #23562.05, $4,250
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Secretary of State Evarts Accepts Invitation to Protestant Episcopal Convention: “The Bishops I think should be au gratin and the laymen chilled”
WILLIAM M. EVARTS,
Autograph Letter Signed, to William A. Seaver, Washington, DC, October 15, 1880. 2 pp., 4⅞ x 8 in.
Item #24958, $450
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Civil War Hero David Dixon Porter Expresses Support for the Chinese in a Time of Hostility
DAVID DIXON PORTER,
Autograph Letter Signed, to “Reverend Dr. Newman.” Washington, D.C., March 14, 1879. 3 pp., 5 x 8 in.
“As you and I have both expressed friendly sentiments towards the citizens of the Flowery Kingdom, we may hope to be in high favor should we live till that time.”
Item #22730, $950
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Bartholdi Signed Note, on His Calling Card, Fundraising for the Statue of Liberty
STATUE OF LIBERTY,
Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi. Autograph Note Signed, on his calling card, c. 1878. With Marquis de Rochambeau, Autograph Note Signed, on his calling card, and a calling card for Count Sérurier, during fundraising effort to present Liberty Enlightening the World to the United States. 3 items. 3¾ x 2¼ in.
Item #24842, $1,800
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“Let Us Have Faith that Right Makes Might…”
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN]. SCHUYLER COLFAX,
Autograph Quote Signed, from Lincoln’s Cooper Institute speech given on February 27, 1860. Sept 10, 1877.
Schuyler Colfax, U.S. representative from Indiana and vice president under Ulysses S. Grant, pens a famous quote from Lincoln’s Cooper Institute speech.
Item #23916, ON HOLD
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Bartholdi Plans for Statue of Liberty Right Arm and Torch Exhibit at 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
FREDERIC-AUGUSTE BARTHOLDI,
Autograph Letter Signed, in French, recipient unknown, June 8, 1876, Philadelphia. On “International Expositions, Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, Superior Commission of International Expositions, General Station, Hotel de Cluny, Rue du Sommerard, Paris” letterhead. 2 pp., 5⅛ x 8⅛ in.
Complete Translation
Dear Mademoiselle,
It will give me great pleasure to see my work figured in the respected publication of Mr. Harper. I am thinking of returning to New York on Monday and I will have the pleasure of bringing you, in person, the block and the notes that you asked for.
Would you be so kind to thank Mr. Harper for <2> his appreciation of my work and yourself accept the expression of my most devoted feelings of friendship.
Bartholdi
Philadelphia 8 June 1876
Item #24887, $2,500
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Advertisement for Temperance Restaurant in New York City
[TEMPERANCE],
Advertising card for “McElree’s Temperance Restaurant & Lunch Room” The other side promotes “McElree’s Centennial Mead” for 5¢ per glass, claiming that it is “Healthful and Cooling” and “pleases ALL NATIONALITIES and tastes,” ca. 1876, New York. 2 pp., 5 x 1¼ in.
Item #26460.02, $300
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