John Reznikoff In The News

University Archives is thrilled to present its last auction of 2024, and perhaps its most impressive sale to date: Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books – Just In Time For The Holidays!  The auction on December 11, 2024 is a great shopping opportunity.  Need holiday gift ideas?  Give your friends and loved ones unique historical gifts this holiday season!  From U.S. Presidents, Early America, and World Leaders, to Art, Music and Literature, from Aviation/Space, Sports and Science, to Militaria, Civil Rights, and Entertainment, our December sale has you covered.  If we receive prompt payment, we will make every effort to ship items before Christmas and Hanukkah.

Many of the marquee items from our December 11, 2024 sale come from an exceptionally large and robust array of U.S. Presidential memorabilia. Military commissions, circulars, ship’s passports, land grants, documents, autograph letters, and typed letters from Washington to Biden – many of them signed as President – will be offered.

U.S. Presidents

Lot 52 is an outstanding ship’s passport signed by the shortest-serving U.S. President, William Henry Harrison, sometime during his month-long presidency. Signed by President Harrison in advance as a blank, it was used by customs officials on April 30, 1841, nearly a full month after Harrison’s death from pneumonia on April 4, 1841, for a New Bedford whaling ship called Agate that foundered off the Cape Verde Islands in a severe storm two years later.

Lot 61 is a circular signed by President Thomas Jefferson dated December 13, 1803 and addressed to an unidentified state governor. It announced the passage of the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, an important measure establishing clearer guidelines for electing a President and Vice President. The amendment was in response to the Election Crisis of 1801, in which Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received the same number of ballots for President, causing a temporary deadlock.

Lot 71 is a 12pp typed chapter from a young John F. Kennedy’s Harvard University senior thesis, with copious manuscript revisions. The chapter entitled “Influence of the Desire for Economy and General Disarmament Conference on British Armaments” was later published as part of Kennedy’s best-selling book Why England Slept. In this heavily edited chapter manuscript, Kennedy argued that the pacifistic mood of the British Parliament, press, and public in 1933 enabled the continuation of Nazi militarization.

Lot 71, John F. Kennedy Hand-Corrected Manuscript

Lot 84 is a draft call signed by President Abraham Lincoln on July 24, 1863 requesting the first part of a conscription quota, a levy of 2,406 troops from the 18th District of Pennsylvania. The draft call was one of the first signed by Lincoln and came just a week after the New York Draft Riots. The Union’s need for additional soldiers was pressing following the Battle of Gettysburg three weeks earlier.

Lot 146 is a 2pp letter signed by President George Washington on October 3, 1789. The circular addressed to Governor of Connecticut Samuel Huntington itemized key pieces of legislation that had been enacted by the 1st session of the 1st U.S. Congress, recently convened from March 4 to September 29, 1789. During this extremely productive session, the U.S. Congress outlined the Judiciary Act, appropriated money for the federal budget, and authorized the federal use of state militias.

Besides U.S. Presidents, our December sale is also strong in Early America, World Leaders, Literature, Aviation/Space, Science, Sports, and Notorious.

Science

Lot 466 is a photograph of Albert Einstein wearing his beloved scruffy leather jacket, probably taken by Lotte Jacobi, and signed by him as “A. Einstein, 1947.” The portrait is shockingly modern in its sensibility, with Einstein staring boldly at the viewer. Einstein presented the signed photograph to Derek J. de Solla Price, the British physicist and historian of science.

Lot 466, Albert Einstein SP

Aviation/Space

Lot 207 is a 7pp autograph letter signed by aviator Charles A. Lindbergh dated March 11, 1937 and addressed to William E. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Nazi Germany. In the letter, Lindbergh expresses concerns about the state of European affairs but notes the difficulty of harnessing peace movements. During World War II, Lindbergh’s pro-Nazi stance made him a controversial figure.

Sports

Lot 508 is a rare Star baseball by Spaulding signed on the sweet spot by Yankees slugger Babe Ruth on June 5, 1927, the day he swung two hits and a home run in a game against the Detroit Tigers. Ruth dedicated the signed baseball to vaudeville actress Maud Ryan, a fellow entertainer; earlier in 1927, Ruth was supplementing his income and increasing his celebrity by starring as a vaudeville performer and silent film star. With PSA/DNA LOA.

Early America

Lot 274 is a 4pp autograph letter signed by “Mad Anthony” Wayne dated July 19, 1780 and addressed to Commander-in-Chief George Washington. In it, Wayne outlines his military strategy for clearing out a nest of British and Loyalist supporters in New Jersey, which includes seizing a block house and confiscating much-needed livestock. Washington sent Wayne the troops and cannons he requested, and two days later the Patriots were repelled at the Battle of Bull’s Ferry with three times the number of enemy casualties.

Lot 274, “Mad Anthony” Wayne ALS

World Leaders

Lot 387 is a 3pp autograph letter in Spanish drafted by Fidel Castro on May 27, 1960. In the letter addressed to Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, Castro thanked him for supporting “the revolution” and also for securing the Cuba-Soviet Alliance signed three weeks earlier, on May 8, 1960. Castro’s letter draft underscores how Cuba identified ideologically with the Soviet Union during a period of rapidly deteriorating relations with the United States.

Literature

Lot 432 is an 11pp autograph manuscript signed by Ayn Rand, being the draft of an upcoming editorial. The handwritten manuscript contains abundant corrections and edits in Rand’s hand, and reads in part: “The United States, at present, is a country without political ideology, without any intellectual movement, without direction or goal.” Rand’s manuscript was later published in the “Ayn Rand Column” under the title “Post-Mortem, 1962” in the November 18, 1962 edition of the Los Angeles Times.

Notorious

Lot 218 is a 2pp autograph letter signed by John Dillinger, written from the Allen County Jail in Lima, Ohio on October 1, 1933, just a few days after he was arrested for armed robbery. In the letter addressed to his girlfriend, Mary Longnaker (the sister of his former cellmate), Dillinger told her to live her life, in part: “Darling I won’t write you any more, I want you to forget me for ten years or more is to[o] long for any girl to wait.” Dillinger was busted out of his prison cell a few days later but was shot dead within the year.

These are just a few of the sensational items in our next auction. Please see our fully illustrated catalog for more information. We hope you can join us!

Visit our website, www.universityarchives.com, for more information, or check out our sale catalog here.

University Archives is thrilled to announce its upcoming sale, Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books, an auction of over 485 lots, on October 30, 2024. One of the marquee items is Lot 89, a highly unique and once-in-a-lifetime set of presidential signatures from George Washington to Barack Obama, all signed as President, from 1789 to 2010. This museum-quality collection comes from a Dallas, Texas gentleman and joins a great volume of exception presidential autographed material from other consignors. A timely assortment up for auction just a few weeks ahead of the 2024 United States presidential election! Outstanding items of historical interest from the Science, World Leaders, Civil Rights, Religion, Art & Music, Aviation & Space, History & Military, and Sports categories will also pass the auction block.

Lot 89, Presidential Collection

U.S. Presidential

Lot 89 is a complete set of presidential signatures from Washington to Obama, consisting of autograph letters signed, typed letters signed, and signed letters, together with a variety of signed documents, all signed as President. There are very few complete sets of Presidential autographs signed as President, mainly due to the scarcity of William Henry Harrison pieces, as he served just one month in office. Many of these sets reside in institutions and will never be offered to the public. It is likely that fewer than a dozen such sets likely exist in private hands, this one being one of the very best. In this way, a set of Presidential autographs signed as President is thus scarcer than a set of autographs from the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. The original set was curated by a collector whose passion for history and preservation also inspired him to assemble an equally phenomenal Signers set. We suggest that you pre-qualify as a bidder if you intend to compete for this marvelous collection.

Lot 20 is a scarce 1p autograph letter signed by James A. Garfield as President, dated June 15, 1881, just two weeks before he was shot by Charles Guiteau. In the letter, Garfield gives directions to a hotel-owner in the “summer colony” of Long Branch, New Jersey, where First Lady Lucretia Garfield was recuperating from a bout of malaria. After the shooting, the fatally wounded Garfield spent several painful months in Washington before eventually venturing to Long Branch himself, to benefit from the sea air. He died there at Franklyn Cottage in September 1881.

Lot 121 is an autograph document signed in full by George Washington as “Mr George Washington.” The document dated ca. 1773 pertained to a 1751 land survey of 445 acres that Washington had completed over 20 years earlier for one Richard Seymour on behalf of Washington’s older half-brother Lawrence Washington. Washington’s endorsement certified that he waived all claims to the original land ownership through either his half-brother or younger full brother Charles Washington.

Lot 110 is an 8pp advance press copy of a printed speech draft signed by President Harry S. Truman, ca. October 30, 1945. In this important postwar speech, Truman laid out his administration’s position on “reconversion” – the transition from a wartime economy to a peacetime one. Japan’s surrender and war’s end meant that the U.S. economy now faced a painful process jockeyed by both Labor and Industry interests. Truman urged the American people to harness the spirit of collaboration formed during World War II to meet the day’s challenges.

Lot 58 is a military commission signed by President Abraham Lincoln promoting a Connecticut native named Orson H. Hart to the rank of Captain and Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers in Daniel Sickles’s newly mustered “Excelsior Brigade” of primarily New York-based volunteers.

Science

The October sale features autographed letters, photographs, and sketches related to Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Carl Jung, Guglielmo Marconi, Samuel F.B. Morse, Vinton Cerf, and Robert Goddard. Lot 447 is a 3pp autograph letter in German signed by Albert Einstein in which the scientist explores both his Unified Field Theory and General Relativity. This exceptionally long scientific letter addressed to Einstein’s friend and fellow physicist Cornelius Lanczos includes a total of twelve equations in Einstein’s hand. It also features unexpectedly comedic content, as when Einstein refers to Freud, another of the greats of twentieth-century science, as an “old man” whose “‘father complex’ … can so easily take hold … [in] an alarmingly unstable situation…”

Lot 447, Albert Einstein ALS

World Leaders

Winston Churchill, Louis XIII, Josef Stalin, Mohandas Gandhi, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara are just a few of the World Leaders represented in our upcoming sale. Lot 392 is a 1p autograph letter in Gujarati twice signed by Mohandas Gandhi in what is the earliest example of an ALS we’ve ever seen. Gandhi wrote his older brother Laxmidas from South Africa on January 22, 1889 inquiring about mutual acquaintances. Gandhi signs the letter formally at the conclusion as “Mohandas Karamchand Pranam” and also signs it as “Gandhi” when writing out part of his brother’s name.

Lot 403 is a 1p manuscript document in Russian boldly signed by Josef Stalin, then a member of the Revolutionary Committee, dated September 9, [1920], and pertaining to military preparedness during the ongoing Polish-Soviet War. Stalin discusses artillery and troop movements in the days leading up to the decisive Battle of Neman River, which the Soviets lost to the Poles after a 10-day battle, marking the onset of the end of the war. Just one year later, Stalin reaffirmed his reputation as a skillful military advisor when he orchestrated the Soviet invasion of Georgia. This was one of the first steps towards consolidating Stalin’s power until he became the era’s top Soviet official. 

Art & Music

Lot 134 is an autograph letter in French signed by Pablo Picasso, PSA/DNA graded GEM MT 10, on the reverse of a postcard depicting “Paix” [“Peace”], a reproduction of the original color lithograph that Picasso produced for a peace conference held in Stockholm, Sweden in July 1958. Picasso mentions his second wife Jacqueline as well as his children in this June 20, 1960 letter to his patron and art collector Max Pellequer.

Lot 294 is a contract signed by both John Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon, dated September 11, 1975, relating to their production company, Bag Productions, which the couple had established in the late 1960s and which later produced the 1971 solo album “Imagine.” The contract outlines terms of ownership of a large quantity of signed and unsigned lithographs, album covers, and colophon pages.

History & Military

Lot 205 is a massive archive of 18 autograph letters signed by Hawaiian missionaries, ca. 1846-1849, comprising 56pp. The correspondence written by members of the 8th Company of Missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions includes vivid descriptions of a surfboard and surfing, complete with pen sketches; volcanic eruptions and coastal topography; interactions between Whites and indigenous Hawaiians; and other topics of religious and human interest. The majority of the letters were penned by Dr. Seth Lathrop Andrews, a medical missionary from Putney, Vermont headquartered in Kailua, Hawaii.

Lot 205, Hawaiian Missionaries Archive

Lot 332 is a Civil War-dated 1p autograph letter signed by Brigadier General George Custer on April 6, 1864. Custer congratulated Captain R.R. Moffatt for his new “saber shield” design for cavalry weapons, stating: “I am firm in the belief that the possession of it by our cavalry would give confidence and increases courage to those wearing it.” Of course, nothing better represents Custer than his bravado on the battlefield; he firmly believed that a fringed saber sash or innovative military equipment could bolster a warrior’s confidence.

These are just a few of the wonderful items in our next auction. Please see our fully illustrated catalog for more information. We hope you can join us!

Lot 62, Abraham Lincoln PSA GEM MT 10 CDV Signed 3 Weeks Before His Death

Estimates: $100,000 – $150,000

Sold for $125,000 including the buyer’s premium