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!
