University Archives Announces Its July 16, 2025 Auction!
University Archives is excited to announce its July 16, 2025 sale! Rare Autographs, Books, Lincoln & Space Items will include over 450 lots from collecting categories such as U.S. Presidents, Military (especially Revolutionary War and Civil War), Aviation/Space, Art, Science, and Sports. The savvy collector can take advantage of many chances to bid on never-before-seen and extremely scarce pieces.
U.S. Presidents
Over 30 lots in the auction relate to Abraham Lincoln: his family; his legal career; his presidency; his assassination and its aftermath; and his political and historical legacy. Lincolniana collectors will find autographed material, ephemera, and pictorial representations of Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln, Willie Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, Boston Corbett, and David Hunter, head of the Lincoln conspirator military tribunal.
Lot 62 is a vintage sepia-colored carte de visite of Abraham Lincoln, boldly signed by him as “A. Lincoln” along the bottom edge, and PSA/DNA slabbed and graded MINT 9. The portrait of Lincoln was originally taken by Alexander Gardner on August 9, 1863, just one month after the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. This piece was one of six autographed cartes de visite which President Lincoln sent to Mrs. Mary L. Westerman of Pekin, Illinois for a Union Army fundraising event hosted there on October 18, 1864. A pencil inscription on the back of the Lincoln signed CDV suggests that it was later sold for $200, with proceeds presumably benefiting the war effort.

Lot 62, Abraham Lincoln PSA MINT 9 Signed CDV
Everyone recalls Abigail Adams’s injunction to “Remember the ladies.” Lot 1 is a 2pp autograph letter signed by John Adams dated November 11, 1788 and introducing his wife, Abigail Adams, to John Jay’s wife, Sarah Livingstone Jay. Rather remarkably, the two important diplomats’ wives had not met in Europe while Adams and Jay were negotiating the Revolutionary War-ending 1783 Treaty of Paris. Adams wrote wistfully about John Jay, in part: “My most respectful and affectionate Regards to Mr Jay. When and Where I shall ever have the Pleasure to see him again I know not. But I shall never cease to desire it, if we live upon this Earth these hundred years.”
Lot 127 is a partly printed and partly manuscript document dated September 1, 1783, boldly signed by George Washington in his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. This Revolutionary War discharge certificate was issued to one John Slocum of Rhode Island, who belonged to the Corps of Invalids, which operated between 1777-1783. This unit was comprised of wounded, sickly, or aged veterans who performed limited duties, like guard watches. One of Slocum’s fellow invalided corpsmen was Prince Jenckes, a Black veteran amputee; the historical record suggests that, like Jenckes, Slocum was physically disabled while in service.
Lot 127, George Washington Signed Revolutionary War Discharge
Lot 42 is a 1p autograph letter signed three times by President Thomas Jefferson, once as “Th: Jefferson” and twice initialed as “Th: J.” Jefferson wrote this October 18, 1805 letter to General John Mason, commander of the District of Columbia militia, and owner of a plantation on Analostan Island in the Potomac River (now Theodore Roosevelt Island) regarding the planning and construction of a connective causeway, likely built by enslaved labor.
Military
Lot 325 is an autograph letter signed, docketed, or endorsed by five Confederate officers – including Robert E. Lee – which originally served as the transmittal cover for a relic from the Battle of Gettysburg. The letter originally accompanied the regimental flag of the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers, which on July 1, 1863 had been captured by Lieutenant Frank M. Harney of the 14th North Carolina Infantry. The fatally wounded Harney’s dying wish was that the captured battle flag be sent on to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The flag – along with this very letter – made its way to President Davis between mid-July and mid-August 1863, changing hands no fewer than five times. Davis treasured the flag and it was in his suitcase when he fled Richmond.
Lot 344 is a telegram form engrossed and signed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, dated July 8, 1864, and addressed to General Robert E. Lee at Petersburg, Virginia. The city of Petersburg – a vital railroad hub just 20 miles south of the Confederate capital at Richmond – was just 3 weeks into the city’s eventual 10-month-long siege. In the urgent message, Davis conveys his concerns about the “nonarrival of arms” and worries that Confederate war plans are no longer confidential. In closing, Davis gives Lee unlimited military authority in conducting the Petersburg campaign.
Lot 344, Jefferson Davis Telegram to Robert E. Lee at Petersburg
Lot 237 is a partly printed and partly manuscript document signed by Union General David Hunter in Port Royal, South Carolina on August 22, 1862, his last day serving as Commander of the Department of the South. The document proclaims that the former enslaved person named Jupiter Jamison is proclaimed “forever free” – along with his wife, children, and mother. Hunter’s dismissal from his post was in part due to his premature emancipation of enslaved people from areas that the Union Army had liberated, months prior to President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and well in advance of the effective date of January 1, 1863. Believed to be the only such copy in private hands!
Entertainment
Lot 308 is a mortgage deed dated December 20, 1957 co-signed by Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe and her then husband, the playwright Arthur Miller, for the farmhouse they owned at 232 Tophet Road, Roxbury, Connecticut. The unlikely couple lived in Roxbury, as well as on Long Island and in New York City, during their 5-year-long marriage.
International
Lot 404 is a French-language postcard signed twice by Mahatma Gandhi, once in English and once in Hindi, dated June 24, 1947, just seven months before Gandhi’s assassination. The signed postcard is PSA/DNA slabbed and graded MINT 9 and comes with provenance in the form of an autograph letter in French signed by Gandhi’s personal secretary, Amrit Kaur.
Art
Lot 141 is a 1p autograph letter in French signed by Pablo Picasso dated August 1, 1953. In this letter to his close friend and financial adviser Max Pellequer, Picasso writes that he is not a professional ceramicist, but rather a secondary one. Picasso studied under Suzanne and Georges Ramié at the Madoura Pottery studio in Vallauris, France after 1947. In the studio space reserved for him there, Picasso later produced thousands of limited-edition and figural pitchers, vases, plates, and bowls.
Lot 141, Pablo Picasso ALS
Sports
Lot 440 is an unused 50-stamp block of commemorative stamps, with black titles omitted, celebrating the centenary of professional baseball in 1969, accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Professional Stamp Experts. Series U.S. #1381, “Professional Baseball / 1869-1969” in yellow, red, green, and black, celebrates 100 years of the professionalization of America’s favorite pastime, beginning with the first professional baseball team: the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
These are just a few of the sensational items featured in our July sale.
We hope you can join us!