![Voters / You may know a man by the company he keeps. [Handbill]](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1549857250.0.l.jpg)
[Women's Movement - Ohio] Ohio Woman Suffrage Association
Warren, 1912
Warren, 1912. Handbill measuring 10 ¼ x 6 ½ inches. Some tanning and faint crease marks from fold, near fine. The Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, founded in Cincinnati in 1869, was one of the earliest state-level suffrage organizations. It was active for several decades. Like the NAWSA, the group defined itself as moderate, condemning the picketing actions of the National Woman's Party. Offered here is a poster from the campaign in favor of Constitutional Amendment no. 23 in 1912, which would have granted suffrage to women had it passed. The OWSA campaign in favor of the amendment in 1912 was run by Harriet Taylor Upton, who had political experience on the national level. Upton raised $40,000 for the campaign, hiring a crew of fifty workers. This poster was produced as part of the group's efforts. It urges voters to support the amendment, listing the state-wide organizations that have lent their support, the biggest of which is the Ohio Federation of Labor. The handbill states "4,500,000 women will vote for the next president." The amendment may have failed in part because of opposition efforts to link women's suffrage to prohibition, with a series of anonymous handbills making this claim leading up to the election. Amendment 23 was one of many similar efforts spanning several decades that failed in Ohio before the legislature passed a bill granting women suffrage in 1917, which was overturned before 1920. In 1920 the National League of Women Voters subsumed the OWSA and the 19th Amendment finally gained passage. We find no other record of this handbill.
[American West - Mountaineering - Early Photography - Colorado] Chapin, Frederic Hastings
Colorado, 1887
Colorado, 1887. First Edition. Albums in three-quarters roan with cloth sides, measuring 9 ¾ x 12 ½ inches. Some binding wear, one volume with the front board detached, internally generally clean, images generally fine with excellent contrast. Presentation copy from Chapin to the alpinist Charles E. Fay, with a a letter presenting the albums to Fay, headed in Hartford in 1887. Captioned in ink in Chapin's hand. With a copy of Chapin's Mountaineering in Colorado (Boston, Appalachian Mountain Club, 1889), in near fine condition. Near Fine. Frederick Chapin (1852-1900), was a mountaineer, author and photographer originally from Hartford, Connecticut who wrote the first guide to mountaineering in Colorado, Mountaineering in Colorado: The Peaks about Estes Park, a copy of which is included here. He is best known for his exploration of the Mesa Verde region in Colorado two years after these albums were created, an experience he would write about in his 1892 book The Land of the Cliff Dwellers.
Chapin wrote Mountaineering in Colorado: The Peaks about Estes Park (the region depicted in these photographs) in 1889 for the Appalachian Mountain Club, after a series of excursions to Estes Park between 1886 and 1888. The recipient of these albums, Charles E. Fay, was the founder and first president of the American Alpine Club, a founder and four-time president of the AMC, and a climber notable for a number of first ascents in the mountains of western Canada. Fay wrote on mountaineering and edited the publications of the AMC and AAC, taught at Tufts, and was one of the founders of the Modern Language Association of America. Both Chapin and Fay have peaks named after them: Mount Chapin the Mummy Range, and Mount Fay in the Bow Range of the Selkirks. Chapin's expeditions were several decades before the establishment of the Colorado Mountain Club and the eventual formation of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Chapin's photographs capture the exuberance of this early mountaineering community in detail, with his excitement for the geological grandeur of the Rockies very clearly shown in the images. Some of the areas shown include Sheep Mountain, Big Thompson Creek, Mummy Mountain (with many pictures of the glacier), Pike's Peak, Table Mountain, Rock Creek, Ypsilon Peak, Long's Peak, Fort Garland, Willow Park, Hallett Glacier, Sheep Mountain and the Front Range. Alongside pictures of the mountain are pictures of Chapin's party and pictures of the wildlife of the area. Chapin has a decent eye for composition, and most of the photographs remain with very good contrast, with a handful showing slight foxing.
We find two collections of Chapin's photographs held institutionally, both at Yale, with one from this period containing twenty one prints with some duplicates. No other examples of Chapin's work have appeared at auction.
[American-Chinese Food - Menus] Hung Far Lo Co
Danville, 1915
Danville, 1915. First Edition. 13 ¼ x 8 ¾ inches. Mounted to cardstock with residue and affixed articles to cardstock verso. Date stamp of "Oct 24 1915" on lower margin. Peculiar ink inscription reads "Culprints Doc, Wedge and Shorty" at margin. Very Good. An early Chinese American restaurant menu from Danville, Illinois. The business is listed in the 1913 International Chinese Business Directory of the World, making the restaurant one of fewer than would exist when immigration laws changed in 1915 allowing restaurateurs to enter the United States on work visas. The menu features two sections, "American Style" and "Chinese Style," with the latter section including dishes such as Chop Suey, Chicken Sum Soo, Noodles Wor, Canton Style Eggs, Fried Rice and a selection of teas. The existence of a separate American menu attests to the development of American Chinese food alongside American food, and the degree to which restaurants offered Chinese immigrants an opportunity to operate businesses for broader American clientele. We find records of the Mandarin Cafe's existence into the 1940s.
[Alaska - Mining - Golovin Bay Region] Pioneer Commercial Company
Alaska, 1901
Alaska, 1901. Oblong folio, 12 ½ x 9 inches. Twelve leaves with 89 photographs rebound in modern cloth. Binding in fine condition, photographs generally excellent, some leaves with clear tape repairs. A well preserved album of photographs showing mining operations in the Golovin Bay region, about fifty to seventy-five miles northwest of Nome, during the tail end of the Klondike Gold Rush period in 1900-1901. The album shows the operations of the Pioneer Company in Alaska in great detail, including the travel by boat and the camps along Opher Creek, as well as many photographs of the mining operation itself. According to a caption in one of the photographs, $12,000 worth of gold was taken out of the "Discovery Claim" on Ophir Creek. The album also includes several photographs of the indigenous population. The compiler of the book appears to have been a student at a mining college at some point, as some of the photographs show a "Class of '04'" sign. The photographs are dated from 1897 to 1901. Interior scenes and a particularly broad portrayal of mining life and operations make this an uncommonly informative photographic document of Alaskan mining operations during this period.
Lowny, J.D. The Golovin Bay Region of Northwestern Alaska. In: The Engineering and Mining Journal Vol. 71, pp. 781-782. June 15, 1901. Accessed online, 6/23.
[African-Americana - Music - African-American Photographers] Polk, Prentice H.
Tuskegee, 1930
Tuskegee, 1930. Pair of silver gelatin prints measuring 9 ½ x 7 ⅞ and 7 x 5 inches. Residue to versos from removal from scrapbook, tear and crease to larger image, very good contrast. Very Good. A pair of photographs from the prolific photographer Prentice H. Polk of a band led by Allen Moton, the son of Dr. Robert Moton, the president of Tuskegee University. Moton was, among other things, an acquaintance of Ralph Ellison's at Tuskegee, and may have been the inspiration for the car ride in Invisible Man, as Ellison recounted a particularly harrowing drive with Moton in his father's Cadillac with the pianist Hazel Harrison, in which Moton was trying to impress Hazelton with his knowledge of philosophy. According to an article in the Tuskegee Herald in 1956, Moton also played with Teddy Wilson at Tuskegee before Wilson joined Benny Goodman's band. The larger photograph has several of the band members identified in ink on the verso, as Allen Moton, Morris, Lollypop, Baker, Robert (likely Moton, also a musician), and Crosby. We find no record of the band besides the photograph, leaving the possibility open that "Moton's Sharps and Flats" was not the name under which they performed.
Works cited: Gebhart, Caroline. Ghosts of Tuskegee. In: Devlin, Paul (editor). Ralph Ellison in Context. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021.
[African-Americana - Literature - Poetry] Pitts, Richard
Holly Springs, 1944
Holly Springs, 1944. First Edition. 8vo, wraps, 20 pp. Wraps detached at spine and with some tears, stain to front wrap and some ink residue, good condition. Good. A privately printed collection of poems by Richard Pitts, who at the time was a student at Rust College in Holly Springs. According to his biography, Pitts was "stricken with arthritis and was a shut-in for five years." The poems mostly deal with moral issues, with titles such as "Don't Try to Peep," "Disobedience" and "Do the Best You Can." Pitts also addresses racism directly. The poem on the rear wrap is entitled "When Will the War Close?" and reads, "When man sees man just as a man ; And hot his skin or color; Justice be given to every man / just as you would a brother. / The blood that's spilled on the battlefield / Has just one common color. / This cruel war will surely end / When each man becomes a brother." OCLC locates four copies, at Yale, Howard, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi.
[African-Americana - Education - Tuskegee Institute] Stewart, McKinley
Tuskegee, 1914
Tuskegee, 1914. Oblong 8vo, decorative pebbled cloth over thin boards, 8 x 5 inches. With fourteen pages of inscriptions from fellow classmates. Some pages detached, wear and toning, good condition. Good. An interesting book of dedicatory verse to a student in the Tuskegee Institute class of 1915, from his classmates, all written in May of 1914. Stewart writes on the front pastedown, " Myb album is open, come and see, for you to waste a line or two upon me, so when the summer days make us part, I shall always remember you in my heart." Stewart was from Taylorsville, Illinois. The inscriptions from his classmates - mostly sentimental verse- are an interesting document in the Tuskegee coeducational model and more broadly shed light on the culture of the African-American student culture during the time. "Dear Stewart," his roommate Emmit Strode writes, "This summer you and I may be far apart, but I hope that you will bear in mind that I am with thee in heart each day avoe all things do the right, and may your future days be bright." Stewart is the only student from Illinois represented, the others being from Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas and Georgia. One classmate writes, " Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them, and power flows to the man who knows how.".
[African-Americana - Abolition - Women Artists] Eddy, Sarah J. [Douglass, Frederick]
Providence, 1883
Providence, 1883. First Edition. Albumen photograph measuring 5 ¾ x 4 ½ inches on larger mount. Some light wear, near fine. Fine. Sarah James Eddy, the abolitionist and social reformer from Providence, Rhode Island, painted the only known portrait of Frederick Douglass for which he sat in 1883. She painted two portraits, one of which hangs in the Frederick Douglass house, and the other which was gifted to W.E.B. Du Bois and later lost. Offered here is an albumen photograph of a pen and ink sketch of Douglass, possibly done as a study for her portrait - and though the pose is not identical, Douglass does wear the attire as the painted portraits. Douglass sat for two portraits during 1883 while in Providence, possibly due to the influence of Eddy's grandfather, the abolitionist Francis Jackson. Eddy would launch her photography career a decade later, in the 1890s, and continue painting as well, painting two well-known portraits of Susan B. Anthony. We find no record of the original drawing in this photograph, though it is clearly Eddy's work as it is signed in the image. Douglass's hair style, beard and general expression match the 1883 portrait. The format dates it to the late 19th century, and it's possible that Eddy reproduced one of her earlier sketches for commercial production. We find a record of this drawing in the Library of Congress's negative collection, but no examples of the photograph from the period held institutionally.
[Mexico] [Beef Industry] [Industrial Photography] [De Kay, John Wesley, aka the "Sausage King" of Mexico] Mexican National Packing Co., or Popo
Mexico, 1908
Mexico: Mexican National Packing Co, 1908. First Edition. Oblong folio, cloth, 12 x 7 inches. With twenty-five silver gelatin photographs affixed to album leaves, each measuring 6 ¾ x 5 inches. John Wesley De Kay was an American businessman, playwright and eccentric socialite who, using funds amassed as a teenage newspaper and cattle owner in South Dakota, moved to Mexico in 1899 and established a high-profile career in meat packing. In his first decade in Mexico, he established the Mexican National Packing Company, also known as Popo. By 1910 De Kay would be dubbed the "Sausage King" of Mexico. De Kay simultaneously enjoyed a vanity career as a playwright and maintained a high-profile in society circles, and caused a minor scandal in theatre circles with an ill-fated play entitled Judas in 1910.
The present book of photographs, which is unrecorded, documents the opening of one of De Kay's plants, the Uruapan Packing Plant, in 1908. At this point, De Kay was aligned with the Porfirio Diaz regime, and this plant represented the culmination of De Kay's efforts to provide refrigerated meat to the local and global markets. The photographs in this album show the opening of the plant, with great ceremony, and include photographs of the Vice President Ramón Corral Verdugo and his party, as well as flattering photographs of the plant's architecture, the killing floor, and notably the power turbines that powered the refrigerated plant. The Mexican National Meat Packing Co., or Popo, would employ a widespread advertising campaign aimed at a public averse to chilled meat. Popo was initially successful, until the Mexican Revolution of 1910 brought about events that eventually eliminated foreign ownership of the meat industry.
Overall a scarce record of an important episode in Mexican industrial history, and an engaging photographic record in its own right, with the photographs in very good condition with some silvering and the album in very good condition as well, the only flaw being bowing to the heavy cardstock mounts. Unrecorded in OCLC.
[Women - Travel - Hungary - Asia and Africa - 1930s]
[Offered in Partnership with Kate Mitas, Bookseller] V.P., 1943
[Offered in Partnership with Kate Mitas, Bookseller] V.P., 1943. Five holograph diaries, each wrapped in brown paper with the title written on the front wrapper. First two diaries 7 x 5 inches, third diary 8-1/4 x 6-3/4 inches, fourth and fifth diaries 10-1/2 x 8- 1/4 inches. 190pp, 368pp, 233pp, 120pp, 42pp respectively (counting used pages only); approximately 115,000 words. Text primarily in Hungarian with occasional German and English passages and/or words. Chipping, short tears, and tape reinforcement to paper wrappers; tape reinforcement to some hinges; few gutter breaks to first diary, although binding still holding. Overall, very good condition. Also includes a later edition of her book describing these travels, Rejtelmes Kelet: Egy Magyar Leány Utazása Indiában, Sziámban, Jáva Szigetén, Kínában, Japánban, Koreában, Mancsukóban ([Budapest]: Singer és Wolfner, (n. d.), circa 1943); the first edition was issued in 1937. Illustrated paper-covered cloth binding. B&w plates. Tears and wear to paper joints; toning to leaves; few scattered gutter breaks. Good. With approximately 100 medium format negatives and sixty photographs from Ceylon, India, Sudan, Egypt and other locations, and two additional letters, one of ten pages written to her future husband Jack Gardiner. Photographs generally fine. Good. Julianna Geszty was a multilingual author and traveler from Budapest, who embarked on a remarkable series of travels through various countries in Asia in the 1930s, connecting with local politicians and luminaries and observing local culture. She would publish a book on her travels, Rejtelmes Kelet: Egy Magyar Leány Utazása Indiában, Sziámban, Jáva Szigetén, Kínában, Japánban, Koreában, Mancsukóban (roughly translated as Mysterious East: Travels of a Hungarian Girl in India, Siam, Java Island, China, Japan, Korea, Manchukuo), in 1937. The book was well-received, leading to a reprint six years later. Geszty was a trained chemist who had studied at the University of Berlin. Following her travels, she married the American diplomat John Pennington Gardiner, who she met while traveling in China in 1934. The two would marry in Budapest, with Geszty eventually moving with Gardiner back to Massachusetts, where she would lead Hungarian relief efforts in Massachusetts in the 1950s and become president of the Boston Author's Club. She was the first Hungarian woman to travel in Manchukuo, and gained fame throughout Hungary for her prolific travels during the period.
Offered here are Geszty's original diaries from these travels, comprising over 950 pages of detailed descriptions, approximately five times as much material as would end up in her book, as well as approximately 180 photographs taken on her travels. Geszty's observations of the cultures of the countries she visited are incisive and at times inflammatory, offering an unfiltered view of the daily lives of women and the local customs. They are valuable as a document of cultural exchange, as a record of a remarkable accomplishment of will and intelligence in an era when few women and perhaps nearly no Hungarian women visited these countries, and for the rich detail provided on each place she visits, in particular the highly detailed accounts of her receptions in the various countries she visits.
The broad shape of her travels is as follows: in 1933, she leaves Hungary, traveling through Italy, Greece, Egypt, Palestine and Djibouti to India, where she spends a month, before continuing to Burma, returning to India, and leaving again for Ceylon, Djibouti and Sudan, making her way back to Hungary in May. In 1934, she sets off again, this time for a longer period, the second trip repeating some stops. She begins in Hungary, travels through Serbia and Italy then by boat to Greece, Palestine, Ceylon, Siam, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Monchukuo, then back to China, where she spends several months before continuing to Singapore, Siam, Cambodia, Ceylon, Sudan, and then on her way home, Egypt and Italy. The second trip lasts over a year, and her extended stay in China may have had to do with her involvement with Gardiner, as the two meet frequently during the trip.
As a group, the journals are a valuable primary source for scholars studying the experience of women or foreign travel correspondents in Asia and Africa during the 1930s. Several other interesting themes emerge in Geszty's records of her travels: the meeting of 'east' and 'west' - a theme made more poignant by her education in Germany and eventual marriage to an American, as well as the relationship between Hungary and cultures to the east; for example, she refers to Burma as "the real east" in contrast with India, and often references literary works such as "1001 Nights" with a romantic interest in 'the east." The political infrastructure of the British and Dutch empires in their final decades is on full display in her writings, as she travels with the blessings of the colonial governments. In her first trip to India, Geszty gives detailed accounts of the British colonial apparatus, and as a guest of the British state, she is directed through India by various British colonial officials. She writes: "I arrived in India and stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel from where I went to Mr. Shepeard and Mr. Low editor-in-chief. Mr. Carpenter, director general of Indian railways organized my further journey in India. I had lunch with Mr. Peter Pazze who told me that Miss Row stands by Gandhi's side as a revolutionary. Since I was under English patronage in India I broke off all contact with Miss Row."
Perhaps most illuminating, and uncommon considering the difficulties for female journalists traveling in Asia and Africa during this period, is the attention given to the plight of women in the countries she visits. Her status as a female author gives her an uncommon perspective in certain cases where the local cultures prohibit the mixing of genders. In India, she encounters "women behind bars," which prompts her to ask the question, "Where is the modernism of the twentieth century?" In the Philippines in 1934, she observes, "...we went to the homes of the Igrotok. The men were lying close together on benches, one on each floor. ...the women live in the house opposite. They are shy and hid their faces when we arrived. ...there are real test marriages among the Igrotok. If a man is not suitable for a woman, they can divorce without commitment and look for another partner. It's almost 20th-century morality. "
Geszty's encounters provide a detailed blueprint of the journalistic, diplomatic and political circles in each country she visits. She also meets several cultural luminaries: In Calcutta, she meets Rabindranath Tagore, "who spoke about the spiritual connection between Hindus and Hungarians... it was a pleasant visit and he was a kind and warm-hearted person." She also meets Abanindranath Tagore on the same visit. There are many observations of the local people and culture that illuminate the lack of familiarity between the cultures at this point. She describes a Chinese jeweler, for example, as, "a person of immense wealth, who lives simply, like a down-to-earth kulli. He's got every penny in his pocket. His wife and children were taken away by bandits, ... released at a price. The jeweler left his family among the bandits for a long time, and only after much deliberation did he pay. His wife has suffered from heart spasms ever since. A typical Chinese character."
Although there is much on current events, including several harbingers of events to come - a bombing on a train in China, the announcement of a murder by the Nazis, the "idolization" of Mussolini in Italy, and so on - Geszty doesn't make any overt commentary on fascism and Nazism. Given the events in Hungary at the time, this is a notable omission, and could be for several reasons. It is possible that she was wary of having her diaries confiscated; that she was instructed to be apolitical in her reportage, so as to avoid any trouble for the news outlet that she was working for; or that she was simply apolitical. Her connection and eventual marriage to Gardiner may point to the latter, given the efforts by the United States during the period to remain neutral. So Geszty and Gardiner may have found common ground on that point. When she first meets Gardiner, she writes: "Jack Gardiner is a fine man. He's witty, smart, interesting, and a man of opportunity. He went to Harvard University in Boston. We had a great time. We talked for a long time. Our thoughts were the same. Sometimes life is very good!" Nevertheless, Geszty was almost certainly not a Nazi/fascist sympathizer: if she was, it's much more likely that she would've praised the rise of fascism she saw on her travels, especially because there would have been no repercussions even if her diaries were read.
Overall, Geszty's journals provide a richly detailed document of one woman's remarkable experiences as she travels through Asia during the interwar period. We have a full summary of the journals, with additional quotes, available on request.
[Revolutionary War - Naval Warfare - New York] Wisner, Henry
Fishkill, 1776
Fishkill, 1776. Single sheet measuring 8 x 9 ½ inches. Mounted at margin, fine condition. Fine. A letter written by Henry Wisner as Chairman of the New York Provincial Congress's Committee of Safety in 1776 concerning the wintering of two of the first vessels to be be built by the newly formed government, the USS Congress and the USS Montgomery. Following the British occupation of New York City in September, the Continental Army retreated to the north. Wisner's letter concerns the wintering of two vessels to protect them from British confiscation at Poughkeepsie. He also addresses the lead shortage, stating "That the quantity of lead in possession of the Convention of this State, is so small, that there is none at present to be spared for any other use, than Musket Ball." Wisner, a prominent patriot and landowner in Orange County, New York, was a member of the New York Provincial Congress from its inception in 1775. In 1776, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Committee of Safety, which was a crucial role in organizing and leading New York's military efforts during the Revolutionary War. An uncommon and very early document relating to the American Navy.
Full text follows:
to whom was referred the securing of the Frigates at Poughkeepsie.
Your Committee report the following Resolves, to be served on Capts. Tudor & Lawrence Respectively -
1. That they fit their respective ships, Congress & Montgomery, with all the dispatch possible, with so much rigging as is necessary to remove them from Poughkeepsie.
2d. That they proceed up the River with the first fair wind, after the Ships are ready, as far as Rondout Kill or Creek near [..?..] landing, where they are to be Wintered, if after carefully sounding the depth of the water on the bow at the mouth of the Creek, they find that they can be safely carried in.
3d. If upon strict examination, there is not found water enough safely to carry the Ships into the said Creek, then they are to proceed with all the dispatch possible (after taking on board the best pilots they can procure) to Claverack Dock, & there secure the Ships in the best manner in their power.
4th. That the quantity of lead in possession of the Convention of this State, is so small, that there is none at present to be spared for any other use, than Musket Ball.
Henry Wisner, Chairman
Nov'r 28th 1776.
[Music - Women's Bands - 1930s-1940s] Helkema, Emma
V.P., 1940
V.P., 1940. Various pieces of incoming correspondence and ephemera from the Coquettes, with additional photographs including an album documenting her time with the bands. With thirty-three letters pertaining to her music career and thirty or so letters from her family from the 1930. Generally fine condition. Fine. Emma Helkema, originally of Indiana and known to her friends as Helky, played bass fiddle in womens' big bands including Helen Compton's 42nd Street Girls band and the Coquettes in the 1930s before changing careers and becoming a nurse in the early 1940s, possibly in aid of the war effort. Offered here is Helkema's personal archive of incoming correspondence, photographs and band ephemera, giving insight into her life as a female touring musician and eventual nurse in the pre-war and wartime period.
The letters from Herkema's career give insight into the network of all-female bands of the period. Three letters pertain to a booking at the State Lake Theatre in Chicago. Various letters from different bandleaders and promoters inquire about her availability, and some letters provide details on the contract arrangements - usually pay was $35-$40 a week with some additional benefits like discounted food depending on the venue.
A letter in 1940 foreshadows her departure from the Coquettes, with a letter from a love interest who is married to someone they both know, possibly her sister, in which he offers a loan of $100 for her to leave the band. It appears that some sort of health event - mental or physical or perhaps both - eventually led Helkema to leave the Coquettes, as several letters refer to her health. One letter from Viola Smith written in early 1941 is particularly instructive and gives insight into the intimacy of the touring musicians. Smith writes: "It seems so strange not to have you around. The picture is not complete. I miss you... and not just on the bandstand either, you little devil. I also miss the rubdowns - wish now that I had taken better advantage of the opportunity... At any rate, I feel much better these days. What a relief! Now I'll find time for romance. All I need to do is find a man." Frances Carroll writes a couple months later relating a stint at the Famous Door club and inquiring about Helkeman's health. She asks: "How does it feel to be leading a normal life instead of traveling all over the country." Another letter thanks Helkema for sending some "little pills." The group contains seven promotional photographs of the Coquettes as well as a detached cover of Billboard Magazine with a feature article on Viola Smith. Also included are a photograph album and various loose photographs from later in Herkema's life.
Overall an intimate and uncommon collection with research potential regarding the female touring bands of the era, and of women and music more generally.
[Women - Domestic Life - Race Relations] Author Unknown
Arkansas, 1854
Arkansas, 1854. Letter measuring 8 x 6 ½ inches. Some slight tears at folds, near fine. Fine. An interesting letter written by a woman to her sister after spending a holiday by herself without domestic help. The author quotes a passage from Marion Harland's poem "Alone," and laments her holiday spent alone. She writes:
"Mother gave the D---- free ticket and it was either work or starve, so into the kitchen I went. I like the preliminaries of cooking, such as making cakes and nick knacks, but when it comes to the sober reality I say quits, but it would have amused you to see me shaking my fat sides sifting corn meal. Flour isn't fashionable up here. It can be had for neither love nor money." She then elaborates on her loneliness, stating: "It is Sabbath evening and I feel particularly lonely as I look from my chamber window on the mountains clad in their raiment of pure white and listen to the howling of the wind. I wish like the psalmist that I had wings to fly from this bleak and dreary region. The weather has been unusually severe, even for the mountains. One snow after another. "
The letter is signed as "Lizzie," and we are unable to identify the author by last name. We believe her location to be in Arkansas despite not finding an exact match for the town Cool Sulphurs based on the provenance, which included several other family papers from Arkansas. An interesting letter overall documenting a woman's loneliness with insight into the domestic sphere of the time.
Full text follows:
My Dear Jennie,
I have just received Tesh's letter which I assure you was quite welcome, enthroned in solitude as I am now. Mat and Saraph have been in Lexington for some time and I am all alone.
I am alone the last light tread
And laughs have died upon my ear;
And I may weep unchecked - nor dread
The scorn, that forces back the tear.
You see the blues have moved me to poetry.
Oh! How much I would like to see you all. It is so terribly lonely here. I will give you an account of my Christmas Holidays. Mother gave the Darkies free ticket and it was either work or starve, so into the kitchen I went. I like the preliminaries of cooking, such as making cakes and nick knacks, but when it comes to the sober reality I say quits, but it would have amused you to see me shaking my fat sides sifting corn meal. Flour isn't fashionable up here. It can be had for neither love nor money. I don't know what I would give for some of Aunt Cynthia's nice hot biscuits. We had a nice molasses stew and eggnog. Tesh did not give me a description of her holidays. Write me all about them.
Well now, I will interrogate you a while.
Who is it Mr. Taylor visits so often, you or Tesh?
Who are you traveling up to F- so often to see?
I will acknowledge the last is rather a straightforward question, but you know I am interested. These and those visits to Cousin Addis excite the Green Eyed Monster. Mr. Jones, who is he after? Answer these in your next. I haven't seen hair nor hide of a man since I came home but once. There has been such a marrying about here lately that all the beaus that were presentable have disappeared.
What has become of Pet Perry and Fannie, married yet? Tell Eliza to write and give me an account of the conquest she made in L- how Cora was dressed and everything. Mother intends commencing your apron as soon as Mat gets back from L, as she was compelled to send there for the articles to work with. I am in hopes it will be pretty.
It is Sabbath evening and I feel particularly lonely as I look from my chamber window on the mountains clad in their raiment of pure white and listen to the howling of the wind. I wish like the psalmist that I had wings to fly from this bleak and dreary region. The weather has been unusually severe, even for the mountains. One snow after another. Mat writes that the sleighing is fine in L. She has been attending several parties but they were dancing parties and I guess Saraph's conscientious scruples prevented her attending. Tell Tesh not to let anyone but Moses out. Give Aunt C a great deal of love, also Uncle O. I would give anything in this world to see you all. Kiss Joe for me and Ned. Much love to Cousin Will. Tell him Mother intends writing to him in a few days. Tell Uncle Oscar, Cook says he intends sending him a nice venison ham. He came in yesterday with a very nice fine deer on his shoulder. You never saw such a prouder creature. He is going to have the skin tanned to make us some gloves. He almost furnishes us with meat. It distresses me to see him leading such a roving life, but he is yet young enough to enter College. Mother does not care about his graduating so soon. He studies very diligently at nights, but I guess you are tired of home details, so I will close with much love to all. Answer this soon and believe me ever your Dear Cousin,
Lizzie
P.S. Give my love to Cousin Em when you write. Adieu.
[Religion - Church of Latter Day Saints - Immigrants] Lund, Christian N.
Mt. Pleasant, 1921
Mt. Pleasant, 1921. Limp leatherette journal measuring 6 ½ x 4 inches, 170 pages. Some chips to spine, fine contents. Near Fine. Christian N. Lund was born in Norway in 1846 to Mormon parents, and immigrated to the United States in 1869, first arriving in Salt Lake City and eventually settling in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. He was a member of the Constitutional Conventions held in 1882 and 1887 in Salt Lake City, a member of the Legislature in the House in 1890 and City Council in 1894 and was appointed bishop in 1890. He did missionary work in the Pacific Northwest in the 1870s and in Scandinavia in the 1890s, presiding over missions in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He served as bishop of the two Mt. Pleasant wards during a period when they were the largest wards in the church. He died in 1921.
Offered here is a journal Lund kept as an alphabetical index to religious ideas, with additional ruminations and philosophical musings included, intended possibly as a keepsake for a family member as it was passed on to one of his grandsons following his death, per an inscription inside. The entries track themes such as "Astronomy" and "The Jews" through the Old and New Testaments and Book of Mormon, and are intended to weave the sources together into a single resource on religious themes. The facts that Lund highlights range are interesting and as a group the entries would be of interest to scholars of Mormon thought during the period. It is also interesting which other subjects Lund chooses to write about, such as transcribing verbatim an article written about the transatlantic cable in 1921 just months before his death. In another section he lists per capita consumption of "Intoxicating Liquors," comparing it to other vices such as tobacco, jewelry, patent medicine and chewing bum. One page ranks the ways in which the Church of Latter Day Saints differs from other churches. Some of the lists refer to LDs-related subjects using the prefix "FOL," which raises the possibility that the volume served as his own reference for works held at the LDS archive that he had researched.
Overall the volume gives an interesting synthesis of contemporary secular and religious themed entries, with Lind's interest in statistics and numbers permeating the volume and providing information on his personal philosophy. It would complement Nielsen's autobiography and journals for scholars interested in his life and thought.
[Reconstruction - South Carolina - African-American History] Author Unknown
Charleston, 1866
Charleston, 1866. Autograph letter, signed by a John (last name unknown,) addressed to R.W. Grange Esquire at Racine College in Racine Wisconsin. Some tears at folds, near fine. Appx. 1,000 words. Fine. A lengthy and atmospheric rumination on a holiday spent in South Carolina by an author known only as Bob, written to a friend in Wisconsin. The author relates in great detail a Fourth of July spent in Charleston, South Carolina in 1866, with several interesting details regarding an African-American parade and a fire department made up only of New Yorkers. At one point the author mentions Muncy, which suggests the possibility that he and the recipient were old friends from Pennsylvania. Describing his time in Charleston, he writes:
"City remarkably quiet, scarcely anyone on the street, did not hear a dozen crackers, came back from breakfast, went to work. About 9.30 found out that all offices were to close at 10 a.m. & keep Sunday hours, was mity (telegraphers way of spellin mighty) glad of that. Ten o'clock came & orders to close, did so. Sun about 120, about 96 in shade, concluded would go get some clean duds & a biled shirt on - don't wear paper collars, couldn't stand one minute melt down & run away. Well got on my clean Sunday go to meetins, had a shave first which I forgot to mention and sallied forth, struck Meeting St. on way to office. Saw an immense procession of the Colored population with banners & music, Should [say] about 2000 in column. It was a dingy affair, looked at it till it vanished, went to Adams Express office, sat down, very cool there, and heard a genial old Southerner tell some good stories about their Servants in days gone by, prompted by said procession. Sat & listened to him about two hours, had on a pair of tight boots & didn't fancy going out in hot sun. Well left there with a friend & went to Charleston Hotel & had an iced Sherry Cobbler. Came to Express office again - left shortly after with same friend & went to the truck house of Charleston Hook & Ladder Co., made up entirely of N.Y. boys. They wear same kind of dress as NY Fire Dept., best looking Co. in city out of fourteen. Well they had six barrels of iced lager there. Was prevailed upon to drink three glasses..."
An interesting and detailed account of the city in the year following the close of the Civil War, a period in which race relations shifted dramatically particularly in cities in the American south (for a further examination of this subject see Powers, Bernard E. "Community Evolution and Race Relations in Reconstruction Charleston, South Carolina." The South Carolina Historical Magazine, vol. 95, no. 1, 1994, pp. 27-46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27569978. Accessed Apr. 2023." )
Full transcription follows:
- Charleston, S.C.
July 30th 1866.
Dear Bob,
Yours of the 9th duly rec'd & reviewed. It afforded me much pleasure to notice the style of it, let me assure you altogether to my taste, and hope you will not deviate from it in the future. I notice you still hold some sparks of vitality in your tenement of clay. Tho I did not think you had become indifferent to idle fancies, not much, the association of students at a large school will not generally allow it. I in a measure have become very grave & quiet & have found it does not suit. It tells on a feller's health to be too quiet, especially in my business. So I have concluded to drive away dull care & be myself again once more a 'Koople dimes'.
One portion of your letter particularly was very cheering. You know to what I allude I suppose. It was as you say a satisfaction to know that some one 'keers for yer'. To come right down to a fine thing I don't believe if I was to see that young lady today she could make much of an impression on me. I believe I could with a good grace play the flirt with her. You did not tell me whether she had grown very handsome or ugly. I would like to have her photo muchly. She promised it long ago, but never sent it. Till also has deceived me in that I was just green enough to send them and wait for theirs. But I'm better posted now, thank God. I shouldn't wonder if I should get up that way before long - provided I can 'sell my dorg & get some stamps' and then I shall see what I shall see. Eh?
You advise me to write to T. Well I don't know about that. She has grown to be a lady out of her teens & perhaps she might not fancy me now for a correspondent, and I think it's a bore to write to women unless on the subject of Love & matrimony. Was John Norris at M. when you was there? He was the cause of my not writing to S.B.P. He got hold of my last letter which was brim full of Love & I knew it would have made that young maiden happy had she read it & not allowed him to get it from her before she did so. It appears she had not read it at all, & by some means he got hold of it & had not given it to her when she wrote me. Of course I couldn't stand that and did not answer her. She is mistaken I do owe her a letter instead of vice-versa. Did you notice if she had my ring. I would like to know & also what she said of me to you. I know she has a partiality for moustaches and I have a stunnin one which I think would make a sensation in favor of the owner, ha.
You certainly had a smoky time of it and methings it not only ended in smoke but something else. yes I chew steadily but do not smoke steadily. I did until lately when I came to the conclusion I was smoking up too much money. Couldn't afford to go it five for a dollar - sometimes twice a day Eh? So I chew John Anderson at 10 Cts a paper.
I took a buggy ride the other night for two hours. Took a drive around the city & it cost me five dollars for horse & buggy alone & some more for viands. That's little steep, don't you think. Folks in Muncy would gossip on that for a week if they knew it Eh? But that's the way things are down here. I don't indulge often you can rest assured at that rate. Tho' I manage to spend my salary.
You ask me how I spent my fourth. Well I will give you a report near as possible - got up at 6.30, opened office at 7 (my day to open & close), went to breakfast at eight, City remarkably quiet, scarcely anyone on the street, did not hear a dozen crackers, came back from breakfast, went to work. About 9.30 found out that all offices were to close at 10 a.m. & keep Sunday hours, was mity (telegraphers way of spellin mighty) glad of that. Ten o'clock came & orders to close, did so. Sun about 120, about 96 in shade, concluded would go get some clean duds & a biled shirt on - don't wear paper collars, couldn't stand one minute melt down & run away. Well got on my clean Sunday go to meetins, had a shave first which I forgot to mention and sallied forth, struck Meeting St. on way to office. Saw an immense procession of the Colored population with banners & music, Should [say] about 2000 in column. It was a dingy affair, looked at it till it vanished, went to Adams Express office, sat down, very cool there, and heard a genial old Southerner tell some good stories about their Servants in days gone by, prompted by said procession. Sat & listened to him about two hours, had on a pair of tight boots & didn't fancy going out in hot sun. Well left there with a friend & went to Charleston Hotel & had an iced Sherry Cobbler. Came to Express office again - left shortly after with same friend & went to the truck house of Charleston Hook & Ladder Co., made up entirely of N.Y. boys. They wear same kind of dress as NY Fire Dept., best looking Co. in city out of fourteen. Well they had six barrels of iced lager there. Was prevailed upon to drink three glasses, splendid lager - this was between 1 & 2 o'clock, my dinner time. Went & eat a hearty dinner, then concluded would smoke a cigar - did so, went to my room, took off my tight boots, breeches, &c. and laid me down, took a two hours nap, got up, went to [..?..] waited awhile for tea, got it, opened office again at 7 P.M. worked hard till 11 o'clock, then went to bed. Now what do you think of that - only saw one fight. It was duller than Sunday, & was awful hot. I did not hear any firing of crackers worth mentioning during the day. At noon the Navy fired a national salute.
But Bob, I will close, waiting for your opinion of the way I spend my fourth, & will expect a good long letter.
More anon,
John
Box 434 P.O.
[Nineteenth Century Literature - Literary Criticism - Feminist Authors] Whipple, Edwin Percy
Boston, 1851
Boston, 1851. Autograph letter signed by Whipple and addressed to Oakes at her Brooklyn address. Fine condition. 9 ¾ x 7 ¾ inches bifolium. Fine. An interesting letter written by critic Edwin Percy Whipple to Elizabeth Oakes Smith, encouraging her to publish in Graham Magazine. He then offers sympathies on a play performed in Philadelphia, and excoriates the American theatre and its inability to do justice to Shakespeare's work. The letter was written during the period when Oakes published her "Woman and Her Needs" series in the New York Tribune, though it would appear from subsequent events that Whipple's opinion had been formed by her earlier work. Whipple's views on Smith would change later and be marked by Whipple's negative critiques of Smith's writing. In 1855, Whipple published a review of Smith's book "The Sinless Child," which criticized her unconventional views on marriage and motherhood. Smith responded with a scathing letter, accusing Whipple of being a "literary bully" and a "spiritual coward" in a letter she sent to the editor of the Boston Evening Transcript on September 25, 1855.
Full text follows:
Boston, March 1, 1851
Dear Madam,
I have but just time to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of Feby 26th, being about to start for Buffalo. On my return I will write to Graham, and I can assure you that your powers as a writer will lose nothing in my statement. I cannot conceive of any reason why Mr. Graham should not be proud to have you among his contributors, and think that there must be some misapprehension on his or your part in regard to the matter. I know that he is desirous of having articles from the best and most eminent native writers and, deductively from that proposition, he must desire to have articles from yourself. There is a logical compliment for you!
I am sorry that the tragedy was not better acted in Philadelphia, but the truth is that there are no stock companies in the Country whose acting could save a new play of Shakespeare himself. Go into a theatre, and hear their tame and flat delivery of the text of Hamlet or Macbeth, - see how they loosen all his silver cords and break all his golden bowls - and then you are not surprised that they fail in recommending our American plays.
Mrs. Whipple often alludes to you, and would be delighted to see you in Boston. She sends her best regards and remembrances. As soon as I can hear from Graham, I will write to you.
Very Sincerely Yours,
E. P. Whipple.
[Music - Opera - Dance] Lehmann, Lotte; Mahler, Donald
Mostly California, 1972
Mostly California, 1972. Letters with original envelopes retained, fine condition, with a few ephemeral items from Lehmann's career collected by Mahler included. Forty-five letters total, with two additional telegraphs and three signed photographs and several copies of a color photograph of the pair together on stage, appx. fifteen are short thank-you notes. Fine. An intimate collection of letters written by Lotte Lehmann to her colleague and friend Donald Mahler, discussing many aspects of her life and her career during her later career when she was involved in the Music Academy of the West and living in California. The letters give Lehmann's candid thoughts on the opera scene of the period, and are often self-reflective regarding her own life and career, and also give considerable insight into Mahler's career during the period.
The group begins in 1966, during Mahler's first few years at the Metropolitan Opera, and continues until 1972, with Mahler collecting stray articles on Lehmann including her obituary in 1976. The letters range from a single to several pages and generally touch on both personal and professional matters, and though we don't have Mahler's replies, he clearly confided in Lehmann regarding the goings-on at the Met, and about his own professional frustrations. "I feel very much with you about your disappointment and the frustration in your work. Nothing could be worse than an artistic disappointment, and to be pushed into a mediocre form of performing... but at the same time I cannot refrain from saying that you made a great mistake in changing your position, because of financial and personal difficulties. One cannot have one's cake and eat it. You can believe me that my life as a concert singer has not been an easy one. I had to tour America during the war and it often went beyond my strength to sing in the evening after spending the day sitting on my luggage... the life of the artist may look very glamorous from the outside, but it needs much more stamina and willpower." In another letter she suggests that Mahler join a different troupe so he can become stage manager, suggesting Martha Graham and then saying that she does not like her work ("I did not like it, it was simply a fantastic acrobatic machine.") "I am sorry that you are so depressed" she adds in another letter. In 1970 she writes more optimistically "how wonderful that you have these opportunities of solo dances..."
Mahler must have vented repeatedly to Lehmann, as she writes soon after regarding "I understand you very well... but that does not help you at all. Isn't there someone at the Met who can help?" "For me it was always a goal, to make the role I did, alive. Believable. Human... Oh god! Times have changed." She refers to a birthday which has "taken out of life and enjoyment of earlier years." Two letters concern an exhibition of her felt paintings, with one including a photograph of one of the works ("I do not want to see felt again till the end of my days...") She reflects on her legacy in a letter from 1969 about her archive and concert hall on UCSB: "it is really my 'momunent' and to have that in my lifetime... that is something to marvel about." "Of course I am glad that you personally are happier now, but on the whole I agree with you that the season will be very doubtful," Lehmann writes in one letter. "I am sorry that your project did not materialize and I hope you are not too unhappy about it... next week I shall have a minor operation on my left foot and - being a coward - I am afraid."
Grace Bumbry is the subject of several letters. "I read all the reviews and I am only sorry that Grace Bumbry had not the big success she thinks she had... I did not hear her Carmen since Chicago when I did not like it... I am sorry that she neglects her deep tones which long ago were absolutely thrilling. But she does not want to be a soprano, alas... But I try hard to forget worries about her." Another letter laments Bumbry, : "We live in a time of 'Sensations!' Perhaps, if I were yet be able to sing, I would have no success. The audiences want to get excitement instead of elation.... Toscanini is flaming fire come out of his soul... I feel like 100 years old when I contemplate art nowadays."
Overall the group is a telling record of a friendship between two artists and should be of interest to scholars of each of their work and of the late twentieth century opera scene more broadly.
[Latin Americana - Photography] Miralles, Manuel Gomez
N.P., 1922
N.P., 1922. Oblong 8vo, wraps, 9 x 6 inches. Rear wrap detached, tears and chips to front wrap, fine contents, very good overall. Very Good. An uncommon first edition copy of Manuel Gomez Miralles' photographic survey of Costa Rica. Miralles was one of Costa Rica's most prolific photographers, operating for many decades, and this book is an early collection of his work. Miralles work is compositionally advanced and his large format images are reproduced effectively in the volume. This book was the only survey of Miralles' work to appear in his lifetime, and after his death his negatives were sold to a foreign photographer. We find no records of this book in the trade or auction records at the time of this listing.
[Finance] Cooke, Jay
Philadelphia, 1876
Philadelphia, 1876. Autograph letter signed by Cooke. Fine condition. Fine. An interesting and candid letter written by Jay Cooke to [Edwin M.] Lewis, the trustee in charge of Cooke's assets following the dissolution of his company in 1873 and the ensuing financial panic. The letter specifically concerns shares of the Western Land Association. Cooke organized the Western Land Association after investing heavily in the Lake Superior Mississippi Line in 1866, and his overextension and the eventual closing of his company in 1876 led to national panic and financial ruin. Cooke would eventually recover some of his wealth, and this letter attests to his belief that his investments in the midwest would eventually pan out.
"Cooke was extremely discouraged by events surrounding the dissolution of his company. He felt betrayed by many whom he had considered friends. In addition, he had not recovered emotionally from the death of his wife in 1871. His financial downturn forced him to move from his estate into a much smaller house, and he was not allowed to be involved in the reorganization of his company. His son-in-law reopened the firm eventually under the name Charles D. Barney & Company.
Several years after complete withdrawal from the financial world, Cooke gradually reentered it. He invested in silver mines and land in Minnesota. - ANB
Overall a substantive and interesting survival documenting the tail end of Cooke's career.
Full text reads:
Office of JAY COOKE & CO., Bankers
114 South Third Street,
Philadelphia, May 19, 1876
Dear Mr. Lewis,
Referring to my conversation with you about subscribing to the 1 M Bds of the Western Land Association pro rata with other stockholders, I wish further to say that if you can legally take the proportion allotted to our Estate, I wish you would do so. It is sad that this course has to be resorted to, but it cannot be avoided.
If you will take your share, Messrs Clarks, I am told, will also subscribe their proportion.
I think it vital to the protection of our vast interests there, which 'some of these days' will be extremely valuable.
Sincerely yours,
Jay Cooke.
