Bartok, Dr. Milton
Single sheet of stationary, n. d. (late 1940s); 11 x 8 1/2; off-white stock, printed in red and illustrated with an exaggerated caricature of an African-American; a few small creases to corners and a very minor spot to upper margin; in very good condition.Founded in the early 20th century by quack "Doctor" Milton Bartok, the Bardex Medicine Company's miracle cures specifically targeted ailments of the liver, the kidneys, and the bowels (this somewhat set them apart from the products of other quacks, which generally claimed to heal one and all in the human body). As a way to promote and distribute his wares, Dr. Bartok would become part of an interesting cultural phenomenon - the American Medicine Show. He, and many other quackery representatives, would travel through the country with their own troupes, set up shops in certain locations for a few days, and entertain potential customers with shows, concerts, etc., while selling their potions. In his case, the entertainment was provided by the Bardex Radio Minstrels - an all-African-American band - singing, dancing, playing instruments, and joking - which would become famous nationawide.
Twining, Alexander C.
First edition; 8 1/2 x 5 1/2; pp. [1], 4-22; self-wraps, tied with a string (string replaced); several small nicks to edges and tips of spine; a few minor spots to wraps; in very good condition.Alexander Catlin Twining (1801 - 1884) was an inventor, astronomer, engineer, author, and educator, best known for his work on refrigeration and ice-making. Firmly believing that manufactured ice would be more economical and convenient than natural ice, especially in the Southern states, he began experimenting in 1848 using ether as a refrigerant. With utter confidence in his own success he would file a caveat with the US Patent Office in November 1849 - long before he secured his US Patent No. 10,221 on 8 November, 1853. By this time the vapor-compression system of ice manufacturing was already known, but his patent featured an unusual method of applying the refrigeration in the process. One of his machines would be constructed at the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company in Cleveland, Ohio and he would produce ice for several years, even attracting financial backers for the erection of an ice-making plant inNew Orleans. Unfortunately, the Civil War would put the brakes on his plans and his machine would never be developed commercially. According to Twining himself, the war would also allow his rivals Ferdinand Carre and James Harrison (pioneers of mechanical refrigeration) to steal his ideas.
Fowler, Deborah
Manuscript document; 5 1/2 x 7; single sheet of laid paper, filled in brown ink; red wax seal to lower right corner (a bit dry and crumbly); old crease lines and a few minor spots; in very good condition.A receipt, written and signed by one Deborah Fowler, attesting to receiving forty five mild [sic.] dollars, "it being in full of a legasee which my Honoured Father gave unto mee it being for one Cow and twenty five Silver mild dollars which was Given me by will I say Received." Interestingly enough, research has shown that Deborah and many other female citizens of the region did not conform to the womens roles in the 18th and 19th centuries, which were centered around home and childrearing. In this case, most of their men were involved in maritime-related trades - off to sea, building sailing vessels, etc. - and as a matter of practicality, women, who had the desire, could take on societal responsibilities, which would not be normally tolerated in most communities in the country. After the onset of the Revolution, Deborah Fowler would open and operate a highly-successful bakery, which would be adjacent to a house, which she also single-handedly owned. There is little doubt where the initial investment for the business had come from.
Abraham Bell & Son
Three documents, printed and partially filled in manuscript; approx. 6 x 12; illustrated with small engravings; a few small nicks to edges and mild age-toning; in very good condition.Abraham Bell (1778 - 1856) was born in a prominent Quaker family in Northern Ireland. Immigrating to New York in 1797, he co-founded Abraham Bell & Company with several partners, of which he would become the sole owner and which would be renamed Abraham Bell & Son in 1844. A shipping firm and commissions merchant, it imported and exported a variety of commodities, though it specialized in the export of Southern cotton to the British Isles. During the potato famine of the 1840s, Bell transported thousands of immigrants from Ireland. The three current bills addressed the shipping, via various vessels, of bales of cotton to Liverpool, rosin to Glasgow, and embroideries to Richmond.
Barnes, Claude T.
First edition, n. d. (1930s); 5 1/4 x 3 1/2; pp. [4]; textured blue wraps, printed in black; minor wear to edges and corners; in near fine condition.An amusing and quite uncommon poem by, then, one of Utah's most published authors, it extolled the virtues of an old privy, presumably the one outside his childhood home, of which he said: "Who knows the darksome stories you could tell; Of lovely forms exposed before your gaze." Appearing as an afterthought, the last few lines of the booklet mention that the privy still stands and that Black Widow spiders like to hide in privies and bite people. OCLC lists one copy at Brigham Young; none other in the trade. Claude Barnes (1884 - 1968) was a prolific author, lawyer, businessman, and naturalist.
Various
Five manuscripts and one document printed and partially filled in manuscript, 1863 - 1864; various sizes and formats; condition varies from near fine, with minor wear, to good, with spotting and small nicks to edges.An interesting group of Civil War material, the papers were written and signed by various commanding officers and / or Captain Joseph Shultz and were all related to Captain Shultz and his 111th Illinois Infantry Regiment, Company K, during the Civil War. One was a camp and garrison equipage list with an accompanying note, in which Captain Shultz certified that the listed items "became worn and worthless and were abandoned on the march from Chattanooga to Resaca, Georgia in the month of May 1864 " (The Battle of Resaca would be fought during that month). There were also two manuscript "Form 30s" with lists of actual savings of food and equipment, and invoices and receipts.
Linnas, Anu, Tiina, and Epp
Printed document; 14 x 8 1/2; single sheet, text to recto only; old crease line through the middle, else minor wear; in very good or better condition.Karl Linnas (1919 - 1987) was an Estonian-American, tried in absentia by the Soviet Government and sentenced to death in 1962 for allegedly serving as commandant of a Nazi concentration camp in Tartu in the early 1940s and for personally executing civilians, including small children. In the meantime, after WWII, he had spent time in Displaced Persons camps in Germany and had immigrated to the US in 1951, becoming a citizen in 1960. In 1979 he was charged by US immigration officials with providing false statements, in order to enter the US. In 1981, he was stripped of his US citizenship for having lied about his ties to the Nazis. In 1986, a federal appeals court upheld his deportation order and in April of that year, he was imprisoned, while awaiting the result of his final appeal. In 1987, he was flown to the Soviet Union, where he would die in a prison hospital in ST. Petersburg three months later. The current circular was created by his three daughters in August of 1986, while he was in prison awating deportation. It described a conspiracy between the Justice Department and the KGB to fabricate evidence and implored people to write to their senators in Karl's support and to contribute to their father's defense fund.
Chukovskii, K.
Sixth, expanded edition, 1 of 5000 copies; 9 1/2 x 6 1/4; pp. [5], 6-165, [3]; pictorial wraps, designed by Evgenii Belukha; illustrated with portrait frontis of the author; rebacked, with several repairs to edges of wraps; in good to very good condition.Hailed as the Russian equivalent of Dr. Seuss, beloved poet andf author Korney Chukovsky (1882 - 1969) would be the second one to translate and popularize Walt Whitman in his country, while he was still in his early 20s. The first one would be one of giants of the Silver Age Konstantin Balmont (1867 - 1942),whom Chukovsky would consider a life-long rival and would mercilessly criticize his translations of Whitman. In fact, Korney dedicated part of his current work to specifically lambast Balmont's "Shoots of Grass" (his translation of "Leaves of Grass"). The other sections of the book featured his own translation of parts of "Leaves of Grass," as well as a biography of Walt, etc. Ultimately, Balmont would be mostly forgotten as a translator of Whitman, while Chukovsky's name would become synonymous with the latter's presence in Russian poetry.Evgenii Belukha (1889 - 1943), who illustrated the wraps, was a renowned artist and graphic designer of the early 20th century, who would also be remembered for his porcelain Soviet propaganda paintings.
Alfred Andersen & Co.
First edition, n. d. (ca 1900); 4 x 3; pp. [20]; chromolithographed wraps; illustrated with engravings and lithographed plates; spotting mostly to back wrap; tiny nicks to tips of spine; in very good condition.Alfred Andersen founded his company in 1893, marketing household items and utensils and pattenting rosette, wafer, and heart-shaped waffle irons. He was actually not a manufacturer, choosing instead to job out the casting of his wares, but he was nevertheless, very successful. The current little booklet contained various recipes to go with his inventions, including Creamed Oysters on Rosettes, Fruit Sandwiches, and Krumb Kake.
Church, Thomas D.; Vinson, M. A.
An architectural layout of the interior of the exposition floor, with booths, facilities, etc. numbered and sections subtitled; 13 x 8 1/2; old vertical fold lines; age-toning to verso only; in very good condition.An unrecorded piece of the San Francisco Bay Area's history, it was created by the pioneer landscape architect, who had founded the Modernist garden design, known as the "California Style." Thomas Dolliver Church (1902 - 1978) studied at UC Berkeley, Harvard, and the American Academy in Rome, before setting up practice in San Francisco in 1933. He would reportedly create over 2000 private gardens around California and 24 other states. He would work on campus master plans for Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and other institutions. He would also design the grounds of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Embassy of the United States in Havana, the General Motors Research Laboratory in Detroit, etc.
Anonymous
First edition, n. d. (1920s); 9 x 7; pp. [10]; card stock wraps, with a chromolothograph to the front wrap, incorporating two illustrations from the story, a frame within a frame; illustrated with black-and-white lithographed drawings and four full-page chromolithographed plates with pull-tab, movable parts; small rust spots around staples; a bit of wear to edges and corners; in very good condition.According to a lengthy research by Walter Iwaskiw and Barbara Dash of the Library of Congress on this beautiful and rare edition of the classic fairy tale (as per OCLC - the only copy at an institution) - ".sometimes the circumstances surrounding the publication of a single book can lead one into an unfamiliar realm of publishing and cultural history." The first question asked was why would Orenshtein, an Ukrainian-Jewish publisher, release a book in Russian, in the town of Kolomyia, or even in Kyiv, which were under Austrian rule from 1772 until 1918. Even more puzzling, for the fact that his publishing firm, founded in 1903, was known for its high-quality, affordable Ukrainian-language books. The answer to this might have been that after Galicia was occupied by Russia, then recovered by Austria, and then reoccupied by Russia between 1914 and 1918, all Ukrainian cultural institutions were shut down and efforts were made to introduce Russian into the educational system. Or, the book was intended as a special item to be marketed among Russophiles in the area. At some point during that time, Orenshtein was arrested and exiled to Russia, ceasing publishing altogether. After the end of WWI, he reemerged in Kyiv, where he opened a bookstore. He also founded a publishing house with branches in Leipzig and Berlin and between 1919 and 1932 he would publish many literary works, dictionaries, and approximately 40 children's books. Ultimately, Orenshtein would perish in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw during WWII. The second question was who was the artist and who supplied the movable paper technology for a very-modestly-produced publication. It turned out that Sully and Kleinteich in New York had published, around the same time, an English-language edition of "Red Riding Hood" with the same four movable chromolithographs (possibly) by Ethel Dewees. Did Orenshtein obtain the plates during a trip to the US he took in 1921? Or, as was the tradition of that period to have the major publishers of American and British children's illustrated books get their color printing done in Germany, perhaps Orenshtein had acquired the plates from the same European source? (W.R. Iwaskiw and B.L. Dash, "The mystery of Yakiv Orenshtain's Little Red Riding Hood" in Slavic & East European Information Resources, vol. 11, nos. 2-3 (Apr.-Sept. 2010), p. 120-135).
