Search Results: Titles starting with P from Auger Down Books

New England, 1850. First Edition. 6 1/2 x 9 inches. Fine. A charming broadside advertising the services of the itinerant photographer L.W.F. Mark of Boston and his photographic equipment. Itinerant photographers travelled through towns offering their services beginning with the invention of the daguerreotype in the late 1840s and continuing through the eras of varied photographic processes. This example is most likely from the late 1850s or early 1860s, though it is undated, as tintypes replaced ambrotypes by the early 1860s. The broadside advertises his "superior German Instruments, and the best of Stock," promises "to please even the most fastidious" and implores potential customers to "Come One, Come All, Give the Lame Man a Call!" It is unclear what this refers to, as the illustration of the photographer gives no hint as to his ailment. A fine example with minimal foxing to extremities. Three separate OCLC entries locate a total of six copies held institutionally.

Olympia, 1925. . Limp pebbled calf portfolios measuring 12 ½ x 10 ½ inches, with 106 illustrations, nearly all photographic, of furniture. Interior fine, some wear to portfolios, overall quite well preserved. Near Fine. The Henry McCleary residence in Olympia was built in 1923, sparing no expense. The mansion still stands today on 21st Ave. and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. McLeary, a timber baron and president of the Henry McCleary Timber Company, also spared no expense in his furniture choices for his new residence, as this pair of portfolios by the decorator E.R. Bradford shows. With furniture proposals for each room of the new house, the portfolios showcase in great detail the fine furniture of the era. Some of the companies represented are the Munago and Tobey companies of Chicago, both of which have letters sent to McCleary included in the group. McCleary married Mrs. Hildur D. Simons during this period, an event that was covered locally and in lumber trade journals.… Read More

American, 1860. Images measuring 1 ¾ x 1 ½ inches in union case. A fine example. Fine. A particularly striking portrait of a young Union soldier, in a union case with another young man, possibly a relative.

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… Read More

Philadelphia, 1854. Ninth plate ambrotypes in a union case, measuring 2 ½ x 2 ⅛ inches (visible) in larger case. With the identification of (Isaac) Rehn, with his imprint and "Patented July 4 & 11, 1854" imprinted on the case. A fine pair. A striking pair of ambrotypes of Mary and Moses Pennock, who were members of the Kennett Square Underground Railroad network as well as active members of the Kennett Square abolitionist and Quaker community. Moses was one of the founders of the Longwood Progressive Meeting. In R.C. Smedley's History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania, (Lancaster, Office of the Journal, 1883), the Pennocks are mentioned on p. 301 as working as part of the network surrounding Isaac and Thamazine Meredity. Their son Samuel, who would go on to secure important agricultural patents, is also mentioned twice. The images are notable from a photographic history perspective as well, as being early examples of the ambrotype process that had… Read More

Northern California, 1880. 4to, one album in burgundy cloth, the other oblong brown pebbled cloth. Seventy-one sepia-toned and cyanotype photographs, most measuring 6 ½ x 4 ½ inches. Near fine with some light wear to albums, photographs very good or better with very good contrast, some showing a hint of fading. A very early pair of vernacular photograph albums, centering on the experiences of a wealthy family in San Francisco, Monterey, and the surrounding areas in the late 1880s. The bulk of the images show the family and their unidentified circle in domestic scenes, with the vernacular architecture and landscapes of the Bay Area on full display. Other images show landmarks including Golden Gate Park, the Francis Scott Key monument, various views of the first Hotel del Monte in Monterey, which would burn in 1887, dating the photographs to the period prior to the fire. The album also includes photographs of African American families. The image quality is generally quite strong, and the… Read More

Lima, 1870. Albumen photographs measuring 2 x 3 ½ inches on larger mounts. Some slight fading, a few spots to one image including one with loss, about very good overall. A striking pair of early carte-de-visite portraits of Peruvian women from the Courret studios at 197 Calle de la Union, one bearing the Courret Hermanos imprint and the other with just Eugenio Courret's credit, from the same studio. Eugenio formed the Courret Hermanos firm in 1863 with his brother Aquiles. The portrait of the woman and child is particularly uncommon for the Courret catalog, as most of the photographs they took were of single wealth patrons.

N.p., probably printed later. Gelatin silver print on glossy paper. 23 x 5, archivally mounted and matted. Very Good. This large-format photograph depicts a large group of Osage on the farm of a well-known original allotment holder, Robert "Bob" Morrell (and his wife Grace Penn Morrell), on the Osage Nation reservation. This was a critical time in the history of the reservation. In the early 1920s, the Osage were targeted for the rights to oil discovered on their land. Despite violence, deceit, and theft by non-Osage, the oil boom enriched some of the nation; by the mid-1920s mineral rights holders were described as the "richest people in the world." A family of four with full allotment could have earned the equivalent of $600,000 a year from their rights. The occasion of the first Princess celebration on June 10, 1929 does not appear to be otherwise recorded, and may have been the precursor to the current Osage Tribal Princess Sorority, which elected its first princess in 1941. The Osage Tribal… Read More

Ohio, 1918. Silver gelatin photograph in glass-fronted frame, image measures 24 ¼ x 6 ⅞ inches. Matted and framed, not examined out of frame. The 317th Engineer's Band was a part of the 317th Engineer Regiment, an element of the 92nd Division, which was composed of over 15,000 African-American soldiers from across the country. The 92nd was one of two African-American regiments to fight in the war, the other being the 93rd, and was unique in that it was under the command of the United States. The 317th Engineer Regiment was organized in November 1917 at Camp Sherman, Ohio, several months before this photograph was taken, and saw action in Europe as part of the 92nd. Camp Sherman was the third largest training camp in the country at the time, with over 2,000 buildings capable of housing 40,000 men and 12,000 horses. As well as being the training site for units of the 92nd (also known as the Buffalo Division), it served as the training site entire 83rd, 84th, 95th and 96th divisions. It later became… Read More

Maryland, 1919. Cloth banner measuring 32 x 50 inches, with 4 ½ inch lettering. The text reads "Eleventh Ward - J.G.L. of MD." Back is blank. Fading to lettering, stitched at top to facilitate hanging. Very good condition overall. The Just Government League was one of several major Suffrage groups in Maryland during the years preceding the 19th Amendment. Edith Houghton Hooker, a former medical student at Johns Hopkins, with help from her husband Donald Hooker and her Hopkins classmate Mabel Glover Mall and Florence Sabin, the first female senior faculty member. The group, compared to other Maryland suffrage groups, was more militant, taking action in open air marches and other public realms not traditionally accessed by women. The group staged a series of suffrage hikes beginning in 1914: "the first [suffrage hike] was held in January 1914, where the "Army of the Severn" marched from Baltimore to Annapolis to deliver a suffrage petition to the Maryland General Assembly. Hikes continued into 1915,… Read More

Boston, 1772. Single sheet measuring 12 ½ x 8 inches. Notes in margin in an early hand, fine. Richard Gridley was an artilleryman, military engineer, and entrepreneur, who had a prolific career in several conflicts including the Revolutionary War, where he served as an engineer. Offered here is a very rare document likely relating to his forges in 1772, which he would operate in support of the war effort. The document relates to a loan from Jonathan and John Amory to Gridley, Edmund Quincey and Joseph Jackson. Quincy and Gridley had done business together two years earlier, when Gridley bought a half share of Massapoag Lake from Quincey for the purposes of smelting iron ore. "In 1770 Gridley joined two others in purchasing Stoughtonham Furnace, located about eighteen miles south of Boston. The possibility of casting cannon in the event of hostilities was a motivating factor in the enterprise. With the onset of the revolutionary war, the owners, with the help of lessees, cast ordnance stores and… Read More

Chicago: National Half Century Anniversary Exposition and Lincoln Jubilee, 1915. Felt pennant measuring 38 x 15 inches. Lettering slightly faded, very good condition overall. In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Lincoln's death, the city of Chicago hosted the National Half Century Anniversary Exposition and Lincoln Jubilee, to celebrate emancipation and the cultural achievements of African-Americans. The event was held at the Coliseum on August 23 - September 22, 1915. The Illinois legislature appropriated $75,000 for the month-long celebration. Seventeen states appointed African American delegates to attend the event as representatives. Delegates from other countries participated as well. Bishop Samuel Fallows, the English-born clergyman and Union Army Colonel, spent a decade promoting and organizing the event, urging states such as New York to appoint representatives, and encouraging Chicago's religious leaders to attend. Several hundred pastors from African-American churches did attend,… Read More

Massachusetts, 1860. 9 x 6 inches. Polished calf decorative covers. Nineteen pages, with 55 Carte-de-Visite portraits. Good. A carte-de-visite portrait album kept by Billings during the Civil War. Notation before index reads: "This album was sent me, at my order, from Philadelphia and was received while our army lay at Brandy Station in the winter of 1863-1864. I think! Many of the pictures I carried with me throughout nearly my whole term of service. This is true of these on the first 17 pages. The others have been inserted since the war." A particularly noteworthy artifact. Hardtack and Coffee is one of few books on soldiers' everyday life, and this album would have been quite significant for Billings. He discusses photographs twice in the book as being among the dearest objects soldiers kept with them. Per Billings' own note on the endpapers, there are seventeen portraits present that he personally kept with him during the first part of the war, before adding them to this album in 1863. These… Read More

[Peterboro?], 1859. Four page bilfolium, 12 ½ x 8 inches. Fine condition. Fine. An uncommon imprint likely printed by Gerrit Smith in Peterboro, in 1859, the bulk of which reprints one of Smith's speech from June 17, 1857 in Milwaukee. The speech mostly addresses the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act, a piece of legislation which galvanized the abolition movement and convinced many that violent resistance was justified. The preamble to Smith's speech lists three of duties of the New York Legislature: to close the dramshops, to prevent withholding suffrage from black men, and to protect the "weary and heart-broken fugitive slaves" within state limits.

Humboldt and Eureka Counties, 1960. Oblong quarto, cream colored cloth boards, 10 ¼ x 13 ¼ inches. Contains 160 photographs, measuring from 2 x 3 to 2 x 5 inches. Most photos identified with captions. As engaging a photographic document of mid-century forestry as one is likely to find, following the Rodgers Brothers trucking company in their logging trips through Humboldt and Eureka counties. With images of accidents, company trucks and machines, the cutting and processing of giant redwoods, drivers posed in front of their trucks and more. The deadpan captions "THIS ONE GOT HIT BY A TRAIN," "THESE ARE PRIVATE ROAD TRUCKS AT BIG LAGOON," "THIS ONE WENT THROUGH THE BRIDGE," etc., add to the visual appeal. Redwood logging in Humboldt Count reached its apex around this time, which preceded the establishment and expansion of Redwood National Park. Overall in near fine condition, quite well preserved, with minimal wear. Housed in a custom cloth slipcase.

France: None Stated, 1900. Postcard measuring 5 ½ x 3 ⅝ inches. Fine condition. Fine. Woody Headspeth - known also as Woody Hadspath or Hedspath, as is written here - was an African-American cyclist who raced mostly in France due to racial prejudice in the United States. Headspeth raced until he was 50 years old in France, working as a mechanic on tracks, and sometimes for Victor Linart. He was in France at the time of the German occupation, and fled to Portugal, where he would die of typhus and tuberculosis. While we can't date this photograph exactly, Headspeth looks to be roughly the same age as other known photographs from his early period in Europe c. 1900-1910.

Asheville, 1920. Silver gelatin print measuring 8 x 10 inches. Some stains and wear, information on verso, good condition. Good. A photograph of the staff at Asheville's historic Grove Park Inn, taken c. 1910-1920 by the photographer Herbert W. Pelton, who operated a studio in Asheville and took many pictures around the region. Among the staff pictured is William Prince Brooks, who was active in the AME Zion church and who served as head waiter at the inn. The hotel was furnished by the Roycrofters and was built in the Arts and Crafts style. Still operation, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Fort Ethan Allen, 1910. Gelatin silver print mounted to board, 16 ¼ x 14 ½ inches. Fair to Good. The 10th Cavalry was one of the original "Buffalo Soldier" regiments of the post-Civil War segregated U.S. Army, first seeing action in the Indian Wars. Their band is shown here most likely during their stint at Fort Ethan Allen in Vermont. They are wearing a mix of insignia from 1902 to 1908, and some are shown in civilian clothing, which suggests the picture was taken in Vermont as this was during the time the Army used a vast mix of insignia, and the brick architecture of the background also matches that of the fort. They were exposed to some racism during their time in Vermont - the soldiers were punished for associating with neighboring white women, with some of the offenders being confined to the guardhouse for punishment, which fits with the strictly segregated Army policies of the time. The soldiers did also record positive aspects of their time at the fort, including studying at the fort's… Read More

New York, 1958. Silver Gelatin Photograph measuring 8 ½ x 11 ½ inches, with Schatt's marks verso with his notation "Vintage '58" in ink. A fine example, fine contrast. A striking image of Eartha Kitt and her band performing at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, taken by the prolific photographer Roy Schatt, perhaps best known for his photographs of James Dean. This is a vintage example, likely printed in 1958 from the "1958" and "Vintage" marks to verso. We find no other record of this specific image, only a similar image from Kitt's performance taken by Schatt.

Mostly Atlanta, 1950. Leatherette album measuring 12 x 9 inches. With over 225 images, most 4 ½ x 2 ¾ inches. Very well preserved and nearly complete with three empty slots, about fine overall. Near Fine. A compelling visual record of the childhood of Mable Williams of Atlanta, Georgia, a high school student at Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, the first public high school for African-American students in the state. Williams graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1953, per a newspaper article included here, and would attend Spelman College. Composed mostly of snapshot photographs of her friends and family, as a group the album provides a visual record of a vibrant network of family and friends in Atlanta during the time period. The album begins with a picture showing her as a girl, alongside a picture of a house, perhaps hers, and traces her life through early adulthood through snapshots and family photographs. We find records of Williams performing at the Greater Atlanta… Read More