New Inventory
"Africa", Phebe Varney, 1830, [Society of Friends], manuscript
This hand drawn map is signed "Phebe Varney, 1830. Dover Duchess County" on the front. The title of the map is "Africa". The map is hand drawn on thick paper with colored inks and possibly a fine brush. The thickness and opacity of the paper would not have permitted easy tracing and therefore it is most likely the author of the map drew it freehand, perhaps using a grid system (or longitude and latitude lines) to scale up or down a published map or set of maps of Africa. The map appears to be unique.
Phebe Varney and her family...
Abraham Lincoln, Portrait Photograph, 1860 and 1881
Alexander Hesler (1823 – 1895), the American photographer based in Chicago, Illinois took this photograph of Abraham Lincoln when he was a candidate for President of the United States. Hesler had Lincoln sit for this portrait in Hesler's Chicago studio in 1860.
The contents of Hesler's studio, including the glass negative for this print were purchased in 1867 by George B. Ayres (1829-1905). On the back of this photograph, on the secondary support, is the manuscript inscription " Copyright Geo. B. Ayres Phila." The platinum print was made by George B. Ayres and signed on the back.
The platinum print process...
Portraits of the Presidents, 1846
Portraits of the eleven U.S. Presidents as of 1846, the insignia of the current 29 states, including Iowa admitted December 28, 1846, Florida on March 3, 1845 and Texas on December 29, 1845. This is a full color lithograph that also presents George Washington at the top and center of the composition framed with a green olive wreath and overseeing a fierce American Bald Eagle who sits astride both the draped flags of the Union on poles decorated with gold braid and tassel, and a large red, white and blue shield bearing the insignia of the 29 admitted states. The scene also...
Liberty, 1796
The scene drawn by Edward Savage of Liberty as the Goddess of Youth offering sustenance from her golden goblet to the American Bald Eagle as he descends from backlit clouds captures the moment in American history when the new nation is being born. Drawn in the sky above Liberty and the Bald Eagle, emerging from smoke and clouds is the new American flag with thirteen stars, a cloth liberty cap atop the flagstaff. Beneath Liberty's bare right foot are the abandoned implements of royal tyranny, the massive Key to the Bastille prison, a royal insignia and scattered nearby are pieces...
Map of The New York Wilderness and The Adirondacks, 1874
W.W. Ely, a Rochester, New York physician and outdoorsman was an avid hiker and explorer in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. This rare pocket map copyright 1873 and published in 1874 is based on Dr. Ely's decades of hiking and note taking in order to produce a reliable map of the Adirondack Mountains region for visitors. An inset map of the New England states, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Canada and New York, with the Adirondacks highlighted in light purple, places the millions of acres of the Adirondacks region in geographic context and scale. the Adirondacks are larger than Connecticut and almost...
Abraham S. Fox, hand drawn Tribute and Mourning piece to George Washington, created at Roxbury, Free School Feb. 8, 1800.
This hand drawn student work, signed and dated inside a wreath of floral branches "ROXBURY Free School Febr. 8th, 1800, Abraham S. Fox Scripsit." is both a tribute and a mourning piece to the recently deceased President George Washington a scant six weeks after the President's death. Abraham S. Fox dedicates this drawing to his teacher "To the Preceptor" in the lower right corner. Perhaps this work was a classroom exercise. The hand drawn tribute predates the nationally declared day of mourning, February 22, 1800 and may therefore have been an assignment in anticipation of that day or a student's...
A New Map of North America with the West India Islands Divided According to the Preliminary Articles of Peace, Signed at Versailles 20 Jan. 1783, publ. 1786
Publisher Robert Sayer's 1786 "A New Map of North America" by Thomas Pownall is "New" because it illustrates the newly established United States of America according to the terms of the Preliminary Articles of Peace of January 20, 1783, that six months later are finalized by the final Peace Treaty of 1783 that concluded America's Revolutionary War with Great Britain./1 This scarce map presents on two 48" engraved map sheets the political paradigm shift of the American Revolution and the newly agreed upon territorial relationships in North America between the governments of the United States and Great Britain, and indirectly...
Macdonough's VIctory on Lake Champlain, 1816
This scarce, early 19th century engraving shows the naval battle at Plattsburgh, New York in 1814, the concluding and decisive American naval victory of the War of 1812 between America and Britain. The battle was momentous. Lake Champlain offered the British Navy a potential naval gateway from Canada into America. Lake Champlain would have provided the British Navy with water access via a short portage to Lake George and further south via the Champlain Canal to the Hudson River. Once setting sail on the Hudson River, Captain Downie could have led the British Navy directly to lay siege to New...
"Range Estimation Gives Accurate Shooting !" 1944
This comical, war time, extra large format cartoon print was published by the Canadian Royal Air Force in 1944. Based on a notation in the print it is a numbered edition that was drawn and signed by Canadian artist John Duchak (1921-2012). John Duchak served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII overseas as a cartoonist. His work was printed for distribution and education of Royal Canadian Air Force personnel. Duchak was educated in England and attended the Martin School of Art in London. This cartoon and a companion piece also on offer, "Keep an Accurate Log Sheet!" were drawn...
"Keep an Accurate Log Sheet!" 1944
This extra large format cartoon print published by the Canadian Royal Air Force in 1944 appears to be based on a notation in the print a numbered edition that was drawn and signed by Canadian artist John Duchak (1921-2012). John Duchak served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII overseas as a cartoonist. His work was printed for distribution and education of Royal Canadian Air Force personnel. Duchak was educated in England and attended the Martin School of Art in London. This cartoon and a companion piece, "Range Estimation Gives Accurate Shooting!" also on offer, were drawn in Europe...
Newsmap Industrial Edition V-E Day + 3 weeks, Japan
During World War II, the U.S. Government Printing Office published a series of large format newsmaps about overseas battlefields and the role of war related activities at home. This 1945 Newsmap Industrial Edition, published three weeks after V-E Day in Europe, is in essence a 20th century broadside of American war news. The large format piece could have been posted in public places, such as U.S. Post Offices, libraries, town halls and government buildings. The Newsmap could also have been used by U.S. newspapers. This Newsmap is large and has three maps showing the Allied war activity in the Pacific:...
Tunis, Tunisia to Bengasi, Libya SFC 314, WWII Flight Chart, U.S. Army 1945
United States Army, World War II aeronautical chart showing a portion of Tunisia and Libya with pencil notes and other signs of use in service. Many printed and overprinted notations with updated information. Aeronautical Information March 1945. Other notations pertaining to war- time and protecting strategic information such as "Restricted", "Not for Sale or Distribution" and "For Use by War and Navy Department Agencies only."
The reverse of the Chart contains "Emergency Survival Advice" that explains that the greatest risk to the plane's crew is coming down in the desert, where lack of water and extreme temperatures are perils. There...
Bengasi, Libya to Cairo, Egypt FC 67, WWII Flight Chart, U.S. Army 1945
United States Army, World War II aeronautical chart showing Libya and Egypt with signs of use in service. Many printed and overprinted notations with updated information. Aeronautical Information January 1946. Other notations such as "Restricted", "Not for Sale or Distribution" and "For Use by War and Navy Department Agencies only.
The reverse of the Chart contains "Emergency Survival Advice" that explains that the greatest risk to the plane's crew is coming down in the desert, where lack of water and extreme temperatures are perils. There are instructions for water rationing, for the necessity of seeking shade, instructions to travel on...
Marrakech, Morocco to Alger, Algeria No. 64, WWII Flight Chart, U.S. Army 1944
United States Army, World War II aeronautical chart showing a portion of Algeria with pencil notes and other signs of use in service. Many printed and overprinted notations with updated information. Aeronautical Information March 1945. Other notations such as "Restricted", "Not for Sale or Distribution" and "For Use by War and Navy Department Agencies only."
The reverse of the Chart explains that the greatest risk to the crew is coming down in the desert, with instructions for water rationing, seeking shade, only traveling on foot at night and any available protection from the desert sun, with estimates of survival times...
K'Ung-Ming, China to Chabua, India No. 133, WWII Flight Chart U.S. Army 1944
United States Army, World War II aeronautical chart showing a portion of China and India, with pencil notes and other signs of use in service. Many printed and overprinted notations with updated information. Aeronautical Information November January 1945. Other notations such as "Restricted", "Not for Sale or Distribution" and "For Use by War and Navy Department Agencies only."
This China to India aeronautical chart is part of a larger collection of WWII U.S. Army aeronautical charts of North Africa and one chart showing a portion of Japan, several charts showing areas in India, and this chart showing a region in...