December 6-8, 2023 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/8/2023
Remarkable ca. 1910 autograph scrapbook of anti-slavery notables, including 5 of the “Secret Six,” backers of John Brown, with a lock of John Brown’s hair (whiskers from his beard) and letter of provenance from Rev. Lewis Chapin Partridge (1837-1908) datelined “Hague NY June 14, 1900,” addressed “Mr. D.F. Thompson / Dear Sir, / Yours at hand. Thanks. The whiskers are all right. They came directly from the Brown family to my wife’s father- Rev. John Croker . . . I preached in No. Elba in the years 1861 / 1862 once a month and used to go with my wife to the widow Brown’s . . .” (John Croker (d.1879) was an anti-slavery Methodist Preacher.) Included is material of Gerritt Smith, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, S.G. Howe, and F.B. Sanborn, members of the Six, associates Wendell Phillips and Edwin Morton, along with William Seward, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, several letters of Samuel May (Syracuse associate of Gerritt Smith,) members of the Anti-Slavery Society, and others. Album is quarter bound leather, boards detached, with spine labels “OLD BROWN” and “Harpers Ferry / 1859,” and bookplate of author Walter Merriam Pratt (1880-1973.) About 50 leaves, some blank. Engravings, photos and illustrations from booklets and magazines accompany signed letters, notes, and clip signatures, some gathered in the 1860s by an autograph collector named Heald, some being simple responses to requests for autographs, or literary figures, a half-dozen not identified, but with a couple of interesting 1865 letters from Samuel May. Includes: signed note “Oliver F. Lincoln with respects of J. Brown” (likely Jason Brown;) flowers from Brown’s grave; facsimile John Brown’s notes for speech; clipped obit of Annie Brown; clip sig Jacob A. Wildner (claimed to be a survivor of Brown’s raid- likely an imposter;) interesting, cautious 2 pg ALS to Brown by Wendell Phillips (a Brown skeptic): “Monday- Dear Brown, say please to our friends that I have every wish to serve them and would do so if it were possible But the state of my health is such that I have been to cancel some thirty western engagements & I do not fell able to continue work at present & must therefore be excused. Yours truly Wendell Phillips;” F.B. Sanborn typescript page, corrections and notations for his Life of John Brown; note by Edwin Morton (employed by Gerritt Smith,) “Capt. Brown told me he was disappointed in love early in life Says he has never got over it, & attributes to that sorrow & others his present moral status;” Gerritt Smith 1850 ALS regarding a land purchase; 1 pg ALS T.W. Higginson re: book on family history; 1 pg note signed by W. H. Seward, Washington 1858; clip sig Charles Sumner; 1867 1pg ALS William Lloyd Garrison; 1851 1pg ALS Theodore Parker on planned lecture; 1 pg ALS 1885 Augustus Woodbury (Rhode Island CW army chaplain;) Gerritt Smith ALS to the Emancipator offering a correction; ALS 1pg O. Johnson (Massachusetts abolitionist,) New York September 21st 1864; ALS Dwight Foster (?) re: autographs; WP Tilden (New Hampshire abolitionist) note March 1865; May 1864 ALS JM McKim, Corr. Secr. PA Freedman’s Relief Assoc. noting, “no lack of female teachers;” 1848 2pg ALS C.M. Kirkland (writer;) 27 April 1865 ALS Henry Giles (?); interesting 11 April 1865 Samuel May 1pg ALS- notes rejoicing on the “overthrow of slavery’s principal army marshalled under the traitor Robert E. Lee;” 31 Mar 1865 perceptive ALS Samuel May: slavery is overthrown, but the freed people will be left to “grovel and groan among the ruins” unless enfranchised and elevated to civil equality; ALS 1pg L.H. Sigourney (writer) 13 March 1865; ALS Ira S. Gannett (?); unsigned Sept 1861 ALS to May; Willliam Whiting (NY delegate to Anti-slavery Soc. Meeting 1839;) Dec 1865 ALS N.J. (J?) Downing, Highland Garden Newburgh NY; 17 Apr 1863 ALS John S. Rock (?) to Samuel May; ALS L. Waylaver (?)2/9/65; April 1865 EP Whipple (?); 3pg ALS April 1863 George Morrison (?) to Samuel May re: lecture schedule. Bound in the center of the scrapbook is a good copy of the 1859, “The Life, Trial and Execution of Captain John Brown, Known as ‘Old Brown of Ossowattomie,’. . .” Tan printed wraps with cover portrait, 108 pages. Attached inside the back cover is a 24-page booklet, “John Brown A brief biography with letters by the liberator,” By WH and BB Brewster. CONDITION: Overall very good. Covers are detached but pages are in place. Most letters are lightly attached and show only minor glue stains, if any. The lock of Brown’s hair, in a small glassine envelope mounted on the first page, was likely taken by the family on return of his body to his wife after execution. PROVENANCE: Ex- Dr. John K. Lattimer collection and comes with a James Spence Authentication Auction Letter of Authenticity.
Item Dimensions: 10" X 8"
Paperwork
JSA Auction Letter of Authenticity