Auction 739 April.

Complete issue of the New York Herald from April 17, 1865, eight pages, 15.5 x 22.5, reporting on the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, outlined with black mourning rules throughout the entire paper. The first column begins with a series of large headlines covering the tragedy: "Our Grief. Additional Details of the Terrible Event of Friday Night. Incidents Connected with the Sad Affair. Scene of the Murder. Developments Showing the Assassination to Have Been a Deep Laid and Deliberately Planned Conspiracy. Mournful Appearance of the National Capital. Sorrow in the Metropolis. Nearly Every Building Draped in Mourning." These are followed by coverage of more positive developments, including: the inauguration of President Andrew Johnson; the recovery of Secretary of State William Seward, who was also attacked as part of the conspiracy; and the manhunt for the assassin and his accomplices. In fine condition.

By 1845, the New York Herald was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the United States. In 1861 it circulated 84,000 copies and called itself 'the most largely circulated journal in the world.' A well-preserved example of an important paper, carrying detailed information on Lincoln's assassination and its aftermath.

Civil War-era political pamphlet issued by the Democratic Newspaper Offices, printed in 1864 during the presidential election campaign when Republican incumbent Abraham Lincoln was running for reelection against Democratic candidate George B. McClellan. Designed as anti-Lincoln propaganda, the pamphlet, issued as “Document No. 12,” eight pages, 5.75 x 8.75, frames Lincoln as an incompetent military leader and contains various examples of orders and printed letters from Lincoln to Union Generals U. S. Grant and George B. McClellan, all intended to cast the president in a negative light. In very good to fine condition, with light soiling, and a small stain.

Original 9 x 7 mounted albumen photograph of the "Log Cabin in Wich Lincoln Was Born," affixed to a slightly larger mount. Matted to an overall size of 15 x 13.5. In very good to fine condition, with wear to the edges of the mount.

This cabin was in fact built by Abraham Lincoln and his father on Goose Nest Prairie, near Farmington, Illinois, in 1831; Lincoln had been born in Kentucky in 1809. Located near Charleston, Illinois, the log cabin was the home of Lincoln's father and stepmother, Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Lincoln, and where the former died in 1851. While traveling the circuit as a lawyer, Lincoln would visit them at this home and was involved with later purchasing some of the land for his parents to remain living there. In 1893, the log cabin was removed to Chicago for exhibition at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition but was unfortunately lost after the Exposition and possibly even used as firewood.

Uncommon 2.5 x 4 carte-de-visite portrait photograph of President Abraham Lincoln made on February 9, 1864, by Anthony Berger at Mathew Brady's Washington, D.C., gallery. The reverse bears a Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries mark and an affixed 2-cent postage stamp. In fine condition, with some light soiling.

On February 9, 1864, portrait painter Francis B. Carpenter arranged for President Lincoln to sit for a series of photographs at Matthew Brady’s Washington, D.C., gallery. Carpenter, the President, and Lincoln’s youngest son, Tad, walked to Brady’s studio at 3 p.m. Since Brady’s eyesight was beginning to fail, he asked his superintendent, Anthony Berger, to photograph Lincoln. Berger took at least seven poses of the President, both alone and with ten-year-old Tad. The images taken that day have formed the basis for Lincoln’s image on the penny and both the old and new $5 bills.

Lincoln sat for over fifty official portraits from his lawyering days on the court circuit until his assassination; he understood the importance of creating a dignified public profile. Lincoln joked after his first photo shoot with Brady in 1860 that the photographer’s portrait helped secure his Republican nomination as president. Brady's images of Lincoln are among the most iconic.

Mathew Brady became one of the most recognized photographers of the Civil War era, known both for documenting the realities of war and for creating iconic portraits of figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. At the start of the war, his business flourished as soldiers commissioned carte-de-visite portraits before heading to the front. In 1861, Lincoln authorized Brady to travel to battlefields and military camps to photograph the conflict firsthand. Investing roughly $100,000 of his own money, Brady and his team produced around 10,000 war-related negatives. However, when the federal government declined to purchase his collection after the war, Brady faced financial ruin, and the massive personal investment ultimately led to his bankruptcy.

Two uncommon carte-de-visite photos, including: a 2.5 x 4 portrait of Abraham Lincoln reading with his son Tad, after a photograph taken by Anthony Berger; and a 2.5 x 4 portrait of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, after a photograph taken by Alexander Gardner. In overall fine condition, with old pencil notations to the bottom of each photo.

On February 9, 1864, portrait painter Francis B. Carpenter arranged for President Lincoln to sit for a series of photographs at Matthew Brady’s Washington D.C. gallery. Carpenter, the President, and Lincoln’s youngest son Tad walked to Brady’s studio at 3 p.m.

Since Brady’s eyesight was beginning to fail, he asked his superintendent, Anthony Berger, to photograph Lincoln. Berger took at least seven poses of the President, both alone and with ten-year-old Tad. The images taken that day have formed the basis for Lincoln’s image on the penny and both the old and new $5 bills.

In this image, Lincoln holds 'a big photograph album which the photographer, posing the father and son, had hit upon as a good device to use in this way to bring the two sitters together.' Lincoln later feared that the public would view this pose as 'a species of false pretense' because most viewers would assume the book was a large clasped Bible. When they learned that it was a photograph album, they might think Lincoln was 'making believe read the Bible to Tad.' Just as Lincoln feared, after his death, some versions were carefully retouched to make the album appear like a large Bible.

In the second half of 1863, the twenty-five-year-old actor John Wilkes Booth visited Alexander Gardner's photographic studio in Washington, D.C. The young Scottish photographer had worked for Matthew Brady from 1856 to 1862, learning the photographer's art. After opening his own studio in Washington, D.C., in May 1863, Gardner photographed both President Abraham Lincoln and his future assassin, along with thousands of Civil War officers and enlisted men.

Several short strands of Lincoln’s hair encapsulated in a plastic cube and displayed alongside a similar cube containing strands of Seward’s hair, as well as one with a swatch of Lincoln's deathbed sheet, double-matted together with a descriptive passage to an overall size of 10.75 x 14. In fine condition. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Historical Shop, stating that the hair came from collected by Mrs. Caroline Wright which were sold by Christie’s as part of the Forbes collection in 2002; the death bed sheet relic originated from the effects of Charles K. Tuckerman, who was the first American ambassador to Greece.

Complete issue of the New-York Tribune from March 5, 1861, eight pages, 16 x 21.5, being the first reporting on the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, who addressed the nation the day before in his memorable inaugural address on the cusp of Civil War. The paper offers a detailed account of the day’s events and contains the entirety of his inaugural address. Headlines include: "The New Administration"; "Inauguration of President Lincoln"; "A Magnificent Display"; "Procession to the Capitol"; "Immense Throng of People"; "The Inaugural Address"; "The Laws to be Executed"; and "The Union Not Dissolved."

Lincoln’s famous address is spread over four columns on the first page, in part: “It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and very distinguished citizens have in succession have administered the Executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success…I now enter upon the same task for the brief Constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced , is now formidably attempted. I hold that in contemplation of universal law of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual….In your hands my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it. I am left to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and heart stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” In very fine condition.

Signed book: Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. 1 by Carl Sandburg. NY: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1939. Hardcover with gilt-titling to the spine, 6.5 x 9.5. Signed and inscribed on the opening page in black ink, "Tom Starr, with appreciation of his basic research in the Lincoln field, Carl Sandburg." Except for the book’s opening pages and first chapter, the original textblock has been removed and refitted as a scrapbook of sorts, with pages comprised of sundry clippings, advertisements, and photographs, all related to Sandburg and Lincoln. In fine condition, with wear to the inner binding.

Thomas Irwin Starr (1903–1965), an editorial director for publications at the Michigan Bell Telephone Company, was a noted Abraham Lincoln scholar and collector of Lincolniana. He began collecting Lincoln-related materials after attending an auction in 1929, a pursuit that developed into a lifelong scholarly interest. In 1930, Starr discovered a long-lost newspaper printing of Abraham Lincoln’s 1856 Kalamazoo speech while researching in the Detroit Public Library, an important find that helped preserve the text of the address. He later wrote and annotated several books and articles on the 16th President and assembled a significant collection of Lincoln materials.

ANS as president, signed “W. McK—,” one page on an official 4.25 x 2.75 Executive Mansion card, April 9, 1896. Handwritten note to "Bishop," in full: "I do not see how I can well make any engagements just now, I am as engrossed with public affairs, that I seem to have no time." In fine condition, with some light soiling. Encapsulated and graded by PSA/DNA as "NM-MT 8."

Partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 15 x 19.5, January 16, 1899. President McKinley appoints Charles B. Gwynn as "Second Lieutenant in the Third Volunteer Engineers in the service of the United States." Boldly signed at the conclusion in ink by President William McKinley and countersigned by Secretary of War Russel A. Alger. The embossed blue seal affixed at the lower left remains intact. In fine condition, with a small chip to the left edge.

Partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 13 x 9.5, January 1, 1818. Desirable military land grant by which President Monroe, "in pursuance of the Acts of Congress appropriating and granting Land to the late Army of the United States," grants "Silas Beverstock, late a sergeant in Taylor Company, Thirtieth Regiment of Infantry, a certain Tract of Land, containing One Hundred and Sixty Acres." Boldly signed at the conclusion in ink by President James Monroe, and countersigned by Commissioner of the General Land Office Josiah Meigs. The white paper seal affixed at the lower left remains intact. In very good to fine condition, with some scattered light staining. Originally purchased from Walter R. Benjamin Autographs, Inc., and accompanied by its folder.

Complete issue of Time Magazine from October 6, 2008, 8 x 10.5, 84 pages, signed on the front cover in black felt tip by Barack Obama. Released a month prior to the 2008 presidential election, the cover poses the question: "Who Can Rescue The Economy?" In fine condition, with light handling wear.

Partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 13.75 x 16.25, June 27, 1856. President Pierce appoints Weld Noble Allen as "a Midshipman in the Navy of the United States." Neatly signed at the conclusion in ink by President Franklin Pierce, and countersigned by Secretary of the Navy James C. Dobbin. The bottom vignette retains the original orange Navy Department seal. In very good to fine condition, with faint staining, and scattered small areas of loss along the folds.

Weld Noble Allen (1837–1875) was born in Alfred, Maine. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1855 and later served in the U.S. Navy during the 1860s, at one point commanding a naval gunboat. His naval career occurred during the period surrounding the American Civil War, when many officers were involved in blockades and river or coastal operations. A memorial made of marble and brass commemorating Weld Noble Allen is located in the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland, Maine, honoring his naval service and life.

Collection of five documents signed by presidents of the United States, ranging in size from 14 x 12 to 23 x 19, dated from 1887 to 1924. Includes: Grover Cleveland (February 22, 1887, appointing a consul), Benjamin Harrison (February 8, 1890, appointing a postmaster), Woodrow Wilson (August 20, 1914, appointing a postmaster), Warren G. Harding (January 14, 1922, appointing a postmaster), and Calvin Coolidge (December 20, 1924, appointing a foreign service officer). In overall very good to fine condition, with trimming and staining to the Harrison, and various stains and creases to the other documents.

Appealing White House Christmas card from 1987, measuring 5.25 x 7.75 closed, signed on the front in black felt tip, "Ronald Reagan." The front features an image of the painting 'State Dining Room at Christmas' by Thomas William Jones, and the inside features a printed holiday greeting. In very fine condition.

TLS, one page, 6.25 x 8.5, personal letterhead, March 19, 1993. Letter to Michael DeMarkles, in part: "Please accept my warmest thanks for all the wonderful gifts which you so graciously presented to me. I know I will put the book on Irish stories to much good use! I also appreciate the book about Teddy Roosevelt, the mug and the patriotic eagle. Mrs. Reagan also sends her thanks for her gift. You were much too generous!" In very fine condition.

Color glossy 8 x 10 photo of Presidents Nixon through Reagan gathered at the White House before departing for Anwar Sadat's funeral in 1981, signed in black felt tip by Ronald Reagan. In fine condition.

Color satin-finish 10.5 x 6.25 photo of the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, signed in blue felt tip, "Ronald Reagan." In fine condition.

Inauguration day commemorative cover with a cachet honoring Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States, postmarked at Washington, D.C., on January 20, 1981, signed in blue felt tip, "Ronald Reagan." In very fine condition.

Felt tip signature, "Ronald Reagan,” on an off-white 3.5 x 5 card gilt-embossed with the presidential seal. In very fine condition.

Choice official White House card, 4.25 x 2.75, boldly signed in fountain pen by Franklin D. Roosevelt. In very fine condition.

Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 15 x 19, May 1, 1908. President Roosevelt appoints Frank T. Woodbury as a "Captain in the Medical Corps in the service of the United States. Prominently signed at the conclusion in ink by President Theodore Roosevelt and countersigned by Acting Secretary of War Robert Shaw Oliver. The lower left corner retains the original blue War Office seal. In fine condition, with creasing, primarily in the margins.

Partly-printed vellum DS as president, signed “Wm. H. Taft,” one page, 19.5 x 15.75, January 18, 1911. President Taft appoints Friench Simpson as "Passed Assistant Surgeon, to rank as such from October 6, 1910, in the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the United States." Neatly signed at the conclusion in ink by President William H. Taft and countersigned by Secretary of the Treasury Franklin MacVeagh. In very good to fine condition, with staining along the left side.

Sought-after bold ink signature, "Z. Taylor,” on an off-white 3 x 1.5 slip. In fine condition.

Vintage matte-finish 8 x 10 photo of the Trumans waving from the steps of their private plane, the 'Sacred Cow,' signed neatly in fountain pen, "Harry S. Truman," and "Bess W. Truman," with the calligraphic notation "Christmas 1946" along the bottom. Includes the original “Christmas 1946” card from the Trumans. In fine condition. An estimated 575 of these coveted 1946 Christmas gift photographs were signed and given to the White House staff.

The recipient of this photo was George John Kargacos, an electrician’s mate in the U.S. Navy who served the Trumans on the Presidential yacht. Includes a presentation letter to Kargacos from President Truman (with preprinted signature), a newspaper clipping about Kargacos’s time with Truman, a letter of recommendation from Naval Commander William A. Bartos, and a discharge letter from James Forrestal (stamped signature).