MAGAZINE PORTRAIT INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY ASTRONOMER FERDINAND ELLERMAN.

Circa [1930].. [1930].. Good. - An octagonal, 2-3/4 inch high by 3-1/4 inch wide, sepia-toned photograph clipped from a magazine is mounted on a piece of cream-colored paper approximately 4-1/4 inches high by 4 inches wide. Inscribed and signed on the mount below the portrait: "To Seymour Halpern / with the compliments of / Ferdinand Ellerman". There is creasing to the mount & to the photograph with an ink blot to the mount's top edge. Folded once for mailing. Good. <p>The portrait depicts Ellerman leaning over and peering into a technical instrument.<p>Ferdinand Ellerman [1869-1940] was an astronomer associated with the development of the Yerkes and Mount Wilson observatories. Micro solar flares called Ellerman bombs were named for him.<p>The Queens, New York Republican Congressman Seymour Halpern (1913- 1997) started his political career as a campaign aide to New York's powerful mayor Fiorella La Guardia and first served in New York's State Senate for 14 years before seeking a seat in the U.S. Congress. In Albany Halpern sponsored 279 bills that became law, including measures on schools, housing, civil rights, nutrition and mental health. A Liberal, he was something of an anomaly as the lone Republican representative from New York City, and generally garnered support from Labor Unions and endorsement from the Liberal Party. Yet he never even considered switching parties as he considered membership in the Republican Party a family tradition and commitment. While he found ample time for his private pursuits, including painting and collecting autographs, he took his legislative duties very seriously. Of these, he was proudest of his co- sponsorship of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and of the original 1965 Medicare legislation.<p>Rare.