Historical Manuscripts from Donald Heald Rare Books

St. Augustine, Florida: John James Audubon, 1832. Bi-folded folio. 4 pp. (9 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches). Integral address panel with St. Augustine postal stamp. "Should I live long enough to deserve her applause I shall die happy." A remarkable signed manuscript letter from John James Audubon, which addresses in detail the publication of his landmark work "The Birds… Read more about this item

Washington DC, 1895. Archive. Sheet sizes variable. 1 US Timber-Culture certificate granting land in Aberdeen, South Dakota, to Bowers, signed in ink and affixed with the wax seal of the US Land Office; 1 brass-fastened collection of 4 typescript pages: "Application for Extension of Time by Edward A. Bowers"; 1 typescript letter corrected and signed in ink from J.… Read more about this item

Washington, DC, 1895. Archive. Sheet sizes variable. Over 60 ink and pencil manuscripts and typescripts, including copies, ledgers, letters, and US Government correspondence on paper. This remarkable archive of manuscript materials tells the story of "Linconia," Abraham Lincoln's failed 1861-62 scheme to resettle free black Americans in the Chiriqui province of what is now Panama. "You having been… Read more about this item

Cambridge, 1932. 1pp. A short letter with an update about Chadwick's research on discovering the neutron. Two months prior to writing this letter, James Chadwick had only just begun experimenting with his research regarding the existence of a possible neutral particle in the nucleus of an atom alongside electrons and protons. In February of 1932, Chadwick published a… Read more about this item

1847. 4pp. Quarto, on a folded folio sheet. Old fold lines. Central fold, running the horizontal length of the sheet, reinforced with tape. Minor soiling, else fine. A very affectionate letter from a sailor to his wife back home, full of pining declarations of love and devotion. The sailor, Gregory, notes that he is safe and likely to stay… Read more about this item

[v.p., including Antwerp, London, Havana, Pensacola, New York, 1833. Folio. (12 3/4 x 8 inches). 21 leaves, plus two additional manuscript leaves laid in. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards, manuscript label on front board. Bookseller's label on front pastedown. Account book of Atlantic trading voyages. An interesting manuscript ship's log containing financial accounts for the brigs… Read more about this item

Paris, 1849. 17pp., written recto only on 17 sheets. With a few pieces of related ephemera by J.P. Mayer (the editor of the Gallimard edition of Tocqueville's Oeuvres Completes). From the Tocqueville papers of Gustave de Beaumont. The letters comprise as follows: To John Stuart Mill, 15 October 1839. OC (ed. de Beaumont), vol. VI, p. 93. To… Read more about this item

Kensington Palace, 1809. 6pp., on 3 sheets of paper, each 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches. Each sheet inlaid at a later date. Renovating Kensington Palace. In this lengthy letter, the father of Queen Victoria consults architect James Wyatt concerning repairs to Kensington Palace. Wyatt had been previously employed by Edward to renovate Castle Hill Lodge, but here… Read more about this item

Philadelphia, 1834. 3pp. Later annotation at head of first page. Scarce letter on the Liberian colonization movement by one of its founders. Writing to Hawes, a member of Parliament and a committee member of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade, Cresson wishes for success in the British anti-slavery action off the coast of Sierra Leone,… Read more about this item

England: Elliott Cresson, 1833. Bi-folded folio. 3 pp. (12 1/3 x 7 1/2 inches). Important autograph letter from Elliott Cresson, one of the foremost proponents of the American Colonization Society and its colony in Liberia, to Member of Parliament Benjamin Hawes, presenting a resolution to found the British African Colonization Society. Discusses the famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's opposition… Read more about this item

St. Louis: John B. Sarpy, 1843. Folio. [2] pp. (12 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches). Docketed on verso, fold lines with some separation, a few repaired. A manuscript affidavit written by fur magnate John Baptiste Sarpy of Pierre Chouteau & Co. that gives one a granular sense of the difficulities of running a frontier business dependent on mountain men… Read more about this item

London, 1899. Oblong octavo. (8 3/8 x 11 1/4 inches). Black ink calligraphic manuscript title, manuscript map in blue ink of New Guinea, northern extremities of Australia and the surrounding islands, hand-coloured with a related key beneath to show the distribution of the various species and sub-species, 7 plates of pen-and-ink and watercolour drawings of various species of cassowary… Read more about this item