Search Results: Authors starting with R from Auger Down Books

Chicago: Rand, McNally and Co, 1882. Lithographic broadside illustration printed in color measuring 11 x 5 ¾ inches. Closed tear to margin, paper reinforcement to corners verso, very good condition, quite bright and attractive. Very Good. An attractive advertisement for the Chicago and North-Western's routes to San Francisco, printed during the tenure of the railroad tycoon Marvin Hughitt as General Manager, a position he held from 1876 to 1880 before being named Second Vice President. The advertisement was printed by Rand, McNally and Company, which in its early years focused on railroad-related materials. The Omaha and California line of the Chicago and North-West Railway connected passengers from Chicago to California. Other maps printed by Rand, McNally and Co. during the period illustrate the route. We find no other examples of this broadside.

Carson, 1881. Single sided receipt measuring 7 ¾ x 4 ½ inches. Near fine with a small tear to bottom of page. Near Fine. A receipt issued for passage from Carson to Badie, Nevada, in 1881 aboard the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, issued with a note that reads "Chinamen" in the remarks section. The Virginia and Truckee was originally built to service the Comstock Lode area in Nevada. Chinese, who represented ten percent of Virginia City during the period, referred to Nevada as "Yin Shan," which translates to "Silver Mountain." Chinese people in Nevada held varied jobs in the state, perhaps more so than in other parts of the United States, with an 1870 census listing Chinese merchants, miners, laborers, laundrymen, cooks, gamblers, and harlots. Despite the heavy involvement of Chinese in Nevada during the period, few ephemeral records surface in the trade, likely due to the drops in population caused by the Chinese Exclusion Act, and perhaps also due to the overall population drop when miners left… Read More

Lancaster, 1876. Single page measuring 9 ½ x 6 inches. Some tears at folds, near fine. Near Fine. An interesting letter deserving further study regarding the legal fallout for defaults on Negro Bonds following Emancipation, a question of significant economic impact for the finances of ex-enslavers, as a significant amount of private debt endured following Emancipation. The author, a collections agent, warns B.H. Massey, Esquire of pending actions to pursue damages for defaults on Negro Bonds for the sum of $10,000 based on the fact that Massey acted as Receiver of the bonds when they were issued. It is unclear whether Massey was Allison's client at the time or if he intended to pursue collections actions against him. We find no record of the case. Full transcription follows: Kershaw, Allison & Connors Correspondent American Attorneys Collection Association All Legal Business Attended To. Collections a specialty. Lancaster, S.C. Sept. the 14th 1876 B. H. Massey, Esq. Dear Sir, My impression… Read More

Fine. A single page document, signed by Rapier, showing collection revenue from a retail dealer in malt liquors. James Rapier was an African-American politician during the reconstruction era who served as United States Representative from Alabama from 1873-1875. After losing a re-election bid to Jaramiah Haralson in 1877, Rapier turned his attention to the emigration movement. "Appointed collector of internal revenue for the Second Alabama District in 1877, he used the office to urge former slaves to leave Alabama and settle in the West. The black man, he asserted, would never be accorded equal rights or economic opportunity in the South. He traveled several times to Kansas, purchased land for a settlement in Wabaunsee County along the route of the Kansas-Pacific Railway, gave pro-emigration speeches in Alabama, and testified in Washington, D.C., before a Senate committee on emigration." - ANB. A fine example of a scarce… Read More

Mt. Pleasant, 1921. Limp leatherette journal measuring 6 ½ x 4 inches, 170 pages. Some chips to spine, fine contents. Near Fine. Christian N. Lund was born in Norway in 1846 to Mormon parents, and immigrated to the United States in 1869, first arriving in Salt Lake City and eventually settling in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. He was a member of the Constitutional Conventions held in 1882 and 1887 in Salt Lake City, a member of the Legislature in the House in 1890 and City Council in 1894 and was appointed bishop in 1890. He did missionary work in the Pacific Northwest in the 1870s and in Scandinavia in the 1890s, presiding over missions in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He served as bishop of the two Mt. Pleasant wards during a period when they were the largest wards in the church. He died in 1921. Offered here is a journal Lund kept as an alphabetical index to religious ideas, with additional ruminations and philosophical musings included, intended possibly as a keepsake for a family member as it was passed… Read More

Providence, 1899. First Edition. 4 pages, 12 x 9 1/4 inches, on one folding sheet; thin paper, light chipping at edges. Very Good. A broadside advertising an appearance by Margaret Shepherd, a nativist speaker who passed as an ex-nun, lecturing prolifically on Catholicism and helping fuel nativist sentiment in the years following the publication of her likely fictitious autobiography, My Life in the Convent: Or the Marvellous Personal Experiences of Margaret L. Shepherd (Sister Magdalene Adelaide), Consecrated Penitent of the Arno's Court Convent, Bristol, England (1893). Anti-Catholic sentiment was a fundamental part of nativist organizations during the period, including the KKK, and Shepherd was one of several "ex-nuns" who lectured on the subject.

New York, 1881. 4 pp, single 9 ½ x 7 ½ inch leaf, folded. Very Good. An important document from early in the career of Washington Gladden, a key figure in the Social Gospel and Progressive movements. He writes the board of the State Street Congregational Church, explaining the reasons for his resignation, which include the spiritual bankruptcy of the congregation, his poor health and the inability of the church to pay his salary. Of these subjects, it's the spiritual health of the congregation that seems to trouble him the most. He writes: "Spirituality is at a very low ebb... I would never be satisfied with laboring year after year in any church with no signs of success... it saddens me today that the tokens of good have been very few.... I had hoped and longed for spiritual prosperity among you." An interesting document that sheds light on Gladden's reasons for leaving his first position. The American National Biography states his reasons for leaving as a "mental breakdown," though this letter… Read More

Bordeaux, 1779. Single page letter measuring 9 x 7 inches, fine condition. Fine. When Spain joined France in the naval war with Great Britain following the Treaty of Aranjuez in 1779, it would have a significant impact in the American Revolutionary War. Offered here is a significant letter providing the news of Spain's impending involvement, written by the Princeton-graduate turned assistant to Benjamin Franklin, William Vernon Jr., to his father in 1779. In the letter, Vernon the younger gives details on Spain's actions, which would have a profound impact on the conflict. The Newport, Rhode Island merchant William Vernon Sr., who engaged in the Atlantic slave trade, served as President of the Continental Naval Board during the Revolutionary War, playing a leading role in the maritime activities of the Continental Congress. His son, William Jr., was a Princeton graduate who traveled to France in 1778 with John Adams. He served for a time as Benjamin Franklin's assistant, and with Adams helped… Read More