Search Results: Titles starting with A from 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop

Gelatin silver print. 14 x 14 in. image on 16 x 20 in. sheet. Light wear. Signed by Barboza and titled "Imamu Baraka – poet – 76" by the photographer.
This is a splendid Anthony Barboza portrait of Amiri Baraka. Baraka's illustrious and controversial 50-year career, in which he first achieved fame as Leroi Jones, encompassed poetry, drama, fiction, criticism, and activism.
Critic Arnold Rampersad counted Baraka with Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison "as one of the eight figures … who have significantly affected the course of African-American literary culture."
Anthony Barboza (b. 1944) is perhaps most famous for his portraits of musicians, dancers, and writers and for his photojournalist, fashion, and editorial spreads in countless magazines. His work has been exhibited in many solo and group shows and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Cornell University, the Brooklyn… Read More

Mammoth albumen print (17 ½ x 22 in), mounted, oval gilt-rule mat. Retouched vignetted enlargement. A few spots, some toning. Very good condition.
This famous "Gettysburg portrait," with Lincoln looking directly into the camera, was made just days before he delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.
A giant of American photography, Alexander Gardner is credited with introducing the large-format Imperial portrait to the United States while working as a staff photographer for Mathew Brady. Gardner left Brady's employ in early 1863, and his studio quickly rivaled Brady's for the quality and extent of its war and portrait photography. Gardner first photographed Lincoln as president-elect while working for Brady, and he went on to take Lincoln's portrait more than any other photographer.
Lincoln sat for Gardner on several occasions, usually visiting his studio on Sunday to avoid crowds. Lincoln sat for this splendid portrait on Sunday, November 8, 1863. His private secretaries John Hay and… Read More

Original red cloth. Two gatherings a little loose. Minor wear. A very good copy. Half morocco case.
First edition of the iconic American "Boy's Book." Twain's first novel written without a co-author, Tom Sawyer "proved to be one of the most durable works in American literature. By the time of Twain's death, it was his top-selling book. It had been in print continuously since 1876, and has outsold all other Mark Twain works" (Rasmussen).
"Tom Sawyer was the first printed story of a boy in which the hero was recognizable as a boy throughout the whole narrative … until Tom Sawyer was written, nearly all the boys of fiction were adults with a lisp, or saintly infants, or mischievous eccentrics … in the work of Dickens there were hints of boys that were boys; but Tom was the first full blown boy in all fiction … the book is a landmark" (Booth Tarkington).
This novel of a boy growing up along the Mississippi River is set in a town called St. Petersburg, inspired by Samuel Clemens's hometown of… Read More

Original half dark brown morocco gilt. Portrait frontispiece with sculptor's name on the shoulder, State 3 of title but no priority acknowledged, State 1 of p. [13], p. 57 and p. 155, without 11 signature on p. 161, and the original first state of the illustration on p. 283. Light wear. Near fine.

First American edition, in publisher's morocco with the rare first state of the illustration on p. 283.
While gathering advance subscriptions to Huckleberry Finn, traveling salesmen offered not only copies in cloth bindings but also deluxe leather bound copies such as the present example. The first copies printed were sent off to be put in those time-consuming bindings.
Soon thereafter, as printing progressed, an unknown individual defaced the plate on p. 283 with an engraving of a penis at Uncle Silas's crotch. Thousands of copies were printed before the altered plate was discovered. Each of those offending leaves was cut out and replaced with leaf featuring the re-engraved illustration. This new… Read More

FIRST EDITION. Presentation copy inscribed by Einstein's longtime assistant Helen Dukas: "For Lisa Ben Samuel with kindest regards and Shalom Helen Dukas Princeton N.J. March 1980."
Helen Dukas became Einstein's secretary in 1928 and, after his death in 1955, served as a trustee of his literary estate and archivist of his papers. This volume prints letters and documents selected by Dukas over the years to shed light on Einstein's character and personality.Original cloth and dust jacket. Some rubbing to jacket, else very good.

Original brown cloth, top edge gilt, publisher's slipcase. Very fine, with the fragile slipcase in excellent condition. A superb copy.
FIRST EDITION. One of 760 numbered copies signed and dated by Einstein.
This important volume contains Einstein's autobiography, specially written for the book, a bibliography of his works, twenty-five scientists' discussions of Einstein's work and achievements, with Einstein's replies. Contributors of essays include Niels Bohr, Max Born, Wolfgang Pauli, and Kurt Godel.
I. I. Rabi's review in Science hailed this as a "most important and significant volume. It is most difficult to get scientists to write simply and clearly about the fundamentals of their science and the leading philosophical ideas that guide them. … In this book there is played out a great scientific drama of the last two decades. … The book starts with an intellectual autobiography by Einstein himself. He satirically calls it his obituary. I know of no other to compare with it. Neither… Read More

80 tintypes, one fully painted, a few others with painted highlights. 19th-century brown leather album with diecut sheets housing the photographs. Color lithograph title page stating "album." Very good condition overall.

This fascinating album contains 80 tintype portraits of women and girls, young and old. Some are dressed plainly, while others are in fine dresses, and at least one is in mourning attire. The photographs include head and shoulders, seated, and full-length standing portraits.

The album opens with a fine half plate tintype of a woman seated with her presumed husband, their two daughters standing behind them. The second photograph is an horizontal half plate tintype of two women seated in front of a large painted studio backdrop of a bridge or pier. Studio furniture, props, curtains, and backdrops may facilitate identification of photographers.

The collection comprises 80 portraits as follows:

3 whole plate tintypes (one hand painted), trimmed at left and right to fit the album
5… Read More

Brown buckram. Library markings.
FIRST EDITION of Einstein's fifth published paper, "On the General Molecular Theory of Heat" (pp. 354-362).

First edition of the second book by Asher Benjamin, America's first great writer on architecture. In the introduction, Benjamin notes that "the style of building in this country differs very considerably from that of Great Britain" and that architects who rely on European publications are wasting their money. He concludes, "we feel confident that this publication will be found to contain more useful information for the American workman than all the European works which have appeared in this country."

"Through his books 'late colonial' details and designs were broadcast throughout New England … and there is scarcely a village which in moulding profiles, cornice details, church spire, or farm-house does not reflect his influence" (DAB). The plates in this work inspired countless builders, and they have been used to identify Benjamin as the architect of a number of important buildings in Massachusetts and Connecticut. "Benjamin's plates formed a collection harmonious and almost always in perfect… Read More

A splendid view of Angkor Wat with deep, rich tones. Émile Gsell accompanied de Lagrée on his expedition to Angkor, where he made a series of dramatic photographs only a few months after John Thomson's expedition. The French photographer Gsell became the first commercial photographer based in Saigon in 1866. He returned to Angkor in 1873 with the famous expedition led by Louis Delaporte.
"Reports of an abandoned city in the jungle had reached Europeans in 1850, and in 1863 de Lagrée conducted the first archaeological exploration of the ruins. The finest and most extensive of all Khmer monuments, Angkor Wat was built early in the twelfth century as a temple symbolizing Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain at the center of the Buddhist and Hindu universe. It had been abandoned in the eighteenth century, and by the time this photograph was made many of its buildings had been overtaken by the forest" (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
"One of these temples, a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by… Read More

Oval albumen print (8 x 6 in.), original printed mount, trimmed at bottom removing caption, signed "BRADY & CO. PHOTOGRAPHERS." Browning and offsetting to mount, light toning to image. Very good. Matted and framed.
The classic Brady $5 bill photograph. This celebrated portrait, the basis for the five-dollar bill engraving used for most of the 20th century, is one of seven poses taken by Anthony Berger at Mathew Brady's Washington, D. C. studio on February 9, 1864. The most prolific photographer of Lincoln, Brady himself did not actually operate his cameras during the war years, instead training and employing men like Alexander Gardner and his successor Anthony Berger, who took this picture, to operate the camera.
Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln declared this famous portrait to be "the most satisfactory likeness" of Abraham Lincoln.

8-cent Apollo 8 "In the Beginning God …" postage stamp, uncanceled. Mission emblem cachet. Fine condition. Encapsulated by CAG, which authenticated the Armstrong Family Collection.
Signed by the crew of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the Moon: Neil Armstrong (commander), Buzz Aldrin (lunar module pilot), and Michael Collins (command module pilot).
This is one of the famous "insurance covers" signed by the Apollo 11 crew to provide some financial security for their families in case the otherwise practically uninsurable astronauts failed to return from their mission.
Michael Collins and the other crew members personally designed the mission emblem, which shows an eagle descending to the lunar surface while holding an olive branch of peace. The design initially showed the olive branch in the eagle's beak, but when officials worried that the eagle was too menacing, the astronauts moved the branch to its extended talons.
Provenance: Neil Armstrong.

First edition of Aristotle's Masterpiece, "the most popular book about women's bodies, sex, pregnancy, and childbirth in Britain and America from its first appearance in 1684 up to at least the 1870s" (Treasures, Library Company of Philadelphia).
Aristotle's Masterpiece—neither by Aristotle nor a masterpiece—is "the first sex manual written in English" (Norman). The work documents theories and practices of human reproduction during the early modern period. This first edition was assembled in part from excerpts of existing midwifery books, primarily Levinus Lemnius's The Secret Miracles of Nature (1658) and Jacob Rueff's The Expert Midwife (1658). The book's pseudo-Aristotle attribution both lent it an aura of credibility and hinted at the sexual nature of its contents. After the publication of a book called Aristotle's Problems in 1595, which included a few explicit discussions of sex, the name 'Aristotle' came to euphemistically indicate sexual knowledge to an early modern audience.
Unlike… Read More

Folio (348 x 224 mm). 58 leaves (116 unnumbered pages) on paper with the watermark of the Sacred Monogram, Briquet 9467, i.e. Vicenza 1527-38. 812 armorial shields in watercolor, seven per page. Late 18th-century calf, black letter spine label. Rubbed, some soiling. Very good condition.
This is a lovely Renaissance manuscript representing the great families of Florence at the height of the Renaissance.
This beautiful manuscript contains 812 hand-colored armorial shields arranged alphabetically from Aldrobradi to Zucharini, with a leaf of additions at the end.
This Renaissance manuscript contains the arms of Florence's great families including its patrons of the arts, financiers, businessmen, philosophers, and political leaders. The influential names represented here include Medici, Alberti, Da Vinci, Albizzi, Pazzi, Lippi, Strozzi, and hundreds of others. The manuscript contains the arms of the families of Galileo Galilei and of Niccolo Machiavelli, whose history of Florence was written about the time… Read More

Signed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first two men on the Moon.
This image was taken by the Maurer Data Acquisition Camera (DAC, pronounced "dak"). The DAC made films through the Lunar Module Pilot's window during the approach and landing of the LM and took stop motion photographs during the EVA at the rate of one frame per second.
The photograph shows Armstrong and Aldrin raising the American flag on the Moon about 27 feet from the centerline of Eagle. Aldrin reported that the Apollo 11 flag was blown over by the blast of the rocket exhaust during takeoff.
Congress subsequently passed a bill declaring that the placement of the flag on the Moon "is intended as a symbolic gesture of national pride in achievement and is not to be construed as a declaration of national appropriation by claim of sovereignty."
Signed photographs of Armstrong and Aldrin on the lunar surface are scarce.
Armstrong operated the handheld camera on the Moon's surface. Thus in signed Apollo 11 lunar surface… Read More

4pp. Original folds, light wear. Very good condition.
Louisa May Alcott discusses the impact of Little Women and its place in children's literature. She observes that "My 'Little Women' have much astonished their Momma by making many friends for themselves, & she can only account for it by the grain of truth that lay at the bottom of the little story." "The praise & value most you have given me, in saying that my effort to do something toward putting simpler & healthier food before the little people has been made evident at least, though very imperfectly carried out."
Alcott goes on, "I have such a love and reverence for children that it makes me heart-sick to see the trash offered them, when there is so much that is true & fresh & helpful in their own innocent hearts & lives, if wiser, older heads would only learn how to shadow it forth in hearty plain words for their pleasure & instruction. The little people have taught me more than I can ever teach them, & my greatest satisfaction is the friendship… Read More

One page. Minor soiling, mounted to board. With a mounted albumen cabinet card of Whittier. Matted and framed.
On the occasion of Whittier's 80th birthday, Holmes composed this charming verse dedicated to his longtime friend and fellow poet:
"Friend, whom thy fourscore winters leave more dear / Than when life's roseate summer on thy cheek / Burned in the flush of manhood's manliest year, / Lonely, how lonely! is the snowy peak / Thy feet have reached, and mine have climbed so near! / Close on thy footsteps 'mid the landscape drear / I stretch my hand thine answering grasp to seek, / Warm with the love no rippling rhymes can speak! / Look backward! From thy lofty height survey / Thy years of toil, of peaceful victories won, / Of dreams made real, largest hopes outrun! / Look forward! Brighter than earth's morning ray / Streams the pure light of Heaven's unsetting sun, / The unclouded dawn of life's immortal day!"
Whitter returned the favor five years later with "To Oliver Wendell Holmes," the last poem… Read More

Framed with the albumen photograph (41/2 x 31/2 in. oval) that accompanied the note. Light browning. A wonderful display piece.
Mark Twain the humorist. Samuel Clemens sent this delightful humorous note with the accompanying half- length standing portrait of the debonair author.
The author writes:
"My Dear Mr. Watt: There is a trifle too much 'style' in the attitude for a plain man like me, but the photographer did it. Yrs truly Saml L. Clemens July 16/74."
Clemens, who had humble origins, could be quite vain. In his later years he famously wore brilliant white linen suits. Here he pokes fun at his appearance in the photograph, reminding his correspondent of his roots.
Watt was a Danish journalist and author who translated Twain's Sketches into Danish. He sent a copy of the unauthorized edition to Twain in May 1874 and asked the author for a photograph and a few lines.
Clemens replied with a long, friendly letter joking that "the sketches have a familiar look, but their meaning is hidden from me in… Read More

One page. Original folds. Very good condition. Nicely framed.
Darwin discusses the hereditary transmission of behavior and a vivid example of the phenomenon from the opening chapter of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.
In this letter Darwin thanks Fanny Kellogg for "communicating the curious case of an habitual gesture, like that which I have described as inherited. I may add that since I wrote, the action has been transmitted to another generation. Your case shall be sent to Mr. Galton, who gave me the information."
In The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), Darwin had discussed the heritability of habitual gestures. There he cited at length a remarkable case related to him by his cousin Francis Galton. Galton, a distinguished scientist in his own right, was keenly interested in the inheritance in humans, and the two men often shared findings and theories. Darwin quoted Galton in The Expression of the Emotions on page 33:
"A gentleman of considerable… Read More

In this rare manuscript poem by Emily Dickinson, the speaker solicits a "shopkeeper's" smile:
I came to buy a smile—today—But just a single smile—The smallest one upon your faceWill suit me just as well–The one that no one else would missIt shone so very small—I'm pleading at the "counter"—sir—Could you afford to sell—I've Diamonds—on my fingers—You know what Diamonds are?I've Rubies—like the Evening Blood—And Topaz—like the Star!'Twould be "a Bargain" for a Jew!Say–may I have it–Sir?
The poem showcases the poet's signature use of ballad verse as well as jewel imagery representative of her "interest in the natural world and aesthetic presentation" (Kelly et al., The Networked Recluse: The Connected World of Emily Dickinson).
Dickinson famously published only a handful of poems in her lifetime. Instead she shared her work in letters to mentors, friends, and a few others. She evidently sent this poem to family friend Samuel Bowles, the publisher of the Springfield… Read More