Search Results: Titles starting with I from The Raab Collection

18/06/1945. Dwight D. Eisenhower An extraordinary photo and the only one we have ever seen portraying Eisenhower returning home in victoryFor the General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, the last two years of the war would be his most challenging. Eisenhower would oversee the gargantuan plan for the invasion of Europe: the largest air, sea, and land assault in history. He would be the one to give the ultimate order that he knew would send thousands of young men to their deaths. And, despite a top-notch staff and talented commanders, it would be he alone who would have to shoulder the crushing responsibility of decision making. As June 1944 dawned, D-Day approached. On June 1, Ike moved his command post from London to Portsmouth, where he lived in a tiny trailer that he christened “my circus wagon.” It was here that he gave the go-ahead for a June 5 landing which was called back due to bad weather. Ike’s meteorologist forecast a brief window of clear weather for June 6.… Read More

28/09/1876. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr It is the only letter we have ever seen from father to son, and a search of public sale records going back over 40 years fails to turn up even one other exampleIn 1871, the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a poem in tribute to his great-great-grandmother, Dorothy Quincy. She was born in 1709 to the Quincy family of Braintree, one of Massachusetts' most distinguished families. She was the daughter of Judge Edmund Quincy, whose brother was the ancestor of Abigail Adams and John Quincy Adams. Dorothy was the cousin of Josiah Quincy, the mayor of Boston. Her niece, named for her, married John Hancock.Holmes's ode honors the life of ""Dorothy Q"" and references a famous portrait of her that hangs in the Massachusetts Historical Society: This painting, dated circa 1720, depicts a young Dorothy. It descended through her family until it was bequeathed to the Massachusetts Historical Society by her great-great-grandson, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in… Read More

02/12/1814. John Q. Adams|Henry Clay|Jonathan Russell|Albert Gallatin On August 8, 1814, talks began at Ghent, Belgium, that would ultimately result in a treaty ending the War of 1812. The head of the American negotiating team was John Quincy Adams, the U.S.’s most experienced diplomat. The four men who served with him were carefully selected by President Madison to reflect the varieties of political sentiment in the United States. Foremost among them was Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and a noted War Hawk. Albert Gallatin had served as Secretary of the Treasury for both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. James Bayard was a U.S. Senator belonging to the Federalist Party who had been an opponent of the war, and was one of the 13 Senators to vote against declaring it. However, once the war began he supported the war effort. Jonathan Russell was acting U.S. ambassador to Britain when war was declared. Sent to Ghent as a negotiator, he was also serving as ambassador to Sweden and… Read More

22/03/1824. Robert Southey Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate of England from 1813 until his death. He was also author of the most popular version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.Autograph Letter Signed, 4 pages, Keswick, March 22, 1824, to “My dear Elmsley. Whether my book goes soon to a second edition or not I shall be much obliged to you if you will point out any statements or inferences in it which may seem erroneous. The one which you have instanced (except in the printer’s blunder) rests upon the authority of Laud himself, as you may see at the end of his diary – in the thick of his troubles, p. 68. This is not stated as an instance of his generosity but as one of those cases in which he had employed his influence for the advantage of the church. With regard to the tone of the book, it certainly was my intent & hope in writing it that it might tend to excite & strengthen a spirit of opposition to what is called Catholic Emancipation, for… Read More

19/12/1781. Thomas Jefferson This famous letter, the first by any American president on the subject of fossils or paleontology, was hand delivered by Daniel Boone Jefferson, stepping down as Virginia governor, says he will use his time on scientific pursuits like paleontology: ""The retirement into which I am withdrawing has increased my eagerness in pursuit of objects of this kind."" Formerly at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; never before offered for sale publiclyThomas Jefferson is one of America's first great naturalists. He commissioned the first official paleontological dig in the United States. He sent Lewis and Clark west not only to look for a passage west but also to find specimens of animals living and dead. Those specimens, which include extinct species, are now at the Academy of Sciences.But before Jefferson's interests in this subject formed the basis of our American passion decades earlier.A boneyard from the late Pleistocene, which was a warm salt spring,… Read More

22/05/1945. Harry Truman On April 12, 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in Georgia. Harry Truman, along with an entire nation, was stunned by Roosevelt’s unexpected passing. Truman, in particular, had little contact with Roosevelt since becoming FDR’s third Vice President in January 1945.Truman had spent his time as Vice President in his constitutional role of presiding over the Senate, and on that day a call came from the White House to go immediately to its Pennsylvania Avenue entrance. Truman was met by Eleanor Roosevelt and told the President had died. When Truman asked what he could do for Mrs. Roosevelt, she replied, “Is there anything we can do for you? You are the one in trouble now.” Within minutes, the White House press agency sent out an official bulletin at 5:47 p.m., that President Roosevelt had died two hours earlier from a cerebral stroke. Chief Justice Harlan Stone was then called to the White House to issue Truman’s presidential oath of office in the Cabinet… Read More

Jun-65. Robert Kennedy This incredible unpublished letter comes from the estate of the Algerian Ambassador to the United States and has never before been offered for sale1965 marked an escalation in the War in Vietnam. On February 19, 1965, some units of the South Vietnamese Army launched a coup and were able to force a leadership change. In response to this, National Security Council Director McGeorge Bundy and Secretary of State Robert McNamara wrote a memo to President Johnson. They gave the President two options: use American military power to defeat the Viet Cong insurgency, or negotiate thus attempting to ""salvage what little can be preserved."" Bundy and McNamara favored the first option; Secretary of State Dean Rusk disagreed. Johnson accepted the military option and sent a telegram to U.S. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor in Saigon, saying “The U.S. will spare no effort and no sacrifice in doing its full part to turn back the Communists in Vietnam."" President Johnson had crossed the Rubicon.On… Read More

12/12/30. Thomas Wolfe William Faulkner once said that Thomas Wolfe, who died before age 40, may have been the greatest talent of his generation for aiming higher than any other writer. His influence extends to the writings of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, and to authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth, among others. He was one of the first masters of autobiographical fiction, and his work was filled with details that came from his own life and his home in North Carolina, as well as that of his friends in New York.Henry Hart was an editor at Scribner’s. The two had a close and long relationship and corresponded as friends. In Christmas 1930 Wolfe wrote to Hart, with some cheeky remarks, one referencing Oscar Wilde and the other Calvin Coolidge.Christmas note signed, London, December 12, 1930, to Hart. ""To wish you health and happiness at Christmas and lots of trips to Philadelphia throughout the coming year. Tom Wolfe."" He writes in his own hand, ""These cards are wonderful things - you buy a… Read More

17/02/1953. Albert Einstein In this letter from Einstein to David Bohm, Einstein discusses the importance of connecting a key principle of the relatively new theory of quantum mechanics (the “Born interpretation”) to physical quantities that can be measured in the real world. To him, it is essential that mathematical theories be connected to measurable quantities. In this letter, Einstein’s uneasiness with quantum mechanics is apparent, saying that validation of the seemingly random quantum mechanics “…can only be done on the basis of classical mechanics.” Without this validation, quantum theory has essentially “no controllable meaning.” Max Born was a renowned physicist who was crucial for the development of quantum mechanics (and also the Ph.D. supervisor of many important physicists including J. Robert Oppenheimer). Quantum mechanics describes the weird behavior of tiny subatomic particles. It’s also the guiding theory that led to critical technologies like nuclear power,… Read More

4/1/43. Franklin D. Roosevelt His words are readily reminiscent of those Abraham Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Bixby, who lost five sons in the Civil War The Rogers brothers’s deaths, and those of the Sullivan brothers, led to the adoption of a rule that no longer permitted family members to serve with each other in combat areasAmong the literary masterpieces of Abraham Lincoln, states William Springer in his work “Tributes to Abraham Lincoln”, are his melancholy Springfield Farewell Speech, his Second Inaugural Address, and the famous letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a Boston widow who had lost five of her sons in the Civil War. The latter letter reads, “Executive Mansion, Nov. 21, 1864. Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a… Read More

17/03/1906. Theodore Roosevelt He appoints runner James Sullivan as the first US representative to the OlympicsThe 1906 Games may have helped save the Olympic Movement. After the debacles of 1900 and 1904, the Olympics were in desperate straits. The Greeks had wanted to host more Olympics and they proposed holding “interim” Olympics every four years, in the even year between the Olympics. The first of these was scheduled for 1906.The Games of 1906 were not of the calibre of many Olympics of later years, and many of the facilities were not of the highest quality. However, as in 1896, the Greeks approached their responsibility with enthusiasm and the most international field to date competed in these Olympics. A true Opening Ceremony was conducted for the first time, with the athletes marching with their teams following a flag bearer from their own country. In the United States, a team was selected for the first time and sent over as a true national team.James Patrick Sullivan was an American… Read More

12/10/1826. Marquis de Lafayette Francesco Tadini was in exile from his native land and was visiting France, England and the United States to meet compatriots in those lands Tadini would become the founder of the Italian Liberation Society in 1830Francesco Tadini was an early Italian revolutionary and a friend to liberty. In February 1821 he went to Turin for the first time and settled here in the feverish days that preceded the insurrection of the Alessandria garrison. He took part in the failed attempt to bring the Queen's dragoons to the side of the insurgents. During the subsequent mission to Alessandria, he helped provoke the insurrections of other garrisons, and from where, at the head of approximately two hundred of the king's dragoons, three companies of the Genoa regiment and a group of confederates, they moved to Casale; then back to Vercelli, where the Constitution of Cadiz was proclaimed on March 13. From here the constitutional troops headed towards Novara. On March 13, 1821, Tadini… Read More

1825. Marquis de Lafayette He wonders whether he should bring a delegation of surviving military staff from the Revolutionary WarIn 1824, with the nation prosperous, exuberant and in the midst of the Era of Good Feelings, nostalgia was strong for the Revolutionary War generation that had made the U.S. independent and was now passing rapidly from the scene. President James Monroe invited the Marquis de Lafayette to visit the United States, and accompanied by his son, George Washington Lafayette, the old soldier visited all 24 states of the Union. Everywhere he was received with great enthusiasm and excitement. On August 16, he disembarked in New York and was escorted from the Battery in a carriage drawn by four white horses to City Hall. Then, while in his carriage and placed on a barge with his horses, Lafayette was taken to Brooklyn and cheered by thousands. In the crowd was a 15-year-old boy named Walt Whitman who never forgot that exciting moment. When he arrived in Philadelphia on September 29,… Read More

19/12/1808. Napoleon Bonaparte A letter never before offered for sale, acquired from the direct US-based descendants of the recipient; it does not appear in the published works of Napoleon or online at the Fondation Napoleon Napoleon's letters mentioning the surrender at Bailen are great rarities, and we have not seen one having been sold publiclyThe Battle of Bailén was fought in 1808 between the Spanish Army of Andalusia, led by General Francisco Javier Castaños and the Imperial French Army's II corps d'observation de la Gironde under General Pierre Dupont de l'Étang. This battle was the first open-field defeat of a Napoleonic army. The heaviest fighting took place near Bailén (sometimes anglicized Baylen), a village by the Guadalquivir River in the Jaén province of southern Spain.The defeat was total. Dupont surrendered all his forces, those who were not killed, instead of fighting his way out. Napoleon considered it a great treachery, the biggest blow to his ego to date. Apart from the… Read More

21/06/1930. Thomas Wolfe William Faulkner once said that Thomas Wolfe, who died before age 40, may have been the greatest talent of his generation for aiming higher than any other writer. His influence extends to the writings of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, and to authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth, among others. He was one of the first masters of autobiographical fiction, and his work was filled with details that came from his own life and his home in North Carolina, as well as that of his friends in New York.Henry Hart was an editor at Scribner’s. The two had a close and long relationship and corresponded as friends. In Christmas 1930 Wolfe wrote to Hart, with some cheeky remarks, one referencing Oscar Wilde and the other Calvin Coolidge.Autograph postcard signed, June 21, likely 1930, from Rouen, to Hart. ""Dear Henry, I finally got here, in order to uphold your reputation for veracity. Don't know how long I'll stay. Sedgewick, your other novelist, came down from Paris with me but has… Read More

1931. Albert Einstein Einstein states: ""The greatest value of knowledge lies in knowledge itself"" We could not find a signed quotation more central to his knowledge, which knowledge was his scientific gift to humanity; it has been in a private collection for a generationIn 1905, while a young patent clerk and physicist in Bern, Switzerland, Albert Einstein obtained his doctorate and published a paper that explained his newly developed Special Theory of Relativity. This unlocked many mysteries of the universe, and introduced the world to “e=mc2,” equating mass and the speed of light with energy. It established that time and space are not fixed, and in fact change to maintain a constant speed of light regardless of the relative motions of sources and observers. Just 10 years later, in 1915, Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity, which described the universe as a four-dimensional continuum (with time added as the fourth dimension), where gravitational effects are explained by… Read More

08/01/1815. James Monroe James Monroe was appointed by President James Madison as Secretary of State on April 2, 1811. Monroe assumed duty a few days later, and served in that post until March 3, 1817. From October 1, 1814, to February 28, 1815, he was also ad interim Secretary of State, during which time he served in both positions. He remains the only person to hold the offices of Secretary of State and of War at the same time.The charter for the First Bank of the United States expired in 1811. Despite broad support for reestablishing a national bank, the road to re-creation was not smooth. In January 1814, Congress received a petition signed by 150 businessmen from New York City, urging the legislative body to create a second national bank. In February, and again in November, Calhoun put forth plans to create a bank that would be headquartered in the District of Columbia, but his bills did not pass.In April 1814, President James Madison, who had opposed the creation of the first Bank of the United… Read More

02/10/1805. Napoleon Bonaparte This letter does not appear in Napoleon's published works. In the late Sumemr of 1805, Napoleon turned his attention eastward to confront the Austrian and Prussian threats.The Battle of Ulm (October 1805) was a series of skirmishes, at the end of the Ulm Campaign, which allowed Napoleon to trap an entire Austrian army under the command of Karl Freiherr Mack von Leiberich with minimal losses and to force its surrender near Ulm in the Electorate of Bavaria. This led to the Battle of Austerlitz, or the battle of the three emperors, where Napoleon defeated the Russian and Austrian forces.General Mouton, the Count of Lobau, was a prominent general and later Marshall of the Empire for Napoleon. Mouton means ""lamb"" in French, the source of Napoleon's now famous statement on Mouton: ""My lamb is a lion."" Napoleon valued Mouton to the extent that for his great Russia campaign he made him senior aide to camp. In 1806 Mouton was a Brigade General. He would remain in… Read More

12/2/64. Robert Kennedy She moves into her first permanent home after the White House, and her husband's confidants prepare a surprise housewarmingA symbol of strength for a traumatized nation in the winter of 1963–64, Jacqueline Kennedy was in fact falling apart—grieving and endlessly reliving her husband’s assassination, afflicted with what we’d now call post-traumatic stress disorder. Her biographer, Barbara Leaming, writes that unknown but to a few inside her inner circle, the former First Lady had nightmares, a drinking problem, and suicidal thoughts. In the weeks following the assassination, Jackie was, as she later said of herself at this point, “not in any condition to make much sense of anything.” But on December 6, 1963, she had to vacate the White House for the Johnsons and moved temporarily into a borrowed house in Georgetown, three blocks from where the John F. Kennedys had lived at the time he was elected president. Soon after, she asked a priest why had God allowed her… Read More

28/02/1560. Francois II Francis II was a monarch of the House of Valois-Angoulême and King of France for a little over one year, from 1559 to 1560. He was also King consort of Scotland as a result of his marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1558 until his death.  He ascended the throne of France at the age of fourteen after the accidental death of his father, Henry II, in 1559. His mother was Catherine de Medici.  His short reign was dominated by the first stirrings of the French Wars of Religion and the loss of French possessions in Corsica, Tuscany, Savoy, and almost all of Piedmont under the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis.The health of the King deteriorated in November 1560. On 16 November he suffered a syncope. After only 17 months on the throne, Francis II died in December 1560.Nicolas de Manneville was a senior lord in northwest France, president of the regional chamber, and an advisor to the King.  He died in early 1560.Document Signed Secretarially, ""Francoys,"" February 28, 1560, an… Read More