Search Results: Titles starting with P from Michael Brown Rare Books, LLC

No Binding. Good. two letters, two pages, folio, paper tanned, some staining, old folds, some nicks and chips at edges, with some minor loss, separations at fold joints, else in good, legible condition. Inscribed on laid paper water-marked "OCR" a mark not found in Gravell. This pair of letters from General Philip Schuyler to Major Yates contains orders for the troops, including preparations, and various actions to be undertaken in the field, issued in late June the week before the Siege of Fort Ticonderoga the first week of July 1777. The 1777 Siege of Fort Ticonderoga occurred between July second and sixth 1777, near the southern end of Lake Champlain in the state of New York. Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's 8,000-man army occupied high ground above the fort, and nearly surrounded the defenses. These movements forced the occupying Continental Army, an under-strength force of 3,000 under the command of General Arthur St. Clair, to withdraw from Ticonderoga and the… Read More

two letters, quarto, 3 pages, formerly folded, some wear and repairs with archival tissue, else in good condition.
The first letter discusses the election by the Pennsylvania senate of James Buchanan, the future 15th United States President, to the United States Senate:
1. "Harrisburg, Decr 15th, 1836
Jno. Macmanus Esq.
Dear Sir,
We have had quite a storm here for some days past which has not blown very advantageously to those who have raised it. Neither has it shaped its course towards the point at which it was anticipated it would prove most destructive, by the doings of sundrie members of Senate commonly called recreants, in non conforming to the law in relation to the election of United States senator. The election of that officer did not take place on Tuesday. From what has transpired there appears to have been an evident attempt by some of those men whose recklessness for the las two years I presume you are perfectly familiar with, to defeat totally the election of united states senator at this… Read More

two volumes, 12mo, 107, 138 manuscript pages, bound in original roan backed boards, entries written in pencil in a legible hand, very good, clean and legible condition.
Manuscript lecture notes on the lectures of Granville Sharp Pattison (1791-1851), Valentine Mott (1785-1865), Gunning S. Bedford (1806-1870), Martyn Paine (1794-1877), Samuel Henry Dickson (1798-1872). An interesting pair of medical lecture notes kept by an early medical student of New York University Medical School, New York University College of Medicine was founded in 1841. These notes were taken at the lectures of four of its founders: Drs. Bedford, Mott, Paine and Pattison. Dickson was hired in 1847 but remained there only three years, he was subsequently appointed to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

two volumes, 12mo and 16mo, 106 and 100 pages, several inlaid ephemeral items, both diaries bound in contemporary leather wallet style binding, entries written in ink and pencil, in generally good clean and legible condition. Beldin Burt, merchant, was a member of a prominent family of and early settlers in Potter County, Pennsylvania. Burt son of J. K. and Orrilla (Lyman) Burt, was born in Burtville, Potter County, Pennsylvania in 1841. His grandfather, Benjamin Burt, was born in Chemung County, New York, and there married Mercy Rickey. He came in 1808 to what would later become Burtville, at the time a wilderness, he engaged in farming, the lumber trade, and erected the first mill at that point. He rafted lumber downriver to Pittsburgh. Beldin's father J. K. Burt was the first white male child born in Potter County, in Roulette in 1811, at the time there were no schools or educational advantages the country being entirely wild. He married Orrilla, daughter of Burrel Lyman, of Roulette, in 1837, he… Read More

Two letters, 12mo and octavo, respectively, two pages, some tape residue to edges of each letter, where formerly affixed to an album, else in good, legible condition.
Roberts thanks Pleasants for the gift of a book, and comments on his travels in England in the 1934 letter. In the 1937 letter he writes Pleasants commenting on points in his finest novel Northwest Passage, published in 1937:
"Dear Dr. Pleasants:
It was a pleasure to hear from you again, and I greatly appreciate the kind things you say.
I get your point about Carleton, but he just didn't fit into my narrative. My story was practically ended as soon as Rogers was disappointed in his attempt to find the Northwest Passage. Everything beyond that was extraneous and had to be told with the greatest possible speed. Thus I found it impossible to use some of the things that I would have liked to use – such as Rogers' courtmartial, for example.
It will be a great pleasure to see a copy of your book when it's published. Have… Read More

2 diaries, small quarto, 247 pages, plus blanks, and pasted in clippings and pictures, original plain paper wraps, wrappers, worn, badly chipped, detached, but present, entries in ink, generally clear and legible.
Diaries of an early US Navy submariner, a machinist. The diaries discuss his daily shipboard activities, as well as those in his personal life. From the entries we learn that the early submarines were mechanically unreliable, accident prone, and otherwise unsafe, the exhaust fumes, while the Octopus was in operation, were often overpowering. Our diarist was a thirty-year-old, five-year veteran of the Navy, who had been married for a year when the diaries begin, to a woman named Alice, and who was very religious.
The diary entries begin July 22, 1907. Our diarist works in in engine rooms, tending and repairing engines. The first ship he mentions is the USS Vesuvius, a dynamite gun cruiser, then operating out of Newport, Rhode Island. The Vesuvius sails for Boston in… Read More

two letters, four pages, one on his law firm stationery, the other in black-bordered personal mourning stationery, in very good, clean and legible condition.
1901-02 Letters by Photo-Secession Photographer Joseph Keiley
Keiley writes: "… the death of my law-partner's youngest child has upset may plans", which made it "next to impossible to get to Club", but "during the coming week I hope to arrange for a glycerine demonstration and will be very glad to have you bring your friend with you …" In the second letter, Keiley thanks Ward for the books she loaned him, and though he had "so little leisure", he could join her for the rehearsal of the Musical Arts Society at Carnegie Hall.
Keiley (1869-194) was a successful New York City lawyer with a passion and talent for artistic photography, who joined his close friend Alfred Stieglitz in founding the Photo-Secession, became Associate Editor of Stieglitz's Camera Notes, journal of the Camera Club of New York, as well as Stieglitz's… Read More

two volumes, 12mo, 107, 138 manuscript pages, bound in original roan backed boards, entries written in pencil in a legible hand, very good, clean and legible condition.
Manuscript lecture notes on the lectures of Granville Sharp Pattison (1791-1851), Valentine Mott (1785-1865), Gunning S. Bedford (1806-1870), Martyn Paine (1794-1877), Samuel Henry Dickson (1798-1872). An interesting pair of medical lecture notes kept by an early medical student of New York University Medical School, New York University College of Medicine was founded in 1841. These notes were taken at the lectures of four of its founders: Drs. Bedford, Mott, Paine and Pattison. Dickson was hired in 1847 but remained there only three years, he was subsequently appointed to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

quarto, two letters, six pages, in very good, clean and legible condition.Letters written by Boyer, from prison in Philadelphia, seeking assistance in obtaining a pardon for an unspecified criminal conviction – and then excoriating his enemies: "Philada May 16, 1829 Dear Sir, I have this day had the pleasure to receive a line from Mrs. Boyer I was sorry to find that my friend Mr. Muhlenberg cannot make it convenient to go on to Washington in my unfortunate case – The fact is if it is in the power of you & the rest of my Friends – Say Mr. Kerper, Mr Nagle and others to prevail on Mr. Muhlenberg to go. It would in the opinion of all friends here be in their opinion the means of a speedy pardon If he cannot be prevailed upon I should be glad to have Mr. Dunn to go – or to write to Mr. Douglass at Harrisburg to prevail on Genl Barnard or Judge Frank to go. There are several persons here desirous to go – but I do not wish unless I can get no other person to employ such… Read More

two letters, small quarto, 6 pages, in very good clean and legible condition. The collection contains a description of the Battle of Maubeuge, which featured in a plot to destroy Lafayette's reputation, however his success in the field trumped this vicious plot. Au Camp de Rancenne sous Givet 12 Mai 1792
"Mon cher frère,
Je n'ai aucune nouvelle de toi ni de Villers. Je ne scais quell parti il aura pris, ni comment-il pourra exister quand il aura consommé le capital de son cantonment numeraire, qui lui a été rembourse M. Sutaine Bertrand negt rue ceres à Rheims en depositaire du billes de 6000... Si tu lui ecris par la suite tu mettra à lt. L. Pille, Volre de la 2e Come du Bord de Volont. De la Cote d'or, a l'armee du Genl Lafayette au camp de Rancenne pres Givet si nous avons décampé cela non joindra ... occupe toi donc , je te prie de de faire payer m d'alonville sil en émigré, c'est une raison de plus pour ne pas le menager le decret contre ces debiteurs en formel. Pendant que nous… Read More

Soft cover. Very Good. Group of 46 manuscript and partially printed items (49p.), dated 2 February 1861 to 18 October 1881. The folder that the papers are housed in measures 10"" x 13"" and has the "cover title" - ""1861-81 Lettres de Service et nominations de Mr. Clouet"" inscribed in ink on the front. All 46 items are written in ink, in legible hands. The papers are written in French. Of the 46 items, 29 are printed forms that have been completed in manuscript in ink. Some of the items are on the printed letterhead of the ""Ministere de la Guerre"" or the ""Commission De Sous-Officier Eleve D'Administration Du Service Des Hopitaux Militaires"" which came under the Ministere de la Guerre. Some of the papers are on the letterhead of the ""Corps Expeditionnaire du Mexico"" or the ""Armee d'Algerie."" The Clouet papers represent the various commissions, nominations and appointments of Emile-Victor Clouet during his career in the French Hospital Corps from 1861 to 1881. He was a sergeant with the 17th… Read More

octavo, 64 page pamphlet, in text cuts, ex-library, handstamps on titlepage, titlepage, worn and chipped along edges and extremities, scattered foxing to text, text in double columns, else a good working copy.
"The murder in the Harvard Medical School of Dr. George Parkman, a prominent Bostonian and Harvard alumnus, by Professor John W. Webster was, in the words of Edmund Pearson, "America's classic murder." While there have been more mysterious cases involving more prominent or notorious persons and others more macabre, the Parkman case still ranks high on the list of American murders. Parkman left his home in Boston and disappeared on Friday, November 23, 1849; by Monday notices had been posted offering a reward of $ 3,000 for his return or for information convicting his abductors. Though a wide search of the city had revealed nothing, Ephraim Littlefield, the college janitor, had his own suspicions of Webster. First he had witnessed a scene in Webster's laboratory the week before in which Parkman… Read More

Single sheet, measuring 3 x 8", 1 page, with docketing on verso. J.E. McCombs, Constable, ordered to summon "William Baynard, Negro, to be and appear…to answer unto Francis G. Smith admn. of Saml. G. Smith, Decd. In a plea of Debt…"
1856 (Free?) "Negro" summoned to Maryland Court on charge of Debt
Samuel G. Smith was one of the early property and Mill owners in rural Caroline County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, a very religious man who held the first "tent meetings" in the village that became known as Smithville. He died just a few months before this document was written.

But who was William Baynard? He was probably a free Black. Before the Civil War, Freed Blacks in Maryland could occasionally testify in cases involving white men, but they probably dreaded court appearances of any kind because if they were brought up on even the most modest criminal charge, the most severe punishment could provide for their being sold back into slavery. Probably the most common appearance of freed… Read More

The Unicorn
Pen and ink and ink wash on paper, measuring 5 ½ x 4 3/8 inches, some toning, slight mat burn, the image is drawn on the back of a manuscript receipt, the receipt bears the signature of Benedict Reynolds, Zachariah's father.
A very nice, calligraphic, folk art image of a unicorn and a bird perched atop a curious structure.
A brief synopsis of the life of Zachariah Reynolds and his family history is here reprinted from the History of Washington County.
"D. L. REYNOLDS, who owns 160 acres of fine land, is situated in South Strabane Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, four and one-half miles east of Washington, was born in the old house which then stood on the present site of the barn, on this farm, December 31, 1828. His father was Zachariah and his paternal grandfather was Benedict Reynolds, while his mother was Mary Little and his maternal grandfather was Moses Little.
Benedict Reynolds was born in Maryland and from there he enlisted in the American Army. After serving for six… Read More

New York: Published by Humphrey Phelps, 1847, 16mo, 70 pages, with large folding colored map, entitled: "Phelps's National Map of the United States. A Travellers Guide, Embracing the Principal Rail Roads, Canals, Steam Boat & Stage Routes Throughout the Union". New York: Published by Humphrey Phelps, 1847, measuring 53.6 cm x 62.4 cm, folds into the original gilt and embossed roan case. The map is in very good, clean condition with only minor separations at several fold intersections, some minor rubbing to case, contemporary bookseller's label of Leary's Bookstore, Philadelphia, on front free endpaper.
The map stretches from the Atlantic coast to the eastern portions of the Great Plains and includes part of Texas with two large unnamed regions extending northward, presumably the Indian territories and western Wisconsin Territory (Iowa had just become a state in December 1846). The map is filled with details including roads, towns, villages, railroads, rivers, and more. The map delineates the Trader's… Read More

quarto, two page illustrated printed promotional circular letter, describing, and illustrating William H. Richardson's Patent Walking Cane Umbrellas, formerly folded, very good, clean condition.
The printed letter, from Richardson, lithographed on the first page of the circular, describes and promotes Richardson's umbrellas, particularly his "Patent Walking Cane Umbrella." Richardson describes his manufactory, which ran on steam power enabling him to make 1200 umbrellas a day, or "between 7 and 8000 umbrellas per week". This enabled him to keep his costs low and ensure a low price for prospective purchasers. Richardson claimed his was "the only manufacturer in the United States using steam, I have no fear that any, can or will, undersell me…" The circular states that umbrellas and parasols were 25 cents each. The illustration instructs the potential customer how to use the patent walking cane umbrella.

[Philadelphia: John C. Clark, c. 1840] printed on thin paper, certificate for one share of stock in the Philadelphia Museum Company, issued to Howard Spenser, signed by President Nathan Dunn, and Treasurer Wm. D. Lewis, April 30, 1841. Single sheet measuring 7 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches, slight staining along left edge, else in very good, condition.
The Smithsonian provides a succinct history of the Philadelphia Museum Company:
"The Philadelphia Museum Company had its genesis in the collections of Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827), which he placed on view in his Philadelphia home as early as 1786. In 1792, seeking to turn his enterprise into a national museum, Peale formed a Society of Inspectors, including Thomas Jefferson and Edmund Randolph, in an unsuccessful effort to attract private and government support. In 1794, he obtained a ten-year lease to lodge his collections in the American Philosophical Society building on State House Square, and in 1802 the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the Museum to… Read More

New York:: Phillips & Co., Inc., 1933. Hardcover. Good. octavo, 882, 6, pp., original cloth, ex-library, handstamps, call number on spine, some cover soiling, else good.

Oblong folio, 55 albumen photographs, mounted on 18 cardstock leaves, bound in contemporary black padded Morocco, images are generally in very good, clean condition, with good contrast.
The album contains 9 photographs of buildings in Washington, D.C., including interior views of the White House, 1 photograph of Mount Vernon, 2 photographs of Arlington National Cemetery, 7 photographs of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, by C. D. Arnold, 28 photographs of Colorado, including images by W. E. Hook and W. H. Jackson, views of Denver, Manitou, Ouray, and scenes in the mountains, 3 photographs of the Pacific Northwest, including one of Native Americans, and an interior view of the "Greek" Church in Sitka, by Taber, amongst others.
The images range in measurement from 7 ¾ x 9 ½ inches to 4 ½ x 7 ⅜ inches

Small quarto album, containing 114 black and white photographs, mainly silver prints, the album is bound in original half leather, marbled paper boards, the photographs are mounted onto sheets of paper in album; the paper stock of these leaves is of poor quality, all sheets are browned, and brittle, chipped at margins, and loose in album; several photos loose, not pasted to sheets; photos vary in size from 5" x 3 ¾" to 6" x 4" to 7 ½" x 4 ½"; images not dated, circa 1890s to 1910s. The images themselves are in good condition, clean and clear, however the album and the leaves the images are mounted on have condition issues.
The album is not signed, nor labeled, but several clues within the album and images of the photos, appear to place the album as being a collection of images of buildings in the town of Albion, New York, in Orleans County. Several images are of buildings under construction – perhaps the album was compiled by a builder.
The album contains a newspaper clipping of an… Read More