Printed & Manuscript Americana 2025-11-20 Auction - 360 Price Results - Swann Auction Galleries in NY
(MORMONS.) Joseph Smith. Mortgage deed signed with Sidney Rigdon and Hyrum Smith. [Nauvoo, IL], 12(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1776.) Benjamin Beal. Unpublished diary of a lieutenant serving in the(KANSAS.) Jeremiah B. Taylor. Letterbook of a frontier missionary with tales of friendly Indians and
Done
New York, NY, United States
Auction Details

Printed & Manuscript Americana

Printed & Manuscript Americana will feature an important 1776 diary by an officer from the Revolution named Benjamin Beal, tracing the journey north to reinforce the Invasion of Quebec, only to meet the shattered patriot army decimated by a smallpox epidemic and preparing to retreat. Arriving safely back in Fort Ticonderoga, our diarist is appointed to lead a company of carpenters and detailed across the river to build fortifications at the newly christened Mount Independence, witnessing the aftermath of the Battle of Valcour Island before receiving his discharge. Also included are several scarce and important early American pamphlets, most notably Benjamin Rush's 1772 Sermons to Gentlemen upon Temperance and Exercise. Most volumes of sermons from this era would not generate much excitement, but this one has the first American discussion of golf. Other early pamphlets include The Indian Physician, Containing a New System of Practice, Founded on Medical Plants from 1828; and the 1764 Declaration and Remonstrance of the Distressed and Bleeding Frontier Inhabitants of the Province of Pennsylvania. A 1784 German history of the American Revolution contains one of the first printed depictions of the Stars and Stripes. Also on the manuscript front, we have a diary of a participant in the 1901 expedition to relieve Admiral Peary in Greenland; papers of an Erie Canal boat captain; a volume of incendiary correspondence from Kansas during the Civil War era; and a small archive of correspondence relating to the early days of Freedom House, the pro-democracy group foundedin 1941. A strong Mormon section will include early documents and manuscripts. The Latin Americana section is headlined by a rare complete copy of the 1801 illustrated book, Vida de San Felipe de Jesus.
Auction Curator:
Rick Stattler
Rick Stattler
Director, Books & Manuscripts