WESTPORT, Conn. – A United States flag flown aboard the Apollo XIII space mission in 1970 with a NASA certificate signed by all three astronaut crew members, a manuscript document for the sale of G. Westinghouse & Co. from George Westinghouse Sr. to his son in 1871, and an albumen photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken in 1864 and signed by Lincoln, are all part of University Archives’ next online auction on Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.
“This sale is packed with rare, significant and highly collectible items from multiple specialty categories,” said John Reznikoff, president and owner of University Archives. “These include Civil War, aviation and space, the U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Rights, political pinback buttons, presidential and literary, plus more items from the Forbes collection and Jack Kerouac estate.”
An original color photograph of Ronald Reagan and Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev (above), of the two men wearing cowboy hats in an outdoor setting, signed by both, 14 inches by 11 inches, has an estimate of $3,500-$4,000; while a gelatin silver print photograph of Teddy Roosevelt, signed while he was president and inscribed with over 15 words in his own hand to “Mr. C.H. Sherrill,” dated Oct 28, 1904, 4 inches by 5½ inches (less mount), should command $2,000-$2,400.
Aviation and space collectors will be over the moon with a marquee selection of 25 lots, led by the American flag flown aboard the Apollo XIII mission affixed to a NASA certificate signed by Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, from the estate of Jack Swigert. The flag (below) is 5½ inches by 4 inches; the certificate is 10 inches by 11 ¾ inches. The lot should sell for $18,000-$20,000.
Other highlights include an Apollo XI photograph depicting the Lunar Module “Eagle” signed by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, as well as material relating to iconic figures Amelia Earhart, Charles A. Lindbergh and Yuri Gagarin. PSA/DNA-slabbed and graded official NASA red number photographs and colorful embroidered badges will round out this category.
The one-page document making official the sale of G. Westinghouse & Co. by its founder, George Westinghouse Sr., to his son, George Westinghouse Jr., signed by both men, is one of the most important financial documents in American history (est. $9,000-$10,000). The selling price of the company was $25,000 – payable in three installments. The younger Westinghouse promoted alternating current technology. It revolutionized the world’s light and power industries.
A full 40 Civil War-related lots will be offered, among them the Brady Studio albumen photo of Abraham Lincoln, of unusual imperial size (8¼ inches by 6½ inches), and with an affixed full signature as “Abraham Lincoln” (est. 8,000-$9,000); and a war-dated military commission appointing a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, signed by Lincoln and countersigned by Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, without the usual folds affecting a clean and bold presidential signature (est. $6,000-$7,000).
Civil Rights history is showcased in 25 lots relating to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Eldridge Cleaver and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. An archive relating to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached and was headquartered during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, is of interest.
The Rev. King’s copy of a printed appeal, often called “the Second Emancipation Proclamation,” submitted to President John F. Kennedy in May 1962, from the collection of Maude Ballou, King’s first secretary, has an estimate of $1,000-$1,200. In the 58-page, soft-wrap appeal, King calls for “national rededication to the principles of the Emancipation Proclamation, and for an executive order prohibiting segregation” in the U.S.
Presidential collectors will likely get into a fierce bidding war for the original anesthetic instruments used by emergency room physician Dr. M.T. Pepper Jenkins, who attempted to resuscitate JFK at Dallas’s Parkland Memorial Hospital on Nov. 22, 1963. Accompanying them is an archive assembled by Dr. Jenkins, including his impressions from that day (est. $5,000-$6,000).
Nearly 2,000 pieces of political campaign memorabilia will be offered in 23 large dealers’ lots, documenting a century of American political history. Included are rare and unusual jugates, coattails, and flashers from the presidential campaigns of FDR, JFK, LBJ, Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and others, from 1896-1996. There are many gems waiting to be discovered within this completely unpicked collection of a Greenwich, Connecticut gentleman.
A spectacular drawing rendered by Dr. Seuss in colored pencils, with ink titles, depicting a colorful pair of winged griffins, each carrying a suitcase in their talons, with an autograph letter signed by Dr. Seuss on verso, is expected to realize $3,500-$4,500. Also, a rare letter written and signed by Richard J. Gatling (1818-1903), the inventor of the Gatling machine gun, penned on Gatling Gun letterhead, addressed to the Colt Arms Co., has an estimate of $3,500-$4,000.
Nearly 30 lots from the Jack Kerouac estate will be offered, ranging from the legendary Beat Generation writer’s personally owned books and papers, to original artwork and other treasured possessions. One of two original pencil drawings by Kerouac is titled The Vision of Dipankara, depicting one of the foundational semi-mythical stories of Buddhism (est. $4,000-$5,000). Kerouac has added daubs of oil paint and signed the abstract work “Jean-Louis Kerouac.”
Literary collectors will be interested in two unusual guns previously owned by author Ernest Hemingway. One of them is a circa mid-19th century North African brass-decorated Kabyle musket measuring over 5 feet in length, obtained during Hemingway’s ill-fated 1953-1954 trip to Africa when Hemingway and his wife survived two near-fatal plane crashes (est. $3,000-$4,000). The guns are from the collection of A. E. Hotchner, Hemingway’s close friend and biographer.
For details contact University Archives at 203-454-0111 or john@universityarchives.com.
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