A scarce and wonderfully graphic guidebook to post-fire Chicago, apparently issued by the Palmer House, which is promoted in various advertisements and illustrations. Depicted on the front-wrapper are scenes from a wolf hunt, an 1812 Indian massacre, and the few log buildings that constituted Chicago in 1833. The back wrapper features.....
First and only edition of this Black Hills rarity, a document which signaled the taming of one of the wildest towns in the West. Herein the new city government is empowered to curtail just about every activity that made the town famous. Included are provisions to prevent horse-racing as.....
An early 19th century pyrotechnical manual, comprising ingredients, recipes, and construction details. With a delightful hand-colored frontispiece depicting all manner of fireworks entertaining observers. OCLC records just five holdings of the Derby edition, as well as holdings for two London editions published in 1825 and 1835. CONDITION: Good, frontispiece.....
The Barnum and Bailey program for the season of 1912, with a total of 16 fantastic acts, including: “The Spectacle of Cleopatra”; “Three Royal Riding Acts” (including “Dainty and dexterous displays of principal bareback equitation by the charming exemplar of grace and agility, Miss Victoria Davenport”); “A Complete Number of.....
This colorful broadside promotes a tight-rope act performed by an unnamed gentleman pictured in numerous illustrations here. He is shown in three different vignettes performing the “sensational drop high to low wire,” the “sensational drop with ladder,” and “nerve tantalizing tricks wire swinging.” Arrows in the illustrations indicate the motion.....
An evocative group of eighty-nine photographs capturing the lively scene in Bisbee, Arizona in the early twentieth century, centering on the life of cowboys, miners and ranchers in the area. This archive documents life in and around Bisbee during the city’s boom period. Founded as a copper, gold, and.....
An informative and attractive album depicting life—theatrical life in particular—at this now defunct women’s college on the Hudson River in the early twentieth century. Originally established as Mrs. Dow’s School in 1903 at Briarcliff Lodge, a premier resort hotel in the Hudson Valley, in the late 1910s the institution.....
A spectacular Mardi Gras poster for the Krewe of Proteus floats for 1896, depicting a wide variety of animals—here dubbed “Dumb Society,”—in imaginative situations. Represented here are twenty floats with titles such as “Presidential Sport,” “At Home…Dancing,” “In the Surf,” and “A Royal Banquet.” One marvelous float entitled “Five O’clock.....
A captivating poster featuring the Krewe of Rex’s “Heavenly Bodies” floats for the 1896 Mardi Gras. One of the oldest participants in Mardi Gras and the source of many of its storied traditions, the Krewe of Rex was founded in 1872 on the occasion of the visit to New Orleans.....
An 1869 illustrated trade catalog featuring Adjustable and Inserted Saw Teeth with full p. pictorial and text descriptions, including price lists and directions; also the Swage, the Patent Adjustable Indicator, Cross Cut Saw and Handles, Saw Gummer and Mandrels for circular saws, and belting. A few copying presses with prices.....
An rare silk broadside announcing the celebration of the U. S. Centennial aboard the excursion steamer “Plymouth Rock,” in Shanghai, China. The day long program included a “Salute of One Hundred Guns at Sunrise,” a “national Salute at 12 Meridian,” a reading of the Declaration of Independence by O. B......
A scarce broadside advertising a Bukowski reading at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center, with text stating that Jean Genet and John Paul Sartre considered him America’s foremost poet. Also included is a plug from John Williams Corrigan proclaiming that “What Wordsworth claimed to have in mind, what William Carlos Wiliams.....
An attractive timetable for the “Maple Leaf Route” of the Chicago Great Western Railway. Includes schedules, rates, and general information, as well as a large map illustrating the Route through Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Kansas, with a green maple leaf printed over the area of service. The map shows.....
An impressive brochure and itinerary for Southern Railway System tour of the Battle of Chickamauga battlefield with five routes noted through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia to Chattanooga. Includes detailed accounts of various aspects of the battle (corresponding to segments of the tour); nine monuments are pictured; also entrances to the.....
Illustrated brochure for the Cody Road into Yellowstone via the Burlington Route of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy lines. “Have you ever heard of the Cody Road into Yellowstone Park?” This brochure is happy to educate. Text and photographs “Along the Road” offer something of a guided tour of.....
Published on the occasion of the American Railway Master Mechanics Association’s Third Annual Convention, this beautifully produced souvenir volume contains the various announcements, programs, invitations, menus, etc. printed for distribution to members. All were printed by Philadelphia lithographer Jacob Haehnlen, whose imprint appears at the bottom of each, and the.....
A Confederate almanac by noted southern printer Sigmund Goetzel, evidently acquired during the Civil War by Union soldier James Eldridge. Containing the astronomical matter typical of almanacs, this War-time publication includes a table of the moon’s phases for the cities of Richmond, Raleigh, Charleston and Mobile with a middle column.....
A scarce pamphlet produced by the Pacific Steam Whaling Co. of San Francisco and Seattle for prospectors venturing to Alaska’s Cooks Inlet and the Copper River mining district, on Prince William Sound. This “first class line of passenger steamers” ran between San Francisco, Seattle and Copper City, and sailed.....
An extensive and richly illustrated promotional account of Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs, with much on mining operations, and featuring several maps. A large folding map at the front shows the gold fields; another map shows the wagon road and railroad ties of the District, and another the Economic Geology.....
A lovely Mardi Gras poster for the Phunny Phorty Phellows and its numerous extravagant and intricate floats, whose theme for 1896 was “Popular Phads and Phancies.” The Phunny Phorty Phellows krewe first came onto the Mardi Gras scene in 1878. Known for their satirical costumes reflecting contemporary issues, the.....
A comprehensive, attractively illustrated look at the transportation provided by the Boston and Bangor, [Maine] Steamship Co. in 1882. Steamers traveled daily to Bangor via Rockland, Camden, Belfast, Searsport, Bucksport and Winterport, with a rail connection to Moosehead Lake, and steamer connections to Mount Desert, Bar Harbor, and beyond. The.....
This attractive folding brochure features evocative illustrations of the Historic Deadwood Days of ‘76 festival, including “Sioux Indian Battles and War Dances Every Day,” a covered wagon train, Paris Williams,”the most ensational Woman Rodeo Performer in America.” One image shows President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge taken into the Sioux Tribe.....
First edition of this rare first Confederate Kentucky imprint and the earliest published record of the so-called Russellville Convention. At the beginning of the Civil War Lincoln is reputed to have said, "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky." The state of Lincoln's.....
A lively and appealing view of a historic steamboat and city of Detroit based on an eye-witness sketch executed in 1820 by civil engineer George H. Whistler. The celebrated steamboat Walk-in-the-Water is here depicted on the Detroit River, among a number of smaller vessels, the foreground showing the Canadian.....
A lively and diverse album documenting Jewish-American life in New York before and in the early years of World War II. This album richly captures more than a decade of life for the “Kaplan Klan,” a Brooklyn-based Jewish family, from the 1920s into the early ‘40s. The captions are.....