PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT This large 14½x18¼ sketch of the President who was elected to four terms in office is signed by him! Sketch Signed: “Franklin D. Roosevelt” in pencil. Also signed by the artist and dated circa 1941. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) is one of the best-known Presidents in United States history. Before his tenure in the Oval Office, he served as Governor of New York. This position gave him valuable experience working with progressive-minded individuals to improve the economy. He served in the position for just over 12 years, dying 11 weeks into his fourth term. Roosevelt oversaw the U.S. during the Great Depression and World War II. His progressive platform introduced Social Security and the first national minimum wage. During his first term as Commander-in-Chief, he ended Prohibition. This decision is largely credited with helping him to a landslide 1936 election victory. Frame slightly chipped at corners. Otherwise, fine condition. Framed in the Gallery of History style: 26¾x37. read more...

JOSEPH STALIN, KLIMENT VOROSHILOV, and KIRILL MERETSKOV With war looming in 1938, Stalin signs a key document reorganizing a Red Army recently beset by his devastating purges! Extremely rare! Document signed (in Cyrillic alphabet): "S", "K. Voroshilov", "K. Meretskov", 3 pages, 7½x12. Moscow, 1938 July 14. Initialed by Stalin on p1, countersigned by Voroshilov and Meretskov (as Secretary) on p3. Headed: "Top Secret Copy No 1 Protocol No 12 of the meeting of the Chief Council of War of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army". In Cyrillic script, with accompanying English translation. Decisions of a meeting held that day, attended by Stalin, Voroshilov, [Foreign Minister Vyacheslav] Molotov, and by five high-ranking army generals: [Efim] Shchadenko, [Boris] Shaposhnikov, [Aleksandr] Loktionov, [Dimitrii] Pavlov, and [Kirill] Meretskov (who also signed the document as Secretary). The document provides detailed instructions for reorganizing Soviet military commands in the Kiev Special read more...

JEFFERSON DAVIS, JOHN H. WINDER and THOMAS J. GREEN Davis signs an autograph endorsement forwarding to Confederate Secretary of War Benjamin a handwritten letter from Green, a former general in the army of independent Texas, warning that Confederate soldiers were carrying CSA weapons home with them. General Winder adds a handwritten note to the same document, ordering that guards be posted at depot and they confiscate these weapons. Civil War-date Autograph Endorsement signed: "Sec of War attention./J D", as President of the Confederate States of America in pencil in upper blank margin of letter to him. THOMAS J. GREEN. ALS: "Thos J Green", 1p, 7¼x9¼. Esmeralda near Warrenton North Carolina, 1862 March 17. To "HIS EXCL./JEFFERSON DAVIS/PRES. C.S.A.". In full, original spelling: "I feel it my duty to call your attention to what I believe is highly detrimental to the public service. read more...

JULIA WARD HOWE She signs a mount bearing a 3¾x5½ photo of herself. Photo Mount signed: "Julia Ward Howe". B/w, 4¼x6½ overall, image 3¾x5½ (two surfaces). Photo by Hardy Studios of Boston. An ardent abolitionist, suffragette and advocate of world peace, Julia Ward Howe is best known for writing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (set to the tune of "John Brown's Body"), which was penned in 1861 after her visit to Civil War battlefields. Mount lightly creased at upper left corner. Signed photographs of Julia Ward Howe are scarce and desirable. Lightly creased at upper left corner of mount. Fine condition. read more...

ROBERT E. LEE and MARY CUSTIS LEE Carte-de-Visite photograph signed by the Lee and his wife, to her cousin Susan P. Meade! Photograph Signed: "R.E. Lee" and inscribed and signed on verso: "Susan P. Meade/from her cousin/Mary Custis Lee". Sepia, 2½x4 overall, image 2¼x3½ (two surfaces). Photographer's imprint at lower border: "Boude & Miley. Lexington, Va." In the early 1850s, photographer Mathew Brady photographed Robert E. Lee in civilian clothes. Artist and engraver A.H. Ritchie reproduced the image and then painted a uniform on Lee showing epaulets and Lee as a Major General in the Virginia Militia. The print was originally issued out of Baltimore and was widely circulated in 1861. The photograph offered here is a vignette view of Lee from the Ritchie engraving. "Vignetting" was a way in which a photography studio would avoid copyright problems for reproducing another's work. Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870), among the most revered military leaders in American history, was the son of Revolutionary War hero and Virginia Governor "Lighthorse Harry" Lee. read more...

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT'S THIRD INAUGURATION Oversize black and white photograph showing FDR being inaugurated for his third term, signed by the President, his Vice President and Secretary of State, Chief Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Hughes and Supreme Court Clerk Charles Elmore Cropley, who held the President's family bible while the oath was administered. Handsomely framed to 17½x15. Photograph signed: "Franklin D Roosevelt", "Charles E. Hughes, Jan. 20, 1941", "Charles Elmore Cropley/January 20, 1941.", "Cordell Hull" and "H.A. Wallace", B/w 13¼x10¼, framed to 17½x15. On Monday, January 20, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the nation's first and only president to be inaugurated to a third term in office. FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (1882-1945, born in Hyde Park, New York) is an American politician who served as president during two of the most difficult times in world history, the Great Depression and World War II. He also served as president for four terms (1933-1945), longer than any other president in history. read more...

ABRAHAM LINCOLN While defending a woman accused of murdering her husband (1857), the future President added six lines of text in his own hand to the written deposition of a witness. Autograph Statement unsigned at the conclusion of Manuscript Document Signed: "J.L. Springgate", 2 pages, 7¾x12¼. Woodford County, [Metamora, Illinois], c. 1845-1857. AT THE CONCLUSION, SIX LINES IN THE HAND OF LINCOLN DIRECTLY ABOVE SPRINGGATE'S SIGNATURE, NOT SIGNED BY LINCOLN WHO WROTE, IN FULL: "Re-cross examination by defendants- The morning of the sale, Laws said that he wanted to go and buy horses, and wanted Vandike to go with him and be his security, and then they both, and this witness went to the sale together (The plaintiff objects to the last piece of evidence)". The names of the plaintiff and defendants are spelled differently throughout the document. Headed: "Deposition of Witness to be used in evidence on the trial of the case now pending in the Circuit Court of Woodford County where John A. read more...

THE FORMER UNION OFFICER IS SUPPORTED BY CONFEDERATE OFFICERS AS HE FIGHTS TO CLEAR HIS NAME   FITZ JOHN PORTER. ALS: "F.J. Porter", 4p, 5x7¾. New York, 1882 January 24. To Colonel Charles Marshall, Baltimore, Maryland. Begins: "My dear Colonel". In full: "I Thank you warmly for your full reply to my letter - I knew or believed that no written messages had passed between Longstreet & Gen Lee to the effect I wrote you - but Longstreet had testified to that effect before the Board. had written it years before. and Col. W.M Owens of New Orleans. had without confering (sic) with Longstreet. stated he heard Gen Lee about 1. PM. tell Longstreet to advance. & Longstreets reply that he wanted to hear from Stuart of the force coming up on this right - and So I took it for granted it was so. I am glad to have the details you give. That Genl Lee had a contempt for Genl Pope and justly I never doubted. He knew Pope. I don't think that any grounds could have induced him to make the moves he did. unless he was vastly superior in numbers to Pope and knew Pope would not be reinforced in time to save him. read more...

WILLIAM F. CODY: BUFFALO BILL 4¼x6½ cabinet card photo, signed both as W.F. Cody and as Buffalo Bill Cabinet Card Photograph signed: "W.F. Cody/'Buffalo Bill'". B/w, 4¼x6½. Superb portrait of William F. Cody with his desirable double signature. Photographer's imprint, "Gessford/238 Fifth Ave./N.Y.", at lower mount. William Frederick Cody (1846-1917) was a rider for the Pony Express in 1860, a scout for the Kansas Cavalry against the Indians (1863) and served in the U.S. Army in the Civil War (1863-1865). From 1867-1868, he furnished buffalo meat for the Union Pacific Railroad construction crews, earning his nickname, "Buffalo Bill". Cody was a scout for the 5th U.S. Cavalry from 1868-1872 and in 1876. From 1872-1883, he was on stage as an actor at first in E.Z.C. Judson's play, Scouts of the Plains. He organized Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1883 and toured the United States and Europe successfully for over 30 years. Fine condition. read more...