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Typed Manuscript Signed
1 page
SMC 1209
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Chaim Weizmann on the Assassination of Russian Pogrom Organizer Plehve: A Pity He Didn't Die Years Ago
August 4, 1904
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1585
Russian Interior Minister Vyacheslav Plehve, a notorious pogrom organizer and tormentor of the Jews, had been killed the week before by a bomb. Upon hearing of his death, Chaim Weizmann only wished it had happened sooner.
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Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon: Twain Writes Ecstatically On The Pursuit Of His Future Wife
December 12, 1868
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1852
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Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 2377
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Twain Asks His Young "Quaker City" Shipmate & Favorite, Emma Beach, For Help With His Articles About the Voyage
January 31, 1868
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 2111
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A Last Thing Signed: John F. Kennedy Autographs a Dallas Newspaper on the Morning of His Murder There
November 22, 1963
Ephemera
1 page
SMC 2168
An edition of The Dallas Morning News signed by President John F. Kennedy on the morning of his assassination. Kennedy was shot at 12:30, making it very likely that this was the last thing he ever signed.
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Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Ball , 1861: Invitation Printed By, and Naming as a Ball Manager, Adolphus S. Solomons
March 4, 1861
Ephemera
1 page
SMC 2367
Rare invitation to Abraham Lincoln's inaugural ball, prominently featuring the name of the Jewish manager and printer of the invitation, Adolphus S. Solomons, twice.
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Signed Book
1 page
SMC 2384
A rare inscribed reprint of Innocents Abroad inscribed by Twain to his wife, Livy. In the past thirty years, only one other book transcribed by Twain to his wife has appeared. This double-volume edition is premium; bound in morocco and gilt.
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President McKinley’s Secretary Cancels McKinley's Engagements "Owing to Mrs. McKinley's Serious Illness"
June 4, 1901
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1861
McKinley’s devoted secretary, George Cortelyou regrets to cancel President McKinley's appearance at Harvard University, "owing to Mrs. McKinley's serious illness."
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Former First Lady Frances Cleveland Reports Ailing Grover Cleveland is "Breaking Up Generally"
December 4, 1901
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 2018
Although Grover Cleveland seems to be on the mend, with his "temperature, pulse & respiration" now normal, Frances Cleveland is still a bit distraught over her husband's slow recovery. He still has "trouble with his gut" and is perturbed that he's not gaining strength. It appears he's "breaking up generally." Cleveland would live for another seven years.
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Mary Surratt's Daughter Petitions Andrew Johnson for the Return of Her Mother's Remains
February 5, 1869
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 2033
Mary Surratt was hanged as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. She was also the first woman executed by the United States government. Here, her daughter, Anna, successfully petitions President Andrew Johnson for the return of her body.
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Signed Photograph
1 page
SMC 2076
The iconic photograph of Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office hours after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated; inscribed to Cecil Stoughton, the photographer.
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William T. Sherman Recalls His Trip to the Levant, and Teases His Lady Friend About Harem Life
January 20, 1890
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 1587
William T. Sherman writes to Mary Audenried, teasingly warning her that travelling in the Middle East is especially hazardous to women, and that she could find herself in a harem. Sherman insists that western women are treated more as equals than women in the Levant.
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1615
Replying to Mrs. Cleveland's letter thanking him for his stirring eulogies of her husband, President William Howard Taft reiterates his genuine respect for President Grover Cleveland as a man of courage and public duty.
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Olivia Clemens Quotes “Mr. Clemens” - Mark Twain - About a Phrase in “Following the Equator”
January 9, 1898
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1670
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1673
Mark Twain gently Emerson's prose as being like "gravel in the bread," while at the same time complimenting Laura Wright Benjamin on her husband, William Wright, whose nom de plume was Dan de Quille.
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1676
James Buchanan, a confirmed bachelor, teasingly laments his "usual hard fate when ladies are the question" – having missed a social call – and comments on a pending marriage.
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Autograph Letter Signed
8 pages
SMC 1684
A long and flirtatious letter from the young bachelor Mark Twain to Emma Beach, primarily about their recently shared “Quaker City” excursion to Europe and the Holy Land. He discusses, amongst other things, a lecture he's been up all night writing, and how the photos taken of him in Egypt are a terrible likeness.
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Autograph Manuscript
4 pages
SMC 1706
In an unpublished article, Mark Twain excoriates Theodore Roosevelt for bullying a fifteen-year-old girl and for promoting a man who, it was well known, was "brutal" to a woman in a waiting room.
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1740
President John F. Kennedy writes to eight-year-old Aine Tubridy to thank her for her picture of a painting he made of the Kennedy compound at Palm Beach, Florida.
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First Lady Edith Roosevelt, Two Weeks After McKinley's Death: "Life Does Not Seem Very Simple Just Now"
September 27, 1901
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1778
Two weeks after President McKinley's death and Theodore Roosevelt's assumption of the presidency, First Lady Edith Roosevelt thanks a friend in Boston for her warm wishes, and confides in her that "Life does not seem very simple just now."
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Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1818
This 1889 letter to a book bindery owner in Philadelphia, thanking him for the gift of an olive wood box which he had made especially for the new President, is the earliest known example of a presidential typewritten letter.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1238
President Benjamin Harrison writes to his aunt, and tells her that with not a soul in the White House but himself, it is "very lonesome."
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Edith Roosevelt on Her Husband's Recovery from an Assassination Attempt and the Bullet Left Inside Him
February 3, 1913
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1254
Edith Roosevelt writes to a friend who had asked the Roosevelts for medical as well as financial guidance. Mrs. Roosevelt answers that the medical advice should be left to their family physician; Theodore will dispense with the financial advice after the medical issue is resolved. She mentions in passing that the surgeon has deemed it safer to leave the bullet in Theodore's chest, which makes her anxious.
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Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1255
Before departing Panama, Theodore Roosevelt writes to Dr. Manuel Amador Guerrero who, as the first President of Panama, received Roosevelt when he visited the Canal Zone in November, 1906. Roosevelt and Amador had worked together on creating the Panama Canal, and here Roosevelt thanks Amador for his thoughtful gifts.
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Woodrow Wilson on the Emotional Impact WWI Has Had on Him - Which Led to His Devastating Stroke
July 6, 1922
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1321
Woodrow Wilson confides that he doesn't read anything pertaining to World War One that "renews too deeply the emotions of wartime," as he is "too much affected and too upset by it."
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Signed Drawing
1 page
SMC 1452
Likely one of Kennedy's last watercolors, inscribed and gifted to Dot Tubridy, a close family friend of the Kennedys.
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Christa McAuliffe, a Teacher, Writes About Her Excitement Going Into Space on the Ill-Fated Challenger
August 16, 1985
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1508
Christa McAuliffe was the first civilian selected to join astronauts on a space mission. A school teacher, she was planning to give lessons from the spacecraft, to be broadcast live; she would show her students how astronauts ate, slept, and lived on the space shuttle. This letter, written five months before the tragic live broadcast explosion of the Challenger, reflects McAuliffe's enthusiasm for her mission.
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Abraham Lincoln's Scarce Reference to Deaths of Mother and Sister, With Accompanying Poem About Memory
April 18, 1846
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 1553
In all of Abraham Lincoln's surviving letters, he only mentions the death of his mother twice, and the loss of his sister once; both are mentioned here. Lincoln also includes a poem he wrote on the occasion of returning to his home state twenty years after he departed it.
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Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 116
President McKinley's secretary, George Cortelyou thanks the Mayor of San Francisco on behalf of the McKinleys for all the help they received when Mrs. McKinley had taken ill out West.
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Custer: "Libbie Bacon is the Fortunate, or Unfortunate Person...Who Will Unite Her Destinies With Mine."
December 19, 1863
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 126
General Custer writes to his friend, Judge Christiancy, to share with him a secret: He will be returning to Monroe, Michigan in a few months to be married. Inadvertently foreshadowing his death and Libbie's misfortune, Custer jokingly tells Christiancy that Libbie, who would "unite her destinies" with Custer's, is "fortunate, or unfortunate."
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Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 128
In Washington, President Woodrow Wilson, writing on the letterhead of his Cornish, N.H. estate at Harlakenden, reports to his daughters, whom he left behind in Cornish, that the White House is the most "empty and forlorn" house imaginable.
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Former President William Howard Taft Rejoices in Averting Another Run: "I Have Served My Time"
November 19, 1919
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 134
William Howard Taft is relieved to finally be a private citizen and does not seek to be reelected to the office of the presidency.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 229
Two months before Lincoln's assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln invites some of Washington's most famous socialites to Ford's Theatre to watch the brother-in-law of John Wilkes Booth perform.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 281
Samuel Clemens writes to his daughter Jean about the new house, "Innocence at Home," President Grover Cleveland's morality and abilities, and the doctor's orders for her epilepsy.
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Libbie Custer Makes a Secret Plea to Aid the Widows of Captain Yates, Lt. Calhoun, and Enlisted Men
October 8, 1876
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 291
In order to maintain their dignity, Libbie Custer secretly petitions for funds for the widows and children of fallen soldiers at Little Bighorn.
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Prime Minister Winston Churchill on Orde Wingate: A Man of Genius Who Might Have Become a Man of Destiny
September 10, 1944
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 293
On his way to the second Quebec conference, Winston Churchill remembers that a year ago, he, Orde, and Lorna Wingate were on their way to the first conference. Churchill offers his condolences to the newly-widowed Lorna.
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Abraham Lincoln's Famous Civil War Condolence Letter to Young Fanny McCullough About Loss and Memory
December 23, 1862
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 346
Written to Fanny McCullough on the loss of her father, Abraham Lincoln makes a very rare reference to his mother's death when he was a boy. Lincoln, too, was dealing with more recent grief, having buried his son earlier that year. This letter was written a week after the battle of Fredericksburg, which claimed the lives of over 1500 men, including Fanny's father.
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Chaim Weizmann to Orde Wingate's Widow About a Memorial for Wingate at Hebrew University in Jerusalem
October 27, 1944
Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 374
Writing to Lorna Wingate, the young widow of Orde Wingate, the British champion of the Jewish Zionist cause, Chaim Weizmann advises her about the political necessities in undertaking a memorial to her late husband at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
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Chaim Weizmann in 1943: "Nothing Short of a Miracle if We Do Get Something Out of this War"
December 10, 1943
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 376
Writing during World War Two, Chaim Weizmann assures Lorna Wingate that her husband Orde is on the mend after a bout of typhoid. In the interim, he comments that many things are happening in Palestine that would provoke the British, though he hopes they will not allow themselves to be provoked. It would be "nothing short of a miracle if we do get something out of this war," he ruefully remarks.
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 377
Chaim Weizmann writes to Orde Wingate's widow, Lorna, about the upcoming dates for a memorial service for her husband in the Great Synagogues in London and Jerusalem.
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 378
Chaim Weizmann agrees to stand as Godfather to the son of Major General Orde Wingate, Orde Jonathan Wingate.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 379
Chaim Weizmann writes to Lorna Wingate, the widow of Major-General Orde Wingate, to tell her that the British government finally approved the creation of the Jewish Brigade. Weizmann's feelings are mixed, though, as Wingate - who died five months earlier - would have made this Brigade "a powerful force."
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Eisenhower's Trip to Ohrdruf Concentration Camp: "I Never Dreamed... It Was Horrible."
April 15, 1945
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 393
General Eisenhower writes to his wife, after seeing the Ohrdruf concentration camp, that he never dreamt that such cruelty could exist in this world. Poignantly, he mentions that many American soldiers do not seem to know what they are fighting for. Eisenhower ordered every unit not on the front lines to tour the camp, and writes here "now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against."
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Mourning Daughter Susy, Mark Twain Describes His Family Life as Adrift, Indifferent, and Derelict
January 19, 1897
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 484
Mark Twain describes the listlessness of his family life since the sudden death of his daughter Susy. Whereas once they had a charted course, now they are adrift. And what is more, they are "derelict" and indifferent to their plight.
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Josephine Earp, Wyatt Earp’s Jewish Widow, Admits Her Destitution to Earp’s Biographer
November 19, 1935
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 618
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Homesick General Eisenhower Writes of a WWII Visit to Jerusalem and Levant at Christmas
December 26, 1943
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 708
Homesick Eisenhower writes to his wife to thank her for Christmas gifts and to express his longing to see her. He omits his recent promotion as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.
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Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 712
John F. Kennedy writes a condolence letter to Medgar Evers's widow. Four hours before Evers was shot in front of his wife and children, Kennedy had given a televised speech calling for an end to racial discrimination.
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Theodore Herzl Writes a Condolence Letter, Seemingly in Connection With Anti-Semitic Attacks
April 17, 1890
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 729
Theodor Herzl writes a condolence letter amidst an outbreak of anti-Semitic attacks beginning in Vienna, and sweeping through Austria.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 754
Max Nordau agrees to help a Mrs. E. Woodruff with her book, vowing to send his "literary might" shortly.
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Max Nordau Praises the Juvenile Poetry of "E. Babette Deutsch" and Predicts an Exceptional Future
October 22, 1907
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 755
Over a decade before she became famous as a poet, novelist, critic and translator, Babette Deutsch received this letter of praise from Max Nordau.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 769
David Ben Gurion tells his correspondent that Israel was founded by pioneers but now needs immigrants from free countries, most notably the United States, to come and populate it.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 771
David Ben-Gurion encourages Ida Camelhor Silverman, an eighty-six year old Hadassah officer, to visit Israel, citing the Biblical Sarah and Moses Montefiore as examples of people who travelled to Israel at advanced ages. Two years after receiving this letter, Silverman actually settled in Israel, where she would die two years after making Israel her home.
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Albert Einstein Advises a Young Refugee From Germany, Then Controlled By What He Called "The Hitler Gang"
March 18, 1935
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 796
Einstein encourages a young German immigrant to stay in California, as it offers more opportunities than Palestine; he advises against returning to Europe, from where, as he put it, "no good can come." He especially warns against Germany, controlled by "The Hitler Gang."
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Autograph Letter of Astronaut Judy Resnik-Killed in the Challenger Disaster-About Autographs
January 25, 1978
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 819
Judy Resnik, the second American woman, and second Jewish person in space, responds to requests for autographs and photographs.
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Signed Photograph
1 page
SMC 820
Signed photo of doomed Challenger astronaut Judy Resnik-the second American woman, and the first American Jew, in space
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Rare Gerald Ford Presidential Letter Written After His "Tough and Traumatic" Defeat By Jimmy Carter
November 6, 1976
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 876
Defeated President Gerald Ford writes to Congresswoman Edith Green of Oregon to thank her for her support during the difficult loss of the presidency.
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President William McKinley Writes to the Widow of His Vice President and Dear Friend, Mrs. Hobart
March 8, 1900
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 915
In this letter, written four months after the death of his vice-president and dear friend, Garret Hobart, President McKinley thanks Mrs. Tuttle-Hobart for the gift of fruit, and for the wonderful time spent together with her and her son.
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Andrew Jackson Predicts Martin van Buren Will Win with a Greater Majority Than Any Since Washington
October 4, 1836
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 944
Andrew Jackson incorrectly predicts that his Vice President and chosen successor Martin van Buren would win the upcoming election by a landslide. Van Buren emerged victorious, but it was a close race.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 954
President John Tyler, writing to his wife amidst a "political storm," tells her that the Presidency is a prison, from which he can only escape for minutes.
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Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 979
Just seven months before this letter was penned, her beloved son and only surviving child, Bennie, was struck down before her eyes in a train wreck, in which he was the only fatality. Here she writes to her sister about family matters - but her tragic loss is never far from her thoughts.
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Lincoln, Four Days After Son Willie's Death, Tells Sumner Mary Lincoln Needs His Help - "Can You Come?"
February 24, 1862
Autograph Note Signed
1 page
SMC 1034
Four days after the death of his eleven year-old son Willie - and as his youngest son still lay seriously ill - a grieving Lincoln asks Mary Lincoln's close friend, Senator Charles Sumner, to call on his inconsolable wife.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1072
Upon receiving a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, President Millard Fillmore reflects on the "vexing" problem of slavery, commenting almost prophetically, "Who can penetrate the dark future and say whether this ever disturbing subject may not send this Union asunder," and confesses that he "can not look without apprehension to the future."
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Abraham Lincoln's Inscription on a Photograph to Lucy Speed, Who Had Gifted Him a Bible
October 3, 1861
Signed Photograph
1 page
SMC 1097
President Abraham Lincoln expresses his gratitude to Mrs. Lucy Speed, the mother of his best friend when he was in his twenties. Mrs. Speed had given the younger melancholy Abraham Lincoln a Bible and instructed him to read it and adopt its precepts; help would follow.
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Lucretia Garfield On How Her Husband's Portents at Chicago Convention Foreshadowed His "Fateful Ending"
November 19, 1881
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1150
Lucretia Garfield, President Garfield's widow, writes two months to the day after his death, still in disbelief. She shares with her correspondent that "the spirit of prophecy fell upon" her late husband, with many of his utterances now coming back to her as eerily foreshadowing his own demise.
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Vice President-Elect Chester A. Arthur Accepts Congratulations on Winning His First and Last Election
November 10, 1880
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1155
Chester A. Arthur accepts congratulations on having won his first, and last, election: that of Vice-President of the United States. Arthur would be Vice President for six months before assuming the presidency on the occasion of Garfield's assassination in 1881.
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About to Marry, President Grover Cleveland Longs to Live Away from the White House "Like Other People"
December 13, 1885
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 1162
President Cleveland writes to his fiance Frances Folsom about many overwhelming social aspects of being in the White House, and longs to live away from it with her in a "small house" like normal people.
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Grover Cleveland, the Only President to Be Married in the White House, Writes His Bride About Wedding
May 23, 1886
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 1164
Love letter from President Grover Cleveland to his secret fiance, Frances Folsom, outlining every detail of their upcoming nuptials in the White House.
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Grover Cleveland, First President to Marry in the White House, Handwrites an Invitation to His Wedding
May 28, 1886
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1165
President Grover Cleveland invites his Postmaster to his wedding the following Wednesday, with a hand-written invitation.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1183
Edna M. Hurry, a fifteen-year-old bookkeeper, goes into striking detail in her eyewitness account of President William McKinley's assassination.
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Secretary of Navy Long: President William McKinley, "Acute and Wise," Will Not Seek Third Term
June 11, 1901
Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1186
In this private note to his daughter, in which he discusses, amongst other things, a birthday present for his daughter, Naval Secretary John Long reveals that President William McKinley will absolutely not be seeking a third term.
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