Americana
Rare Americana Books, Manuscripts & More for Sale Online
If you’re looking for first edition books celebrating the American experience, you’ve come to the right place. At Raptis Rare Books we maintain an extensive collection of rare Americana, books, manuscripts and more. Browse through our entire collection online, use our sorting tools or search to find exactly what you’re looking for then call with any questions you may have or order online today.
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THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON'S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS
THOMSON, Charles. [George Washington].
George Washington’s Commission as General and Commander in Chief of the Army of the United Colonies.
Philadelphia: June 19, 1775.
One of only two originals of George Washington's Commission as General and Commander in Chief of the Army of the United Colonies; the Ahlstrom discovery, the only duplicate of Washington's own document now in the Library of Congress. One-page, oblong folio on sheepskin vellum, autograph document signed, entirely in the hand of Charles Thomson Secretary of the Continental Congress (including the signature of John Hancock which Thomson copied from the original document), appointing George Washington as General and Commander in Chief of the army of the United Colonies, Philadelphia, 19 June 1775. The document reads in full, "In Congress The…
Price: $975,000.00 Item Number: 145372
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“THE MOST IMPORTANT SERIES OF AMERICAN POLITICAL DEBATES”: Exceedingly rare first edition, first issue of The Lincoln-Douglas Debates; inscribed by Abraham Lincoln to long-time political supporter and friend Martin S. Morris and accompanied by the table from the Morris household that Lincoln signed the book on
LINCOLN, Abraham .
Political Debates Between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen Douglas, In the Celebrated Campaign of 1858, in Illinois.
Columbus: Follett, Foster and Company, 1860.
First edition, first issue of the most famous debates in American history which cemented Lincoln as a national presidential candidate; inscribed by Lincoln in pencil to close friend Martin S. Morris and accompanied by the table from the Morris household that Lincoln signed the book on. Octavo, original cloth stamped in blind. First issue, with no advertisements, no rule above the publisher’s imprint on the copyright page, and with numeral 2 at the bottom of page 17. Association copy, inscribed by Abraham Lincoln in pencil on the front free endpaper, "M. S. Morris Esq A. Lincoln." The recipient, Martin S.…
Price: $550,000.00 Item Number: 138634
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Exceptionally rare first edition, presentation copy of Experiments and Observations on Electricity; inscribed by Benjamin Franklin to Prominent Philadelphia Merchant, Colleague, and friend Thomas Livezey
FRANKLIN, Benjamin.
Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America, by Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D. and F.R.S. To which are added, Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects. The Whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now first collected into one Volume, and Illustrated with Copper Plates.
London: Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newbery, at the Corner of St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1769.
First complete edition of "the most important scientific book of eighteenth-century America" (PMM), inscribed by Benjamin Franklin to prominent Pennsylvania Quaker and merchant Thomas Livezey, Jr. Quarto, bound in full contemporary calf with elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, gilt turn-ins. Illustrated with 7 copper-engraved plates, 2 of which are folding. Presentation copy, inscribed by Benjamin Franklin on the front free endpaper, “To Mr. Livesy [sic] From his obliged Friend & humble Servant The Author.” With Thomas Livezey's ownership signature to the second free endpaper, "Thomas Livezey…
Price: $375,000.00 Item Number: 147283
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"Second only to Gilbert Stuart's Athenaeum portrait": Rembrandt Peale's "George Washington, Patriae Pater"
PEALE, Rembrandt. [George Washington].
“George Washington, Patriae Pater” Rembrandt Peale Original Oil Painting.
Rembrandt Peale's famed painted portrait of George Washington, "George Washington, Patriae Pater", considered by many second only to Gilbert Stuart's iconic Athenaeum portrait of the first president and variations of which hang in the Oval Office and Old Senate Chamber. Oil on canvas. In 1795, 17-year-old Rembrandt Peale was invited by his father, famed American painter Charles Willson Peale, to accompany him to a portrait sitting with President George Washington. Although young Rembrandt was not entirely satisfied with the resulting portrait of the aging Washington, it was well-received and made his debut as a portraitist. In 1822, after a trip…
Price: $350,000.00 Item Number: 135084
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FROM THE LIBRARY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON: First edition, presentation copy of Elkanah Watson's Tour in Holland; inscribed by him to George Washington
[WATSON, Elkanah] [George Washington].
Tour in Holland in MDCCLXXXIV. By an American.
Printed at Worcester, Massachusetts: Isaiah Thomas, 1790.
First edition, presentation copy of a scarce volume from George Washington's library at Mount Vernon. Octavo, bound in full contemporary sheep with pine gilt in six compartments within raised bands, burgundy morocco spine label lettered in gilt, type-ornament title-page vignette, head and tailpieces. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to George Washington on the front pastedown, "From the Author to General Washington" and further inscribed on the front free endpaper, "New York, Feb. 1798. Sir, Please to accept this small production which has stole its way into the world. If it can beguile one moment of that anxiety which doubtless pervades your…
Price: $275,000.00 Item Number: 143919
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"THE MOST FAMOUS AND INFLUENTIAL AMERICAN POLITICAL WORK”: EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FEDERALIST
[HAMILTON, Alexander; James Madison; John Jay].
The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, As Agreed Upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787.
New York: Printed and Sold by J. and A. McLean, 1788.
First edition of The Federalist, one of the rarest and most significant books in American political history. Octavo, two volumes bound in full calf with morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, front and rear panels. In near fine condition with light foxing and minor marginal staining to end of Vol II. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional example of this cornerstone of Americana.
Price: $260,000.00 Item Number: 145519
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perhaps the only leaf from Washington's diary in private hands: exceptional George Washington autograph diary leaf dated March 1762; the first spring Washington was full owner of Mount Vernon
WASHINGTON, George.
George Washington Autograph Diary Leaf.
[Mount Vernon]: March 1762.
Autograph manuscript, being George Washington's diary entries for a portion of March 1762, detailing the fruit grafts that he has accomplished. 2 pages (5 14/16 x 3 10/16 inches, irregular) on a leaf of laid paper, [Mount Vernon], March 1762; browned, left margin of recto waterstained and abraded causing a loss of text in most lines, small abrasion at center of recto obscuring three words. Accompanied by an autograph note signed by James Kirke Paulding: "Memorandum in the hand of Washington taken from an old almanac for 1762, in the possession of JK Paulding." A rare Washington relic: perhaps the…
Price: $250,000.00 Item Number: 142654
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"THE MOST FAMOUS AND INFLUENTIAL AMERICAN POLITICAL WORK”: EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FEDERALIST
[HAMILTON, Alexander; James Madison; John Jay].
The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, As Agreed Upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787.
New York: Printed and Sold by J. and A. McLean, 1788.
First edition of The Federalist, one of the rarest and most significant books in American political history. 12mo, two volumes bound into one in half calf over marbled boards with raised bands, gilt titles to the spine. In very good condition with light toning to the pages. Text blocks trimmed. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box. An exceptional example of this cornerstone of Americana.
Price: $250,000.00 Item Number: 143916
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First octavo edition, presentation copy of John James Audubon's The Birds of America; warmly inscribed by him in both volumes I and II to Lydia E. E. Greene
AUDUBON, John James.
The Birds of America, From Drawings Made In The United States And Their Territories.
New York: Published by J. J. Audubon. Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier, 1840-1844.
First octavo edition of Audubon's landmark work; one of the most spectacular collections of ornithological prints ever produced. Royal octavo, 7 volumes bound in full 19th-century morocco by P. Low of Boston with their ticket, gilt titles and ruling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, ribbons bound in. Illustrated with 500 hand-colored lithographed plates after Audubon by W. E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly and others, printed and colored by J. T. Bowen, wood-engraved anatomical diagrams in text. Presentation copy, inscribed by John James Audubon on…
Price: $200,000.00 Item Number: 143567
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REVOLUTIONARY WAR-DATE LETTER FROM WASHINGTON TO ROCHAMBEAU ON A PROPOSED EXPEDITION TO PENOBSCOT
WASHINGTON, George.
George Washington Letter Signed.
April 10, 1781.
Highly important letter signed (“Go: Washington”), as Commander-in-Chief, 2 pages folio, “Head Quarters New Windsor April 10 [17]81”, to his French ally Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, the body of the letter in the hand of his trusted aide-de-camp, Alexander Hamilton; horizontal fold separation repaired, minor tears and chips along margins. In the spring of 1781, officials from Massachusetts approached Rochambeau with a proposal to attack the British post at the mouth of the Penobscot river— established in June 1779 to secure timber for shipyards in Halifax and to protect Nova Scotia from any American advance. On 6…
Price: $175,000.00 Item Number: 125872
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First French Edition, Presentation copy of the Constitutions of the Thirteen United States of America; inscribed by Benjamin Franklin who requested the book's publication and personally distributed the 600 privately printed first edition copies
[FRANKLIN, Benjamin].
Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis De L’Amerique. [Constitutions of the Thirteen United States of America].
Paris: D. Pierres/Pissot, Pere & Fils, Libraries, 1783.
First French edition of the Constitution of the United States of America, inscribed by Founding Father Benjamin Franklin who had the translation published and personally distributed each of the 600 copies produced. Octavo, bound in one quarter calf with gilt ruling to the spine, burgundy morocco spine label lettered in gilt. Presentation copy, inscribed by Benjamin Franklin on the front free endpaper, "A Madame, Madame la Presidente de Manieres [sic] de la parte du. B. Franklin." The recipient, Madame Durey de Meinires was a a French writer best known for her translations of Samuel Johnson, David Hume, and Sarah Fielding.…
Price: $175,000.00 Item Number: 138381
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"Sail on O Ship of State! Sail on, o union, strong and great!" One of the two broadsides specially printed and carried by Churchill to the Atlantic Conference signed by both him and Franklin Delano Roosevelt
ROOSEVELT, Franklin Delano; Winston S. Churchill. [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow].
Sail On, O Ship of State! The Longfellow Verse in Mr. Roosevelt’s Message to Mr. Churchill.
Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., [1941].
Rare lithographic broadside signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the thirty-second President of the United States and Winston S. Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the Atlantic Conference; one of only two known examples of this broadside specially printed at Churchill's direction and signed by both world leaders at their first wartime conference. One page, the lithograph features the famed Henry Wadsworth Longfellow verse first used by FDR in a letter of support to Churchill before the United States entered the war and a galleon at sea. The letter, sent the day before Roosevelt's third inauguration on…
Price: $150,000.00 Item Number: 125419
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"The longest letter signed and entirely in the hand of John Adams obtainable": Exceptionally rare 16-page autograph letter signed by Founding Father John Adams defending the ultimate necessity of American sovereignty
ADAMS, John.
John Adams Autograph Letter Signed.
1809.
Exceptionally rare 16-page autograph letter signed by and entirely in the hand of Founding Father John Adams defending the ultimate necessity of American sovereignty and its precedence over international alliances. Sixteen pages, entirely in the hand of John Adams and written on both the recto and verso of each page, the letter is dated January 9, 1809 and addressed to Speaker of the House of Representatives, Joseph Bradley Varnum. Although France and America shared a strong alliance which proved crucial to winning the Revolutionary War, at the onset of the French Revolution in 1789, Washington's fear that American involvement would…
Price: $125,000.00 Item Number: 121560
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Exceptionally rare autograph album containing the autographs of 24 American Presidents in addition to numerous autographs of Cabinet Members, vice presidents and several rare carte-de-visites
WASHINGTON, George; John Adams; Thomas Jefferson; James Madison; Andrew Jackson; Martin Van Buren; William Henry Harrison; James Tyler; James H. Polk; James Buchanan; Zachary Taylor; Millard Fillmore; James Buchanan; Franklin Pierce; Abraham Lincoln; William Seward; Andrew Johnson; Ulysses S. Grant; James Garfield; Chester A. Arthur; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison; Grover Cleveland; William McKinley; Alexander Hamilton.
Autograph Album of the Presidents and Cabinet Officials of the United States of America.
Rare late 19th century folio album containing an extensive collection of Presidential autographs, letters, carte-de-visites, and portraits in addition to those of each Cabinet. Folio, bound in three quarter morocco with five raised bands and gilt titles to the spine. The album contains: a clipped signature of President George Washington with a four-page letter of provenance dated July 13 1948, several portraits of him including two rare carte-de-visites as well as a carte-de-visite of Martha Washington; and autograph letter signed by John Adams as President to Benjamin Lincoln, Quincy, July 23, 1799; a clipped document signed by Thomas Jefferson as…
Price: $82,000.00 Item Number: 129509
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Scarce 1792 printing of An Act to extend the Time limited for settling the Accounts of the United States with the Individual States; signed by Thomas Jefferson
[JEFFERSON, Thomas].
Second Congress of the United States: At the First Session, begun and held at the City of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, on Monday the twenty-fourth of October one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one. An Act to extend the Time limited for settling the Accounts of the United States with the Individual States.
Philadelphia: Childs & Swaine, 1792.
Scarce printing of an early United States law providing for the funding of the national debt, signed by Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State. Folio, one page. The document, which also carries the printed signatures of President George Washington, Vice President John Adams, and House Speaker Jonathan Trumbull, was approved January 23, 1792. Individual acts and bills of the first Congresses were routinely printed for public consumption. A provision was made, however, to print a few copies of each act for dissemination to the states, and to have each copy signed by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. One of the…
Price: $82,000.00 Item Number: 125388
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Elaborately bound collection of Presidential autographs; containing the autograph of each of the first 34 Presidents of the United States from George Washington to Dwight D. Eisenhower
WASHINGTON, George; John Adams; Thomas Jefferson; James Madison; James Monroe; John Quincy Adams; Andrew Jackson; Martin Van Buren; William Henry Harrison; John Tyler; James Polk; Zachary Taylor; Millard Fillmore; Franklin Pierce; James Buchanan; Abraham Lincoln; Andrew Johnson; Ulysses S. Grant; Rutherford B. Hayes; James Garfield; Chester A. Arthur; Grover Cleveland; William McKinley; Theodore Roosevelt; William H. Taft; Woodrow Wilson; Warren G. Harding; Calvin Coolidge; Herbert Hoover; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Harry Truman; Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Autographs of the Presidents of the United States of America.
1783-1956.
Elaborately bound collection of Presidential autographs, containing the autograph of each of the first 34 Presidents of the United States from George Washington to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Quarto, bound in full red morocco by Riviere & Son with gilt titles and ruling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt presidential seal to the front panel with white and blue morocco onlays, gilt arms and motto of George Washington to the rear panel with white and blue morocco onlays and his gilt signature in facsimile, centerpieces within quintuple gilt ruling with star emblems at each corner, blue…
Price: $80,000.00 Item Number: 125384
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“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union... do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America": Rare first edition of Vol. VII of the Journal of Congress; containing the first official Congressional Journal publication of the proposed Constitution of the United States
Journal of the United States In Congress Assembled: Containing the Proceedings From the Sixth Day of November, 1786, to the Fifth Day of November, 1787. Volume XII.
New York: Published by Order of Congress, 1787.
Rare first edition of Vol. VII of the Journal of Congress; containing the first official Congressional Journal publication of the proposed Constitution of the United States. Octavo, original boards. Contains the first Congressional Journal publications of the proposed United States Constitution (pp. 149-166) and the Northwest Ordinance (pp. 85-93). In very good condition. Small loss to the title page affecting the “L” in “Journal”. A rare and important piece of American history.
Price: $75,000.00 Item Number: 129855
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Three exceptionally rare Abraham Lincoln Pieces; An autograph Pardon of December 8, 1863 Signed by him; pristine original carte-de-visite; and exceedingly rare contemporary printing of the Proclamation of Amnesty
LINCOLN, Abraham.
Abraham Lincoln Amnesty Proclamation and Signed Pardon of December 8, 1863.
Washington, D.C.: War Department, Adjutant General's Office, 1864-1869.
Rare autograph Oath of December 8 endorsement signed and entirely in the hand of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln with an exceedingly rare contemporary printing of Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation which includes the wording of the oath itself and a rare carte-de-visite of Lincoln [Providence, RI: Salisbury, Bro. & Co., n.d.]. One page, the endorsement is signed and inscribed by Lincoln, “Let these men take the oath of Dec. 8, 1863 & be discharged – A. Lincoln Dec. 30, 1863.” One page, disbound, the contemporary printing of the Amnesty Proclamation consists of 6 pages printed by order…
Price: $75,000.00 Item Number: 132045
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"One of the best-written and convincing pieces in the Anti-Federalist canon": Rare First Edition of Observations Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government from the Federal Farmer to the Republican
[LEE, Richard Henry].
Observations Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government, Proposed by the Late Convention; and to Several Essential and Necessary Alterations in it. In a Number of Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican.
New York: 1787.
Rare first edition of the definitive and most important work in the Anti-Federalist canon; the antithesis of the The Federalist Papers. Octavo, bound in half calf over boards with six raised bands, edges speckled red. In very good condition. An exceptional example.
Price: $72,000.00 Item Number: 106800
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"let those who are really inclinable to buy, come forward, like men that are in earnest, and say what they will give": Rare Autograph Letter Signed by George Washington as the First President of the United States of America
WASHINGTON, George.
George Washington Autograph Letter Signed.
January 24, 1790.
Rare autograph letter signed by George Washington as the first President of the United States. Quarto, one page, the letter reads in full, "New York Jany 24th 1790 Sir Capt. Burnett delivered me your letter of the 18th and is so obliging as to take charge of this answer - It is my sincere opinion that the land mentioned in it is worth what I asked for it--to wit four dollars per acre and once would have sold for it; but if, in the present scarcity of cash it rather fetch that sum, let those who are really inclinable to…
Price: $65,000.00 Item Number: 141583