Extensive and historically significant archives pertaining to Civil War generals (one for the Union, one for the Confederacy), a typed letter signed by Albert Einstein concerning God and science and pertaining to one of his most famous quotes, and Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to the timeless classic The Times They Are A-Changin’ are just a few of the highlights in University Archives’ next big online-only auction, slated for Wednesday, June 22nd.
The Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books auction, starting promptly at 10:30 am Eastern time, features historical material from multiple collecting categories. All 481 lots are up for viewing and bidding now (on the University Archives website www.UniversityArchives.com), as well as LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. Phone and absentee bids accepted.
“The June 22nd auction is particularly rich in presidential, science, Civil War, art and music autographs and memorabilia,” said John Reznikoff, the president and owner of University Archives. “Collectors of aviation/space, sports, early American, literature, and international will also have ample opportunity to enrich and expand existing collections. It’ll be a great sale.”
The list of major categories is indeed extensive, to include Presidential (Washington to Biden); Science (Einstein, Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Carl Sagan, James Watson, others); Art (Van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse, Monet, others); Music (Dylan, Enrico Caruso, Billie Holiday, Huddie Ledbetter, Tupac Shakur, others); and Civil War (the Union and Confederate generals).
Other categories include Early American (Hamilton, Burr, Hancock, John Peter Zenger, others); Aviation & Space (Earhart, Igor Sikorsky, Howard Hughes, Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Apollo XII, Apollo XV, Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, others); and World Leaders (Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, David Ben-Gurion, Castro, Jawaharlal Nehru, Juan Peron, others).
Still other categories include Literature (Emile Zola, D.H. Lawrence, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Wolfe, Sylvia Plath, Orwell, Vonnegut, others); Civil Rights (John Brown, Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, Muhammad Ali, Alex Haley, Rosa Parks, others); and Sports (baseball, including Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax).
The Civil War archives are an astounding collection of signed documents, cards, letters, clipped signatures, cartes-de-visite and more, of every general listed in Ezra J. Warner’s two exhaustive compilations: Generals in Grey for the Confederacy (528 items in six binders) (est. $300,000-$350,000) and Generals in Blue for the Union (630 items, 12 binders) (est. $175,000-$200,000).
The Confederate archive features Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Pierre G.T. Beauregard, James Longstreet and Wade Hampton. The Union archive includes items signed by U.S. Grant, Melancton Wade and Abraham Lincoln, George Meade, James A. Garfield, and Winfield Scott Hancock. Both archives are meticulously researched, organized and presented.
In a typed letter in English, signed and dated April 29, 1954, Albert Einstein explains the origins of his scientific motto, “Subtle is the Lord, but not malicious,” which encapsulates his personal attitude towards God and spirituality. Einstein first used the motto when responding to another scientist’s claims to have disproved relativity by discovering “ether-drift” (est. $60,000-$70,000).
For more information about University Archives and the Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books auction slated for Wednesday, June 22nd, at 10:30 am EST, visit www.universityarchives.com.