ABAA-SPRING-2023 from Open Boat Booksellers

Two autograph inscriptions by Ojibwe leaders Peter Jones and John Sunday on excised album pages, with accompanying lithograph portrait mounted to facing page. 10" x 8", with minor soiling and some chipping to edges. John Sunday (c. 1795-1875), also known as Shahwundais or Shawundais, was a Mississauga Ojibwe chief and a Methodist minister. He was ordained in 1836 and became a… Read more about this item

First edition. Publisher's gilt stamped green cloth. Photograph frontis of Mary Emma Cabaniss. Clean, bright, unmarked copy with light external wear. The Nineteenth Street Baptist Church is one of the oldest African American churches in Washington, D.C. The Helping Hand Club was established in 1907 with Mary Cabaniss as its first president.

Two fairytale storybooks bound together in gilt stamped cloth. 32pp.+32pp. Containing color plates with tissue guards for both stories, stated as being printed in oil colors for Brown, Loomis & Co. Illustrations by William H. Thwaites, with engravings accomplished by Nathaniel Orr. Inscription on front pastedown. No other markings. A well-loved book, externally rubbed and worn, with occasional light soiling… Read more about this item

Publisher's pink printed wraps. 62pp. + 2pp ads at rear. No author. Unrecorded, with no records of any copies of this held institutionally or in commerce. The only hints regarding the publication are an advertisement at the front for F. Wesel Mfg. Co., at 11 Spruce Street in New York City (Wesel's company moved to 11 Spruce Street in 1885),… Read more about this item

First edition. Publisher's gilt-stamped boards. A highly unusual book, published by a Swedish-American servant and reviewed upon publication by H. L. Mencken, there are no records of any copies of this held institutionally or in commerce. The text appears to largely be a dialogue between Svea (presumably a stand-in for the author) and her diary, and is largely concerned with issues… Read more about this item

Handwritten letter written by architect Peter Nicholson (1765-1844) to Thomas Webster, July 9, 1800, offering to take Webster on as a partner. Single sheet, folded, two pages of text and address panel with reverse blank. Edges moderately soiled. Nicholson was one the premier British architects of his time and is known for his work in the development of the skew arch.… Read more about this item

Fundraising concert brochure and program pair for St. Luke's Episcopal Church, the first African American Episcopal church in Washington, D.C, for November 5th, 1885. The star of this concert was Madame Selika (Marie Selika Williams, c. 1849-1937), the first African American to perform at the White House, performing with accompaniment, as well as with the Selika Quartette. The program also lists multiple… Read more about this item

First edition. Photocopied chapbook by poet and disability activist Mark O'Brien who, after contracting polio as a child, spent the rest of his life (with brief exceptions) in an iron lung. His life was the subject of two movies, the Academy Award winning documentary Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien and the comedy-drama The Sessions.

Autograph & commonplace album, with dozens of inscriptions by missionaries, 1882-1908, including Rev. Joseph Jackson Fuller of Jamaica and the Cameroons Manuscript commonplace book, with dates ranging from 1882-1908. From the estate of the Larkworthy family. Numerous inscriptions, poems, and drawings, including one watercolor. Of particular interest are the first dozen pages of the album, which contain dozens of inscriptions by missionaries,… Read more about this item

First edition, a modified, London-published of The Visions of Hung-Siu-Tshuen, and Origin of the Kwang-Si Insurrection which had been published in Hong Kong in 1854. Chipping with some loss of cloth to ends of spine. Bumping and softening to corners. Bookplate removed from front pastedown. Occasional soiling to page faces, else reasonably fresh and sturdy internally. Now in custom morocco… Read more about this item

A letterpress Christian prayer in Māori, "A Prayer for those Seeking Baptism". Single sheet, reverse blank. 6.8" x 4.25". Printed by William Colenso at Hawke's Bay Mission Press. Sharp copy, with slightly uneven edges. Williams 164; Bagnall 1323; Books in Maori, 331

Wraps, staple-bound. First authorized translation of the preamble of and Royal Decree of November 25th, 1897, published in the Official Gazette of Madrid. Mild external wear. Foxing to cover. Curling to top right corner. Slight chipping to edges of wraps. Silverfishing to bottom right corner of last few pages.

First edition. Wraps. Stamp of Dr. F. M. Dimas-Aruti to first blank, and stamp of Vuelo Panamericano de Buena Voluntad to title page. Pages uncut, internally clean and fresh. Externally covers worn particularly along edges and at spine. In Spanish. The first and most famous novel by the future President of the Dominican Republic, written shortly before Bosch was forced into… Read more about this item

Cabinet card of Frank Bennett Fiske's iconic 'Indian Wranglers' photograph, showing two young American Indian men in full cowboy regalia, including buffalo-hide chaps. From P. Zutterling studio, Cincinnati, with Commercial Art Co. of Cincinnati stamped to reverse with pen notations above. I have found no documentation as to when Fiske originally took the image, though rough estimates seem to place it between… Read more about this item

Single sheet, folded. 4pp. 12.5" x 8". An exceptionally early New Zealand missionary letter from 1825 sent by William White from Marsden's Vale following the destruction of the mission at Whangaroa Harbour by local Māori. White (1794-1875) was sent with Samuel Leigh in 1823 to establish the first Wesleyan Mission in New Zealand at Kaeo in an attempt to convert the… Read more about this item

Volume VI, Part 1. Single issue. First edition. Original wraps. Complete with all maps and charts bound in at rear. Pages partially uncut. Cover and spine rubbed and moderately soiled, though still very well preserved for wraps from the period. Contains Robert Fitzroy's preliminary account of the voyage of the Beagle, describing Charles Darwin as "a zealous volunteer... He will make… Read more about this item

Full year, complete with 4 issues of the Chinese Supplement. Sixteen issues, unbound, with separate 4 page cover page and index. First edition. Some splitting to center folds, chipping to edges and corners of cover page and index, as well as to first and last issues in series. After a few brief articles relating to Chinese immigration to Hawaii, in… Read more about this item

Single issue of The Indian Helper, the paper printed by the students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School as part of the vocational training program. Single sheet, folded, on fragile wood-pulp paper. 10.75" x 7.5". This particular issue contains the class photograph on inside verso, with identifying names and tribal affiliations. Contents also includes the program for commencement exercises.

Photograph postcard of Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, signed and inscribed by Gibbs on his 90th birthday to John Wesley Cromwell. 5.5" x 3.25". Little Rock, Arkansas. April 17, 1912. Mifflin Wistar Gibbs was an African American publisher, lawyer, judge, banker and diplomat. After moving to California during the gold rush and publishing Alta California, billed as the "state's only African-American newspaper," and… Read more about this item