For Americana Exchange and more recently its successor Rare Book Hub change has always been part of the equation. Change online is necessary as the structure of the Internet evolves, speeds increase, and underlying assumptions about how websites function and are used, change. Early on the focus was on duplicating print services electronically. The idea was to create a great portable library that researchers could access at their desks. For those who tried it in 2002, it worked but most did not need it because the post-World War II structure of the rare book business was still, if waverin...
The world is in flux. Books have a history but do they have a future? Let’s consider the perspectives.
Change has always been part of the human experience but rarely have the changes been so ...
A book by Charlotte Bronte is finally coming home, after passing through the hands of two criminals, 189 years after it was written. The home of Charlotte and her star-crossed sisters is now the Pa...
Books disappearing from library shelves is a longstanding problem that still plagues libraries despite all the security cameras and measures taken over the years. However, a strange case of disappe...
Billy the Kid was a bad guy who achieved immortality killing people back when killing people one at a time still made the news. These days it takes 5 to make the papers on a busy day or occasional...
The sad story of the death of a library in Jackson, Mississippi, recently completed its final act. The library board has abandoned its interest in the building, its 34,000 books destroyed, and many...
Louis-Dominique Cartouche (1693-1721), the most famous French robber of the Ancien Régime, inspired many writers including Nicolas Racot de Grandval, who published Le Vice Puni, ou Cartouche (Anver...
Things are looking up for rare book seller Shapero Rare Books and its parent company. Shapero Rare Books is part of publicly traded company Scholium Group, which means it is required to provide aud...
Described as,”Arguably one of the most appealing pictorial books published during the mid-1800s, The Chinese Empire Illustrated, (known also as China, its scenery, architecture, social habits c. il...
Recently in Germany at auction house Hermann Historica in a sale of German Contemporary History, 842 lots including hundreds of Nazi items were sold. For many the idea that such material is availa...
The annual Northampton Book and Book Arts Fair will be held on Friday, December 6, and Saturday, December 7 this year. Hours on Friday are 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Hours on Saturday are 10:00 a.m. - 4...
As we enter this holiday season we want to remind our members and visitors of the cataloging trend now well underway, that is seeing the decline of the printed catalogue in favor of the eCatalogue ...
For December we review 14 new bookseller catalogues. The Raab Collection celebrates 30 years in the field with a selection of important autograph material. Mark Funke Bookseller offers a spectacula...
Sotheby’s Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana 27 January 2026
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary pair of books from George Washington’s field library, marking the conjunction of Robert Rogers, George Washington, and Henry Knox. $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary letter marking the conjunction of George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Benjamin Franklin. $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: Virginia House of Delegates. The genesis of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. $350,000 to $500,000.
Sotheby’s Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana 27 January 2026
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: (Gettysburg). “Genl. Doubleday has taken charge of the battle”: Autograph witness to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, illustrated by fourteen maps and plans. $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: President Lincoln thanks a schoolboy on behalf of "all the children of the nation for his efforts to ensure "that this war shall be successful, and the Union be maintained and perpetuated." $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.