Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2007 Issue
Printed and Manuscript Americana From Michael Brown Rare Books
A $250 reward was offered for Oscar Gaddy in 1906.
Do you know when the first giraffe came to America? Here is the answer. It was brought over by the Welch, Bartlett & Co. circus in the 1830s. Item 39 is a four-page circular for the circus, circa 1839 and likely prepared for an appearance in Philadelphia. It is headed Combination Extraordinary!!! Grand Equestrian Circus...With the Novel and Interesting Exhibition of the Giraffe or Cameleopard and Other Animals, and Both Exhibited for One Price of Admission!!! "Cameleopard" was used to describe the giraffe as far back as Roman times, but is not a word you will hear often today. $1,500.
Item 12 is a 1906 poster - $250.00 Reward -- for one Oscar Gaddy, a black man accused of murdering R.H. Eubanks, Superintendent for Lane Bros. Co. & Jones near Lexington, North Carolina. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, Eubanks entered one of the "negro huts" on hearing gunfire, and after a brief exchange, Gaddy shot Eubanks in the face, killing him instantly. Gaddy then fled, "coatless, hatless and shoeless." A posse of 200 men was raised, and lynching was spoken of openly. However, Brown found no further mention of the case in the next several weeks of newspapers, so we do not know whether Gaddy was ever captured. As Brown notes, considering the time and place, Gaddy would not likely have fared well if captured. $2,500.
It was the longest and only fatal inaugural speech ever given. On March 4, 1841, President William Henry Harrison spoke for an hour and forty-five minutes in the cold rain and snow of Washington. He promptly caught pneumonia and died 30 days later, accomplishing next to nothing in office, and setting up 3 years and 11 months of administration by the very unpopular John Tyler. Item 88 is a large broadside with, naturally, very small type, of the Inaugural Address of President Wm. H. Harrison... Read it and weep. $1,250.
Tyler was still unpopular in the Union when he died, although he must have had some admirers in the South. The Virginian Tyler was the only former president to support the Confederate cause. He was honored when he died, as shown in item 42 -- Congress of the Confederate States. Proceedings on the Announcement of the Death of Hon. John Tyler, January 20th, 1862. $250.
Michael Brown Rare Books may be found online at www.mbamericana.com, or reached by phone at 215-387-9808.
