by Brooke Kennedy
Our April 2024 Fine Autographs and Artifacts auction presented unique pieces of history in all categories. Sold for $27,188, this Grover Cleveland signed document pertains to the long development of the state of Utah. On January 4, 1896, Cleveland directed the Secretary of State to “cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to my Proclamation admitting the State of Utah into the Union of States.”
Prior to its acceptance, Utah had been denied statehood 6 times for various reasons before the Utah Constitutional Convention was held between March 4 and May 8, 1895. Congress found Utah to be un-American for several reasons including theocracy, economy, polygamy, and slavery. The aforementioned reasons caused disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government, and it was only after polygamy was outlawed that Utah became a state.
The Manhattan Project was a true test of secrecy. At the peak of operations in June 1944, the project is said to have employed 129,000 workers. In a 1945 letter, two months after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, physicist Robert Oppenheimer penned a letter to one of those many employees.
Louis N. Handlin was an Explosives Division supervisor at the Los Alamos branch. In his gracious letter, Oppenheimer praises Handlin for his stellar work; “The excellent manner in which you shouldered the responsibilities of Shift Supervisor contributed in no small degree to the successful accomplishment of our task. Your ability to secure the cooperation of the men working for you…enabled the project to maintain its tight time schedule. We regret that a description of your precise job and details of your personal accomplishments must remain a secret of the U.S. Government.”
Not only has the fascination around Oppenheimer and his legacy increased, but so have auction prices with this letter earning a final high bid of $21,421 on an estimate of $4,000. This comes just after another sale of an atomic bomb report signed by Oppenheimer and 23 other Manhattan Project contributors in RR Auction’s monthly event in March.
Not even five years after this letter was written, Oppenheimer’s Princeton colleague celebrated the publication of Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. The book is the seventh volume in the Influential Library of Living Philosophers book series edited by Paul Arthur Schlipp. In this particular edition, Einstein is paid tribute with essays by some of the most important scientists of the era who reflect on Einstein’s contributions to science. Among those names are: Wolfgang Pauli, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Arnold Sommerfeld, Georges Lemaitre, Kurt Gödel, and many more. Standing at an estimate of $5,000, this rare collector’s piece signed by the great scientist fetched $19,899 for its consignor.
We’re off to a successful start this spring, and we’re excited for you to join us for our upcoming summer events. Deadlines are approaching for the following auctions: Olympics; Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War; Steve Jobs and the Apple Computer Revolution; and Remarkable Rarities. Each auction provides you opportunities to get your items in the eyes of our passionate collectors. Our Olympic events, held semi-annually, are the biggest on the market, consistently pulling in top bids for Olympic medals, torches, and other ephemera. Consignors in our Remarkable Rarities and Apple events saw their items go for high ticket prices including a Steve Jobs signed business card and a Mao Zedong signed book.
If you have an item that fits the following categories, reach out to our team at 800-937-3880 or click the button below to send us photos of your rare artifacts.
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