Americana our history

[ChiefBenderForever]

Who else is watching 'America the history of us' on tv. Some of it is cheesy acting but overall it's pretty good. Would love to see anything you guys have relating to our past, civil war pic's, Lincoln, presidents, how about one of the thousands of morse code letters written from Lincolns office. One of my favorite threads on here was all the Astronaut items, that stuff was amazing !! The older the better but if you have a JFK auto let's see that !! I wish I had something to post but don't, I would like to get a 19th century photo of an Indian Chief, I have seen Chief Joseph and others but they were very expensive so I couldn't get them but someday hope to.

[jbsports33]

I have been watching the show, and sometimes I feel like I am back in high school, but some of it was pretty good. I really enjoyed the last one

Jimmy

[Joe Hunter]

I have watched every episode, so far, and am really enjoying it. My comment to my wife when they mentioned the Lincoln telegrams was: "do you think any of them suvived?"

[David Atkatz]

OK, you twisted my arm. Here are a few American historical autographs.

Check written by Wilbur Wright:


Check written by Orville Wright:


Photo signed by Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961--the date of his (and America's) first manned spaceflight:


Endorsement written by Abraham Lincoln:


Letter signed by JFK:

[ChiefBenderForever]

Great response guys! David, thanks for sharing that is amazing stuff ! The Lincoln piece must give you shivers ! It doesn't get much better than that wow !

[RichardSimon]

I had posted a lot of stuff in the last thread about Americana but I wanted to add a comment.
The Teddy Roosevelt House n NYC at 28 East 20th Street is very much worth a visit. It is a National Historical site and contains a wealth of Americana including a signed Lincoln photo.
Admission is free.

[ChiefBenderForever]

Thanks for the info on the Teddy Roosevelt House Richard, I just moved to CT and will be going to the Mark Twain house soon and looking forward to it. I just looked at the other Americana thread, I missed that one had I seen it wouldn't have started this one, sorry.

[GrayGhost]

Mark Twain House isn't great IMO. Gillette Castle is kinda cool in Hadlyme, overlooking the CT River. Check that out. Also, Newgate Prision in Granby, if its open (closes periodically) is cool too.

[canjond]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

I had posted a lot of stuff in the last thread about Americana but I wanted to add a comment.
The Teddy Roosevelt House n NYC at 28 East 20th Street is very much worth a visit. It is a National Historical site and contains a wealth of Americana including a signed Lincoln photo.
Admission is free.

Richard,

I actually believe it's $3.00 to get in, but WELL worth it. Among other great items on display is the speach Teddy was about to present when there was an attempt on his life. The bullet pierced the speach folded in his shirt pocket and collapsed a lung, but Roosevelt refused to go to the hospital until he finished his 2+ hour speach.

- Jon

[canjond]

Posted these in the other thread as well, but here are my Kennedy signatures.

[rholmes]

The Lincoln signature above is pretty awesome. On a somewhat different note, I collect items relating to very early organized rodeo...generally pre-1920 (deadball rodeo!). Programs, original photos, pinbacks, signed items (very rare, not often found), significant postcards (a subset of this is postcards sent from an event, say Cheyenne Frontier Days or Pendleton, with written content from the sender relating to rodeo attended). A few of my favorites...apologies in advance for the highly random quality of the photos:

1902 Festival of Mountain and Plain pinback:


1903 Cheyenne Frontier Days pin:


1908 Cheyenne Frontier Days program, with day sheet:


1911 E.L. Powers Pendleton Round-Up pinback:


1921 1st edition of Charles Wellington Furlong's 'Let Er' Buck' signed by LH Hamley, son of Hamley Saddlery founder:


Postal cover signed by Leonard Stroud...rodeo star of the 1910's-20's:


Signed note from Ralph Russell Doubleday on the back of one of his postcards. Doubleday was THE pioneer of early rodeo photography:


James Mattas (maker) saddle, Rawlins, Wyoming, circa 1910:


Finally, to tie this together with pre-war baseball, not my photo, but this is Tris Speaker with Bonnie McCarroll, the premiere superstar cowgirl of the 20's, in 1921. Apparently Tris was a rodeo fan:


Thanks for the indulgence! It's not often I get a chance to show this stuff off...

Ray

[mr2686]

Actually, Speaker was more than just a Rodeo fan. I thought I had read something about that in the past, and just found this as well:
Speaker was also a rodeo performer of some distinction, coming home to Texas to compete in the Fort Worth Stock Show rodeo in several different winters of his playing career.
Just an interesting side note.

[David Atkatz]

Wow, Ray!

(I bet you don't find too many other rodeo collectors in Brooklyn!)

[rholmes]

Nice find Mike, about Speaker. I've seen a few photos of him with various rodeo personalities, but never researched it beyond that. It would be interesting to turn up a photo of him performing.

And David...right? Kind of weird to say the least. But I'm not actually from here, just live here now, and I do spend a fair amount of time in Wyoming and such parts. I am, among other things, a leather worker in the old cowboy-arts style...anyone want to trade cards for leather?

Some of what I do:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RHolmesCustomLeather

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by canjond

Richard,

I actually believe it's $3.00 to get in, but WELL worth it. Among other great items on display is the speach Teddy was about to present when there was an attempt on his life. The bullet pierced the speach folded in his shirt pocket and collapsed a lung, but Roosevelt refused to go to the hospital until he finished his 2+ hour speach.

- Jon

Jon - I was there about two weeks ago,,, it is free. Anyone with an Americana/history interest should pay this building a visit. You also get a free guided tour of the various rooms. This is the building where Teddy grew up. The only American President to come from the great city of New York .

[HiNeighbor]

In additional to collecting pre-1920 Red Sox and RI Breweriana, I am a pretty involved student of the American Revolution and have been for over thirty years. I happened to run across the episodes of this series that dealt with the Revolution and all I can say is that this is the most horrendous documentary I have ever seen on the subject (I was actually involved in the filming of the original History Channel documentary on the Revolution back about 15 years ago). Most documentaries fall short of being perfect in this period, but this show was blatantly WRONG most of the time. The History Channel should be ashamed of itself for putting out such a piece of trash. I know that may sound harsh, but if a program was completely wrong about baseball, you would all feel the same way. This "documentary" obviously never consulted appropriate historians and relied on talking heads that know nothing of the subject.

I can't comment on any of the other episodes as I did not watch them. I do know that some friends who are students of the Civil War did not have many promising things to say about that episode. Sorry to bust anyone's bubble who thought this was a good series. It was simply terrible. You should see the comments on similar forums like this that deal with history. Unfortunately, the History Channel has gone away from history. They're more involved in putting things out like Ice Truckers, Pawn Stars, and the like which have little to do with history.

Seeing that the original intent was to see pieces of "Americana" here's one from the Revolution. A Proclamation printed in RI for the distribution throughout the state announcing the Cessation of Arms between the United States and Great Britain. Probably the only one known to exist.

[jbsports33]

some great looking items, I enjoyed looking at the pictures

Jimmy

[HiNeighbor]

By the way, David, awesome stuff!

[ChiefBenderForever]

Greg, as a history scholar I can imagine your frustration with a production like this but for the average Joe it is a good starting point to give them a quick glance at our history. What did you think of HBO's John Adams series? I was blown away by the production on that and felt like I was back in time and the details were unreal. This new series was definately a rush job but to cover many years in a blink of an eye is a very big task and overall it's pretty good and entertaining. That is no excuse on getting major details incorrect but also shows that many are not aware of the facts. I have learned a lot and been reminded of many things I forgot, and it is a nice break from the Disney Channel !

[David Atkatz]

Hey, Greg. I've never been too interested in ephemera, but that document (and its condition) is quite impressive! Whose facsimile signature appears?

[ksfarmboy]

Ray, I thought you might find this interesting. It's a RPPC of Bill Pickett.

[rholmes]

Great image, Clint. No doubt a few here would find it very interesting to know that Pickett, with arms thrown in air, is biting that steer's lip.

Btw, is the card postally used? It doesn't matter much if the image is good enough, but I'm one of those who, if given a choice, prefers postcards to be used...sent and postmarked.

[ksfarmboy]

Ray, it was sent from Ponca City. I can't read all of the date but appears to be 190?. Someone stripped part of the stamp off. It's got an AZO back. I guessed around the 1907-1909 time frame.