James Cummins Bookseller presents a diverse list of books, manuscripts, original art, and photographs and prints that pertain to the history and iconography of New York City. Highlights include the sensational antebellum novels of George Lippard that took New York as their setting, 19th century photographic portraits of Central Park, manuscript material by prominent New York physician and founder of the King's College medical school Samuel Bard, and original artwork by the infamous Harlem hoarder Langley Collyer.
Price: $1,250
New York: H. R. Robinson, [ca. 1836]. the funeral of old tammany. Among the mourners are also the editors for The Times and The Truth Teller. From various of the mourners are inscriptions inside balloons. To the right in the background is a view of Tammany Hall with a flag..... Read More Item Details for “The Funeral of Old Tammany” Add to Wish List
Item #234396
Price: $1,250
An original drawing by the eccentric and compulsive hoarder Langley Collyer, who, with his brother Homer, lived in a Harlem brownstone at 2078 Fifth Avenue filled with a lifetime's accumulation of books, paper, and garbage. Read More Item Details for Drawing: Train engine straight on Add to Wish List
Item #256368
Price: $400
New York: Feby 11, 1847. Asking Durand to Paint a Landscape. Reading in part: “ I have a good anecdote for you. Bishop Doane has written me a letter 'would you do me the favour to ask Mr. [Asher B.] Durand [1796-1886] to panel a landscape for me.'” Duyckink, editor..... Read More Item Details for Autograph Letter, Signed, to Charles Leneman, Esq Add to Wish List
Item #232897
![Item #309471 In Honor of John L. Elliott [cover title]. Hudson Guild](https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/309471.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1505947395)
Price: $3,000
[New York: May 1930]. Presentation album of original drawings and autograph sentiments to John Lovejoy Elliott (1868-1942), Founder of the Hudson Guild Settlement House and an Ethical Culture Society Leader. Given on the occasion of a dinner in his honor on May 26, 1930. The album opens with a calligraphic..... Read More Item Details for In Honor of John L. Elliott [cover title] Add to Wish List
Item #309471
Price: $300
Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson & Brothers, [1864]. Reprint. George Lippard (1822-1854) was a close friend of Poe and founder of the Brotherhood of the Union, an early labor union. His popular fiction, which “represented the wildly subversive underside of the antebellum literary scene” (ANB) is often divided between the “city mysteries”..... Read More Item Details for The Empire City; or, New York by Night and Day. Its Aristocracy and its Dollars Add to Wish List
Item #242075
Price: $750
Cincinnati: H.M. Rulison, 1853. First edition. In NEW YORK Lippard launched “attacks on family concentrations of wealth, on slavery, and on an alleged attempt by Roman Catholics to infiltrate American schools and governments” (Reynolds, p. 23) George Lippard (1822-1854) was a close friend of Poe and founder of the Brotherhood..... Read More Item Details for New York: Its Upper Ten and Lower Million Add to Wish List
Item #242074
Price: $750
New York: May 7, 1819. Manuscript Map of a Block in Old New York, 1819. Mr. Gardner's block, on Manhatten's Lower East Side, is bounded by Norfolk, Stanton, Suffolk and Rivington Streets, and consists of 32 numbered parcels of surveyed land, 16 fronting on Norfolk Street and 16 on Suffolk..... Read More Item Details for Manuscript map of “Property Situated on Norfolk Street belonging to Thos. Gardner, Esq.” signed by Stephen Ludlam, City Surveyor, pen, ink and colors on paper Add to Wish List
Item #27049
Price: $750
(Paris: Contact Publishing Co, 1926. First edition. Printed in Dijon by Darantiere. " 'Post-Adolescence', actually McAlmon's first book, having been written previously to 'A Hasty Bunch', continued the story, with the scene shifting to Greenwich Village, where McAlmon had lived briefly in 1920, and where he had met four of..... Read More Item Details for Post Adolescence Add to Wish List
Item #35812
Price: $850
[New York: Privately Printed, 1880; 1881]. One of a few copies printed. A Shakespeare New York Calendar: "...one of a few copies printed..." Rare and charming little calendars compiled by this New York antiquarian, member of the New York Historical Society, and co-founder of the Bradford Club, which was a...... Read More Item Details for Events in the History of New York City with Illustrations from Shakespeare by a New Yorker Add to Wish List
Item #17145
Price: $3,000
New York: circa 1912-195. 87 PHOTOS. THe NYC watershed consists of 19 Upstate reservoirs and 3 copntrolled lakes that cover 1,900 square miles in the Catskill Mountains. The Ashokan Reservoir was finished in 1915 1. Ulster & Delaware Railroad Station 2. Steam shovels 3. Town with workers (Uncaptioned) 4. 3..... Read More Item Details for An Album with 87 professional photographs depicting construction of the Ashokan reservoir, which supplies water to New York City. With multiple views of excavation machinery, compressors, special aqueduct and screen chamber, the spillway, tunnels, and picturesque scenes of local buildings, including the railroad depot, Ashokan National Bank, etc Add to Wish List
Item #308235
Price: $300
[New York: Privately printed, 1881]. First edition, one of a few copies printed. A Shakespeare New York Calendar: " ... one of a few copies printed ... " Rare and charming little calendar - following the first one of 1880 - compiled by this New York antiquarian, member of the..... Read More Item Details for Events in the History of New York City with Illustrations from Shakespeare by a New Yorker Add to Wish List
Item #18274
Price: $400
New York: Printed by Francis Childs, 1787. It Pays to Advertise. Fascinating advertiser of the period, issued barely two weeks before the delegates to the new constitutional convention in Philadelphia approved a new Constitution on September 17. Advertisements in New York are plentiful which feature ships (with woodcut illustrations) "for..... Read More Item Details for The Daily Advertiser: Political, Historical, and Commercial. Monday, September 3, 1787. Vol. III No. 788 Add to Wish List
Item #37958
Price: $450
New York: Ca. 1860. Fine Photograph of Grandpa's Factory, West 52nd Street, NYC, Ca. 1860. An interesting example of New York commerical building in what was then uptown; "Grandpa Meeks" is possibly of the furniture makers J. & J.W. Meeks. Read More Item Details for Fine original photograph of 605 West 52nd Street, New York City, showing a brick three story building, with a gathering of people outside facing the camera Add to Wish List
Item #30474
Price: $2,000
[New York]: October 10, 1885. An extraordinary photographic record of the controlled detonation of Flood Rock in the narrow tidal straight called Hell Gate in New York City’s East River. The detonation was part of a nearly 70-year project to improve the navigability of the Hell Gate channel — found..... Read More Item Details for Three vintage photographs documenting the detonation of Flood Rock in the East River, October 10, 1885 Add to Wish List
Item #255243
Price: $500
[New York: J. Widdleton, 1866]. First edition, special issue of the sheets from the Francis' Old New York (N.Y., Widdleton, 1861), issued with new half-title, and without the original title page. One of a Few for Presentation. RARE. Special issue of the author's "Memoir of Dr. Francis", which appeared as..... Read More Item Details for John W. Francis., M.D., LL.D. A Biographical Essay. .. Add to Wish List
Item #62458
Price: $700
Probable edition size of 75 impressions. Read More Item Details for Etching: Forty-Second Street Add to Wish List
Item #304945
Price: $1,250
New York: Mulberry St, Sept 20-94. Playgrounds In NYC Schools. Riis writes in reply to Miss Elizabeth Van Winkle, calling for more adequate playgrounds in New York City schools and including his views on recreation, housing and scholarship. Read More Item Details for Autograph letter signed, to Miss Elizabeth Van Winkle Add to Wish List
Item #304836
Price: $300
[New York]: Rockwood Phot, [1869]. A fine image of Bowling Green Park in lower Manhattan by George Rockwood (1832-1911), a successful commercial photographer with a studion on Union Square West and the first to import the carte-de-visite to America. Read More Item Details for Photograph of Bowling Green, New York City Add to Wish List
Item #238478
Price: $1,000
n.p: n.d. Fine Original Watercolor by Gordon Ross. Ross illustrated The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon for Heritage Press Gordon Ross (1873-1946) was a prolific artist, working mostly in watercolor, from his early days in his native Scotland. As a book artist he tackled everything from Dickens to Shakespeare, including..... Read More Item Details for ORIGINAL pencil, crayon and watercolor illustration, caption reads "New York" and below "Frontispiece, reference p. 175." Signed by the artist lower left Add to Wish List
Item #41409
Price: $5,000
New York: Robert O. Ballou, [1934]. First edition of his first book. Roth's novel of ghetto life on the Lower East Side of New York was hailed as a modernist masterpiece upon publication and compared to the work of James Joyce. Despite critical acclaim it sold poorly and remained out..... Read More Item Details for Call it Sleep Add to Wish List
Item #41593
Price: $900
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1995. Limited edition, Copy "U' hors commerce of 26 copies of total edition 326 copies, signed by the author in pencil on limitation page. ONE OF 26. Read More Item Details for Call It Sleep Add to Wish List
Item #241312
Price: $250
New York: [Privately printed], 1926. "Limited edition of 201 copies, each copy bearing the initials of the fourth secretary, B. M. [i.e. Brander Matthews]" Nicholas Murray Butler's Copy. A remarkable roster, indeed, of this Club formed shortly after the Civil War. Among its members were two American Presidents (Woodrow Wilson..... Read More Item Details for The Roster of the Round Table Dining Club. With a prefatory note by the fourth secretary of the club Add to Wish List
Item #239033
Price: $500
New York: Published by E. Weyhe, 1919. Fine Ruzicka Wood Engraving. A fine and early work by the celebrated book artist, designer, calligrapher, and type designer, who was instrumental in the survival of the woodcut as a medium for book illustration. Read More Item Details for "East River, Evening" Add to Wish List
Item #13268
Price: $7,500
New York: ca. 1930]. A striking image, reminiscent of Berenice Abbott's work in its juxtaposition of new and old New York City. Sherril Schell (1877-1964) was an American photographer best known for his architectural photography, especially of New York City. He had a studio in London in the early 1900s-1910s..... Read More Item Details for News Building no. 7 Add to Wish List
Item #238449
Price: $750
Staten Island: 2 October, 1781. Eighteenth Century Staten Island Document. Contract to share profits and expenses on jointly held property including “the Farm lying at the East End of Staten Island…the Sale Meadow Lying at old Town…and two boats bought joytly betwee” them. The agreement stipulates that they share the..... Read More Item Details for Manuscript Document, Covenant between John Bedell and his mother-in-law, Helethay Simonson, to share profits and expenses of jointly owned property on Staten Island Add to Wish List
Item #12640
Price: $7,000
New York: J.B. Gibson Company, 1893. UNRECORDED CENTENNIAL HISTORY: ‘A Bulwark against Panic’. Centennial publication comprising a list of officers and committee members, a 9-page list of members, an anonymous 30-page illustrated “History of the New York Stock Exchange” from its origins in 1792 (with list of past presidents), with..... Read More Item Details for Souvenir of the New York Stock Exchange Add to Wish List
Item #244131
![Item #300442 [Five etchings of New York City scenes] "Brooklyn Bridge," "Park Avenue,"...](https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/300442.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1426256994)
Price: $3,500
[Harold Wollvine Dickins], 1923. A series of 5 etchings of New York City scenes by the Russian-Scottish artist and architect William Walcot (1874-1943) William Walcot was a Scottish-Russian architect, architectural draftsman, graphic artist, and etcher known for his adoption of the Art Nouveau style and the many buildings he designed..... Read More Item Details for [Five etchings of New York City scenes] "Brooklyn Bridge," "Park Avenue," Forty-Second Street," "Battery Park," and "Lower Broadway" Add to Wish List
Item #300442