Whaling Journal and Civil War Diaries to Auction

Swann Galleries' April 13 Printed & Manuscript Americana auction features an exciting an array of Civil War material represented by several diaries, including an officer on a desert expedition undertaken by the 1st California Cavalry; a Virginia Military Institute cadet pressed into active service with the Confederate Army; and a private marching under Sherman, to Atlanta and then onward to Savannah and Washington.

Bidders will have the opportunity to explore two significant whaling lots: an early 20th-century “Story of a Whale Hunt” photo album kept by a missionary woman in Alaska; and a journal kept on a four-year whaling expedition to the South Pacific in the 1840s. Also on offer is a large collection of early printings of works from the important Great Awakening thinker Jonathan Edwards.

Highlights details:

* Lot 142: C.E. Lester, editor; after portraits by Brady, The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, New York, 1850. Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

* Lot 180: Francis Harrisson, Journal of a third mate on a four-year whaling expedition to the South Pacific, various places, 1839-43. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000

* Lot 3: Suzanne Rognon Bernardi, The Story of a Whale Hunt, Wales, circa 1906. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

* Lot 25: Roy Fitzsimmons, Diary kept on the MacGregor Arctic Expeditions to Greenland, discussing the sons of Peary and Henson, Etah, Greenland & elsewhere, 1938. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

Swann's Latin Americana section includes early Mexican printing, a pair of views drawn by a French officer under Maximilian in 1863, and several important lots relating to the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s. Intriguing items include Lot 185: Elaborate album of photographs from the state of Pará, Brazil, circa 1900. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000; and Lot 195: Maturino Gilberti, Vocabulario en lengua de Mechuacan, Juan Pablos, 1559. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.