Items Signed by MLK, Steve Jobs, Einstein, Many Others are in University Archives' June 28th Auction

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Typed letters signed by Martin Luther King, Jr., Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, as well as a Mickey Mouse sketch signed by Walt Disney, are just a few of the many desirable and highly collectible items in University Archives’ online-only Rare Autographs, Photographs & Books auction (plus PSA slabbed rarities) planned for Wednesday, June 28th.

The auction will start promptly at 11 am Eastern time. All 413 lots in the catalog are up for viewing and bidding now (on the University Archives website: www.UniversityArchives.com), as well as Invaluable.com, Auctionzip.com and LiveAuctioneers.com. Telephone and absentee bids will also be accepted.

“Our June 28th sale represents an outstanding opportunity to acquire exceptional autographed material from the Civil Rights, Art, Business, U.S. Presidential, Science, International, and Military collecting categories and more,” said John Reznikoff, president and owner of University Archives.

Reznikoff added, “University Archives regulars will recall our January 2022 and November 2022 sales, which featured significant subgroupings of PSA/DNA and CAG encapsulated relics. The June sale, back by popular demand, will feature over 170 lots of highly desirable slabbed pieces, many graded, from every imaginable collecting category.”

Lot 110 is a two-page typed letter signed by Martin Luther King, Jr. on Dexter Avenue Baptist Church stationery, dated November 13, 1958. At that time, MLK, Jr. was recuperating from an assassination attempt, while also trying to plan and budget for a 10-day trip to the Soviet Union in early 1959 to observe firsthand Soviet attitudes toward people of color (est. $50,000-$75,000).

Lot 79 is a rare Walt Disney signed sketch of Mickey Mouse. Disney had created the beloved cartoon character in the 1920s, but by the 1940s he infrequently drew Mickey himself. Included in the lot are additional autographs and sketches from Walt Disney Studios employees, among them the animators of Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck and J. Thaddeus Toad (est. $25,000-$30,000).

Lot 310 is a one-page typed letter signed by Steve Jobs, PSA/DNA slabbed and graded GEM Mint 10. Jobs, then the Acting Vice President of Marketing at NeXT, Inc., his experimental Redwood City, California start-up, addressed the December 7, 1989 job offer to David Nagy, an Apple product manager, who turned down Jobs’s “insanely great” offer. (est. $25,000-$30,000).

Lot 228 is a one-page typed letter in German signed by Albert Einstein and dated April 23, 1932, recounting to a fellow physicist how the former’s “latest results in general relativity,” and recent work collaboration with Dutch astronomer William de Sitter, had changed Einstein’s “position on the cosmological problem,” or how to scientifically characterize the universe (est. $15,000-$20,000).

Lot 368 is a vintage Warner Brothers press photo of a young Ronald Reagan in football gear, signed by him as “Win one for the Gipper / Ronald Reagan,” and PSA/DNA slabbed and graded GEM Mint 10. Reagan’s inscription referred to his role in the 1940 Warner Brothers film Knute Rockne, All-American in which he played Notre Dame football star George Gipp (est. $15,000-$20,000).

Lot 334 is a one-page autograph letter signed by Abraham Lincoln, PSA/DNA slabbed and authenticated. Lincoln penned the March 27, 1858 letter to Jackson Grimshaw, the opposing counsel of a Missouri/Illinois land dispute case. Lincoln, just two years away from winning the presidency, would soon bring shrewd legal strategy to the political arena (est. $12,000-$15,000).

Lot 201 is a letter boldly signed by Peter the Great, one of the most coveted of royal autographs, and ex-Charles Sigety. The letter, in Russian Cyrillic, is dated October 18, 1710 and was addressed to Frederick I, the King of Prussia and Elector of Brandenberg. He would be the tsar’s future ally in an anti-Swedish coalition during the Great Northern War (est. $12,000-$15,000).

Lot 208 is a remarkably lengthy, 26-page autograph letter signed by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), dated December 1893. The letter paints a loving and intimate portrait of Clemens’s relationship with his wife Livy and their three daughters – Susy, Clara, and Jean. In the letter, Twain mentions Bram Stoker, as well as his investment in Paige’s typesetting machine, a money pit that would result in Twain’s bankruptcy (est. $10,000-$12,000).

Lot 162 is a pair of handwritten letters from Civil War nurse Clara Barton, one signed and one unsigned, both penned in July 1864, describing events during the Siege of Petersburg. Barton writes that she is “sitting in the midst of fourteen lines of tents, all filled with used up, cut up and worn out, men”, many of them hungry and appreciative of butter and eggs (est. $6,000-$7,000).

Lot 229 is a one-page autograph letter in German signed by Sigmund Freud on personal stationery, dated January 10, 1937. The letter is addressed to a genealogist (also a distant relative of Freud’s), with content relating to Freud’s maternal Russian (present day Ukrainian) Jewish family (est. $6,000-$7,000). Freud’s ancestry forced him to flee Austria the following year; four of Freud’s sisters who stayed behind were later murdered during the Holocaust.

Lot 121 is a correct copy broadside of the Declaration of Independence by Philadelphia engraver John Binns, dated April 19, 1819. The single sheet, measuring 26 ¼ inches by 35 ½ inches, is matted and framed and faithfully reproduces the text at the center. It is complete with a facsimile signature of former U.S. President John Quincy Adams (est. $5,000-$6,000).

Lot 179 is a one-page typed letter signed by George S. Patton, Jr., with Patton’s own ribbon bar and U.S. collar insignia, sent on August 5, 1923 to a military collector. Patton, then a major, was a year away from graduating from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Patton states, “I am not real famous…I am a Fighting soldier…” (est. $3,500-$4,500). 

University Archives has become world-renowned as a go-to source for rare items of this kind. It is actively seeking quality material for future auctions, presenting a rare opportunity for sellers. Anyone who has a single item or a collection that may be a fit for a future University Archives auction may call John Reznikoff at 203-454-0111, or email him at john@universityarchives.com.

For more information about University Archives and the online-only Rare Autographs, Photographs & Books auction (plus PSA slabbed rarities) planned for Wednesday, June 28th at 11 am Eastern time, please visit www.universityarchives.com. Updates are posted frequently.