Lot 172
172
SHEPARD, Alan Bartlett (1923-1998), Mercury 7 Astronaut. Partly printed document signed ("Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.") and dated ("15 May 1961"), comprising a "Vehicle Commander's Report," FOR THE FIRST AMERICAN SPACE FLIGHT. 1 page, 4to, blanks filled in by typewriter. Very Fine.
SHEPARD, Alan Bartlett (1923-1998), Mercury 7 Astronaut. Partly printed document signed ("Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.") and dated ("15 May 1961"), comprising a "Vehicle Commander's Report," FOR THE FIRST AMERICAN SPACE FLIGHT. 1 page, 4to, blanks filled in by typewriter. Very Fine.

Price realised USD 7,170
Estimate
USD 7,000 – USD 12,000
Closed: 18 Dec 2003
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SHEPARD, Alan Bartlett (1923-1998), Mercury 7 Astronaut. Partly printed document signed ("Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.") and dated ("15 May 1961"), comprising a "Vehicle Commander's Report," FOR THE FIRST AMERICAN SPACE FLIGHT. 1 page, 4to, blanks filled in by typewriter. Very Fine.

Price realised USD 7,170
Closed: 18 Dec 2003
Price realised USD 7,170
Closed: 18 Dec 2003
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SHEPARD, Alan Bartlett (1923-1998), Mercury 7 Astronaut. Partly printed document signed ("Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.") and dated ("15 May 1961"), comprising a "Vehicle Commander's Report," FOR THE FIRST AMERICAN SPACE FLIGHT. 1 page, 4to, blanks filled in by typewriter. Very Fine.

The document is headed "Vehicle Commander's Report," and under "Record Classification" application is made for two world records: "(a) Altitude without Earth Orbit" and "(b) Greatest Mass lifted without Earth orbit." For "Make and Type of Vehicle," the Mercury 7 is specified: "Project Mercury Spacecraft No.7 (Ballistic Capsule)" The launch site, and its longitude and latitude are noted: "Pad 5, Complex 56, AFMTC, Cape Canaveral, Florida," and the return site is similarly indicated: "263.1 N.M. downrange from launch site." At the bottom right, beneath Shepard's signature, he is identified as: "Vehicle Commander Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr."

On May 5, 1961, Shepard made history, becoming the first American astronaut with a brief but dramatic 14.8-minute suborbital flight in the Mercury 3 capsule, launched from Camp Canaveral. Shepard's momentous flight took place only four months after the first Russian space flight by Cosmonaut Yuri Gaggarin. Ironically, Werner Von Braun had urged that an earlier test flight, on 24 March, be manned. If that flight had taken place it would have preceded Gagarin's by three weeks and Shepard would have been the first man in space. Shepard attended Annapolis, took flight training, became a test pilot for the Navy and was tapped for the American space program in 1959. After the historic Mercury 7 flight, he did not return to space until Apollo 14, which carried out the third lunar landing.

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Lot 176

WRIGHT, Orville. Typed letter signed ("Orville Wright") to B. Russell Shaw, Dayton, Ohio, 5 July 1924. 2 full pages, 4to, single-spaced, "Orville Wright" stationery. Fine.

EstimateUSD 6,000 – USD 8,000
Price realisedUSD 5,975
Lot 178

WRIGHT, Orville. Document signed ("Orville Wright"), countersigned by two other observers, McCook Field, near Dayton, Ohio, 29 January 1926. 1 page, 4to, stapled at top into a file of 8 additional letters and documents pertaining to the same record attempt, bound in original blue paper covers.

EstimateUSD 3,000 – USD 5,000
Price realisedUSD 2,629
Lot 179

WRIGHT, Orville. Document signed ("Orville Wright"), countersigned by two other observers, McCook Field, near Dayton, Ohio, 13 March 1926. 1 page, 4to, signatures verified at bottom with a notary's impressed seal.

EstimateUSD 2,500 – USD 3,500
Price realisedUSD 2,390
Lot 180

WRIGHT, Orville. Typed letter signed ("Orville Wright") to C.F. Schory of the National Aeronautic Association, Dayton, Ohio, 14 April 1926. 1½ pages, 4to, single-spaced, "Orville Wright" stationery. Fine. .

EstimateUSD 5,000 – USD 7,000
Price realisedUSD 4,780
Lot 182

WRIGHT, Orville. Typed letter signed ("Orville Wright") to Porter Adams, President of the National Aeronautic Association, Dayton, Ohio, 4 December 1927. 1 page, 4to, "Orville Wright" stationery, receipt stamp. Fine.

EstimateUSD 2,500 – USD 3,500
Price realisedUSD 2,390
Lot 184

WRIGHT, Orville (1871-1948). Telegram to Senator Hiram Bingham, Dayton, Ohio, 5 November 1928. 1 page, 4to, Western Union form. - BINGHAM, Hiram. Two typed letters to Orville Wright, New Haven, Conn. 5 and 6 November 1928. Each 1 page, small 4to, U.S. Senate memorandum stationery. (3)

EstimateUSD 1,000 – USD 1,500
Price realisedUSD 1,075
Lot 185

WRIGHT, Orville. Carbon typed letter signed ("Orville Wright") to the Contest Committee of the Aero Club of Germany in Berlin; n.p. [Dayton?], 7 November 1928. 1 page, 4to, even light browning, stapled at top with 4 other documents including an official folding lithographic map of the U.S. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, N.J. (with an ink notation showing the Zeppelin's exact departure point), and a 6 x 8½ in. sepia-toned photograph of the "Graf Zeppelin" in flight (6 x 8½ in.; originally mounted, now loose), in original stamped blue paper folder.

EstimateUSD 8,000 – USD 12,000
Price realisedUSD 8,365
Lot 190

WRIGHT, Orville. Typed letter signed to Mr. J.F. Victory. Dayton, Ohio, 25 March 1931. 2½ pages, 4to, on rectos only, personal stationery. [With:] Early photostat (by Wright) of two pages from the Wright brothers' original flight log of their Huffmann Prairie experiments, 1904-1905, showing the record of the historic first circular flight, 20 September 1904. 2 pp., 12mo.

EstimateUSD 8,000 – USD 12,000
Price realisedUSD 15,535
Lot 191

WRIGHT, Orville. Typed letter signed ("Orville Wright") to Senator [Hiram] Bingham of Connecticut, Lambert Island, Ontario, 31 July 1932. 1 full page, 4to, embossed stationery, receipt stamp in upper corner.

EstimateUSD 2,500 – USD 3,500
Price realisedUSD 2,390
Lot 192

BARNUM, Phineas T. (1810-1891). Manuscript document signed ("P.T. Barnum"), COUNTERSIGNED BY HIS PARTNERS J. A. Bailey and J. L. Hutchinson 26 August 1880. 7 pp., folio, lined paper, neatly stapled together at top.

EstimateUSD 12,000 – USD 18,000
Price realisedUSD 11,950
Lot 193

BARTON, Clara (1821-1912), Founder of the American Red Cross. An archive comprising: 14 autograph letters signed, 10 autograph cards signed, 1 typed letter signed, 7 printed documents signed and 2 carte-de-visites, all to S. Louise Phelps, 1880-1910. Various formats, letters on stationery of American National Red Cross, Reformatory Prison for Women, American Association of the Red Cross, etc. Together 90pp., all in excellent condition.. [With:] 3 ALS to Phelps from Barton's companion J. B. Hubbell, and 2 secretarial letters to Phelps.

EstimateUSD 8,000 – USD 12,000
Price realisedUSD 8,365
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