American Historical Ephemera and Photography

8vo. Publisher's pictorial cloth gilt (spine slanted, hinges starting, some light wear to extremities and a few bumps to board edges). Provenance: Charles Schreyvogel (1861-1912), Artist (signature above the inscription); Patrick Atkinson (sold Hindman Auctions, Sale 1184, part lot 403).

FIRST EDITION. INSCRIBED BY ELIZABETH CUSTER on the front flyleaf: "Motto on General Custer's Spanish sword 'Do not draw me without cause / Do not shield me without honor' Elizabeth B. Custer September 1903."

[With:] [REMINGTON, Frederic (1861-1909), illustrator.] LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth. The Song of Hiawatha. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891. 8vo. Publisher's brown suede gilt, top edge gilt (modern rebacking preserving front endpapers, some wear including losses, slight staining). Provenance: Herbert Foster Gunnison (1858-1932), publisher of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (inscription); Effie M. Munro Gunnison (1878-1947), Herbert's second wife (gift inscription from Herbert Gunnison).

Early edition. INSCRIBED BY REMINGTON TO GUNNISON on the front flyleaf: "To Herbert Gunnison from Frederic Remington 1906." Additional gift inscription from Gunnison to his wife: "To my wife Effie M. Gunnison from her husband Nov. 15, 1927 H.F. Gunnison." Gunnison was a lifelong family friend of Remington and bought some of the artist's early sculptures.

American painters Schreyvogel and Remington were renowned for their depictions of the late 19th-century Western United States, often featuring cowboys, Native Americans, and the U.S. Cavalry. Schreyvogel painted Custer's Demand in 1903, the same year as this copy of Boots and Saddles was inscribed to him, after befriending General Custer's widow, Elizabeth Custer. Despite being one of the most prominent Western artists at the time Remington expressed contempt for Schreyvogel and publicly derided the painting, citing supposed historical inaccuracies. Remington's criticism sparked national controversy in which Elizabeth Custer, President Roosevelt, and Custer's former aide, Colonel J.S. Crosby, came to Schreyvogel's defense.