How History Unfolds on Paper The Eric C. Caren Collection, Part X June 30, Philadelphia
An extremely rare Type 1 Lou Gehrig photo, dated July 3, 1927, one of over 150 press photos offered for sale | Estimate: $8,000 – 12,000
Eric C. Caren, one or the foremost private collectors of historical paper and documentary material in the United States, is widely regarded as "The Babe Ruth of Historical Collecting," reflecting both the scope of his holdings and the singular impact he has had on the market for primary-source history.
For more than 50 years, Mr. Caren has been assembling a world-class archive of contemporary documentation comprising well over one million original items, including rare newspapers, ephemera, and printed records documenting and illustrating pivotal moments in American and world history.
He is the author of twelve published books, many of which have become standard reference works within the fields of newspapers, ephemera, and historical documentation. His scholarship and advocacy have played a key role in elevating historical paper from a niche specialty to a recognized category within the broader markers or Americana and books and manuscripts.
This auction is Mr. Caren's tenth single-owner sale, following nine earlier landmark dispersals. Each or these auctions has been distinguished by carefully curated material drawn entirely from his personal collection, reflecting his belief that context and provenance are as important as rarity. Appropriately aligned with the approaching 250th anniversary of the United States, he continues to demonstrate that history is not merely remembered, but preserved. contextualized, and re-experienced through the original documents that once carried it forward.
Perfectly illustrating Mr. Caren's theme of "presenting history as It unfolds on paper, the collection we are offering on June 30 includes Thomas Jefferson’s “Birth of the Nation” letter carried to Paris with the Treaty of Peace, by a Jewish Patriot, January 16, 1784; the extraordinarily rare ship's log
of a British midshipman recording the bombardment of Fort McHenry in September 1814, an event memorialized in Francis Scott Key’s “The Star-Spangled Banner”; a December 1966 contract for a performance by a young Jimi Hendrix in a London club; Oliver Hazard Perry’s War of 1812 Master Commandant in the Navy commission, signed by President James Madison, arguably one of the most important naval commissions still in private hands; and Postmaster General Ebenezer Hazard’s 1776 copy of one of the earliest procurable announcements that Independence has been
declared, in the rare original wrappers.
Eric C. Caren is a member of The Grolier Club, The American Antiquarian Society, and The National Press Club; Director Emeritus of the Ephemera Society of America; a former
member of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA); and a consultant to the Newseum, where his collection was among the first to be featured