Ian Brabner, Rare Americana

07/27/2022

First edition. Boston stamp tax collector Andrew Oliver’s copy; signed on title-page.

Andrew Oliver (1706–1774) was the brother-in-law of Thomas Hutchinson, Massachusetts’ colonial governor. Oliver became a lightning rod for the fury of of the colonists as it was his duty to administer the unpopular Stamp Act.

Although privately against the act, Oliver became the most visible target for angry colonists to express their hatred of the Stamp Act, and its larger evil, taxation without representation.

The “True-born Sons of Liberty” burned him in effigy in Boston and happily announced his public resignation “under Liberty Tree” on December 17, 1765. After his effigy was burned, Oliver’s house was attacked. He was later forced publicly swear that he would never act as stamp distributor.

Read more about this item on our website (link in bio).

07/26/2022

Illustrated, 4-page circular for Grizzly Adams, a western frontier-themed play: “No Shooting or Yelling Indians, But a Truthfully Depicted Idyl of American Life on the Borders of Civilization.”

A full page wood engraving depicts Grizzly Adams’ appearance in the first act and gives a synopsis of the play. James “Grizzly” Adams (1812–1860) was a celebrated California mountain man and trainer of grizzly bears.

Read more about this item by using the search feature via or website.

07/23/2022

A large part of my childhood (it’s a long story) was spent in used and rare bookshops, library book sales, public auctions, antiquarian book fairs and the like. When I was eight, I forsook all of my Tonka trucks, and my favorite Slinky, and began reading, collecting, trading, and sometimes selling Oz and Thornton W. Burgess books.

In 1995, I began my business as a full-time bookseller.

My firm buys and sells rare books & historical manuscripts of American origin or context, particularly materials published or created in the 18th and 19th centuries. I have a small staff and we work with individual collectors and institutions as they form new collections or expand upon those already established.

We regularly issue printed catalogs and online e-lists featuring new and select items from our inventory. You will find us exhibiting at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, held yearly in the Spring at the Park Avenue Armory, or at similar bookish events.

Member: Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. Manuscript Society. Ephemera Society. The Grolier Club.

07/22/2022

Image detail from an unusually fine copy of The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois’s landmark work in which his prophecy is presented: that the problem of the 20th century is that of the color line.

“It is one of the note worthy books not merely of the period but of the epoch. The monumental work was the opening salvo in the struggle that has dominated the century for black and white Americans: the quest for dignity, justice and equality.” (Blockson 101)

More information on this copy can be found by visiting our website, RareAmericana.com

07/21/2022

We're pleased to have placed this very unusual document. Defending her liberty by taking legal action, this 1791 deposition was signed by a free African American woman in New York City, accusing a man of stealing from her a £14 note and her “freedom Paper.”

A sheet of paper at Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library shows how a Black woman sought—and won—justice in 1791 America.

10/30/2015

On the Eve of the Civil War, an Illustrated Circular depicts a Maryland Idyll

10/12/2015

Selling a Naptha Boat made c. 1893 in the Bronx. Grab your sea shells, we're selling you a boat and we've got the chromolithography to prove it..

Clever and chromolithographic – A shape-book sells naphtha-fueled boats in 1893

10/09/2015

American History in Images: Rare Photographs, Engravings, Rare Prints, Original Drawings

What do we consider to be “Visual Americana?” Simply, American history in images

10/01/2015

An interesting archive of real photo postcards.

C. 1910s: An Archive of Real Photo Postcards of the USS Paducah, patrolling Cuba, and the Tropics

09/27/2015

A rare diminutive vest pocket map of Kansas issued by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.

Indian Territory, 1880s: A rare and promotional, a folding map of Kansas issued by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railr…

09/21/2015

An 18th century American almanac offers a vibrant graphic.

A Total Eclipse for the Smart: The 18th century almanac was the bread and butter of many American booksellers

09/21/2015

Heading back to the classroom in the 19th century.

A pre-1895 school school class photograph by Stacy’s Photographic Parlors of Rahway, New Jersey