The Raab Collection announced today that it has acquired a remarkable collection of historical documents, stretching back nearly 700 years, focusing on great moments in history, a collection assembled a century ago and passed down in one family for generations until we obtained it.
“This collection has the gift of immediacy,” said Nathan Raab, principal at The Raab Collection and author of The Hunt for History. “It captures great men and women at important events, and serves as an emotional tie and inspiration to today’s collectors.”
Among the documents:
Once More Unto the Breach: A French Document, Dated During the Harfleur Siege and Just Before Agincourt, Describing the Peril Faced by the French from the Forces of English King Henry V, Made Famous by Shakespeare
Of the men fighting off King Henry: “They are alone inside the town and there are provisions necessary for their help.”; This incredible document mentions 2 figures who appear in Shakespeare’s work: the commander at Harfleur and the commander at Agincourt
The First Official Act Implementing the Peace Treaty between Great Britain and the United States That Ended the American Revolution
To fulfill the American/British agreement, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay authorize a resumption of trade between the formerly warring nations
Nelson Heads to Trafalgar: The Very Day Nelson Announced He Would Accept Britain’s Call to Head to Trafalgar, He Laments to His Former Commander: “Perhaps I may see you in Winter but that depends upon others”
An unpublished letter, written the month before his death, with franking signature, and mentioning Lady Hamilton, echoing his famous note of the previous day: “I expected to lay my weary bones quiet for the Winter, but I ought perhaps to be proud of the general call which has made me to go forth.”
The Earliest Letter of Catherine the Great as Tsarina to Have Reached the Market
This famous letter, written just 3 days after her coronation, was first published in 1865 as part of one of the earliest illustrated compilations of autographs, a work which is included
From Herschel’s Library: The Original Doctorate Awarded to the Great Astronomer William Herschel, for Discovering Uranus and His Other Astronomical Achievements in Nebulas, Variable Stars, and Infra-red Rays
Herschels is the only discovery of a planet in our solar system since the ancient Babylonians; The awarding institution, the University of Glasgow, was part of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century
Just Two Months Before His Death, Houdini Orders Rare Books on Magic and Spiritualism and Looks to Collect Autographs Relating to Magic
Anything connecting Houdini to the greats of his craft is uncommon
About Raab & The Hunt for History: In 2020 (hardcover) and 2021 (paperback), Scribner published Nathan’s fascinating book from the rarified world of historical document dealing – THE HUNT FOR HISTORY: On the Trail of the World’s Lost Treasures—from the Letters of Lincoln, Churchill, and Einstein to the Secret Recordings Onboard JFK’s Air Force One. In the book by Nathan, whom Library Journal has compared to the Indiana Jones of historical document hunting, he shares amazing stories from the families and institutions who’ve called on him to authenticate rare and revelatory letters that will often fetch thousands and thousands of dollars. Among these stories: powerful letters of President Reagan to his daughter, pleading for family unity; the discovery of an early version of the JFK assassination tapes with 40 minutes of new information; Theodore Roosevelt’s letter home from Yellowstone to his young son, who would die in World War I.
Raab has worked with the families of many great historical figures on the treasures that have descended to them, including Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James K. Polk, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Gerald Ford, Signers of the Declaration of Independence, senior leadership in the Civil War, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It has worked to bring to the market many unpublished historical archives from all over the world.
