Sale 320

U.S. and Worldwide Stamps and Postal History


PROMINENT WORLD FIGURES
 
 
Lot Photo Description
Lot 1066
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born physicist, discovered relativity, Nobel Prize for physics (1921).

Autograph Letter Signed, 22 Oct 1920, signed "Albert", personal note on postcard from Leyden, where he was to give a lecture on his Theory of Relativity [ultimately the lecture was on 27 Oct], to his wife in Berlin; also a signature across a set of 1946 Swedish stamps honoring Alfred Nobel.
Estimate 5,000 - 7,500

Einstein renounced his German citizenship when Hitler rose to power. In 1940 he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Upon hearing of Nazi Germany's successful experiments with nuclear fission, he wrote to U.S. President Roosevelt urging the initiation of a U.S. nuclear research program. In 1952, after the death of Chaim Weizmann, Einstein was offered and refused Presidency of Israel (1952).

View details and enlarged photo
Lot 1067
Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974), U.S. Aviator, made first solo flight across the Atlantic (1927), first "Time" magazine Man of the Year (1927).

Airmail cover originally flown by Linbergh in February 1928, signed "Charles A. Linbergh, May 1940"; also a scathing letter written to Linbergh from Great Britain in October 1941, decrying his public isolationist and pro-Nazi views, in part "…what did Hitler promise you?" and "…do not go down to [sic] history in the light that nearly all Americans think of you now…In short…be a real man and a true American".
Estimate 750 - 1,000
View details and enlarged photo
Lot 1068
Pope Pius XI (1857-1939), Signed a concordat with the Nazis in 1933 guaranteeing freedom for the Catholic Church in Germany; in 1939 charged Hitler's government with "evasion" and "violation" of the concordat and of "…sowing suspicion discord, hatred and calumny…" He forecasts "…threatening storm clouds of destructive religious wars…which have no other aim than of extermination."

Document Signed, 7 Jan 1937, printed message in Latin to the people of Costa Rica; Fine condition with folds and edge tears, none of which result in paper loss or affect the text.
Estimate 500 - 750
View details and enlarged photo