Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
4to in marbled paper boards, over 150pp. Compiled by Jim Bulkley, Secretary of the Custer Monument committee in Monroe, MI. The scrapbook contains articles from all over the nation concerning the Battle of Little Big Horn and the fall-out there from, as well as the efforts to have monuments erected at Custer's hometown in Monroe and at the USMA at West Point. Bulkley, a close friend of Custer, even included several of his railroad passes used to raise funds and research the monument. The newspaper articles are cut from the papers and glued to the album pages. Many have the name of the paper written in the margin or across the top of the article, but not all are so identified. Some of the pamphlets are glued to the extra "flaps" that were bound into these types of albums for that purpose (thus the album has more pages than the manufacturer included if one counts all of the pamphlet pages). Articles are from The New York Times, NY Evening News, Free Press, Boston Gazette, Spirit of the Times, Chicago Times, NY Evening Post, The Sun, Bismarck Tribune, Monroe Commercial, The Poughkeepsie Weekly News, Toledo Blade, Elmira (NY) Daily Gazette, The Evening Express, Detroit Post & Tribune, Cincinnati Enquirer, and more.
Some of the highlights include: in an article noted as being from the Chicago Times that is primarily an interview with Generals Sheridan and Sherman. It gives a real flavor for the mood of the nation, in the days and weeks after the reports of the "massacre" started coming in. In part: Gen. Sheridan, conversing with a reporter on the Custer massacre, said that the truth was the army was unable to carry out the purposes of the government in the Indian country by reason of its weakness. "I have," he said, "sent every man I could spare into that region, even taking troops from Laramie and Salt Lake. The government in its wisdom directs the doing of certain things in these regions. It directs an expedition like this of Terry, an expedition necessary for the development of that country. We do the best we can with our material, but we are in no condition to do the work required of us.... We are doing this at the special request of the Indian Department. It does not originate with the War Department at all. Our purpose is to drive these Indians, who are of the very wildest and most savage sort, down on the reservation. You can say that we will do it now or exterminate them." A similar opinion is expressed in the headlines from The Evening Mail of July 11: They Must Die...A Popular Demand that Custer's Fiendish Conquerors be Obliterated from the Earth...
While not many articles had illustrations. On page 10 of the scrapbook is a map (source uncertain, on newsprint) of "The Gold Regions of the Black Hills..." showing locations not only of the battlefield, but also reservations, forts, etc. On pages 26-29 are lithographs of the "Custer Clan" (without George) from the Daily Graphic: Tom Custer, James Calhoun (the Custers' brother-in-law), Boston Custer and Henry Reed (a nephew), all dead in the battle. An article on p. 34 notes under the heading "The Slain Custers," that ...by this disaster, Mrs. Calhoun (Margaret Custer Calhoun) loses a husband, three brothers and a nephew. Margaret was left to "maintain" the remaining Custer family, apparently taking over support of the parents that had been Tom's responsibility.
On pages 17-18 of the scrapbook is a rare Extra from the Bismarck Tribune dated July 7, 1876, which is thought to be the first listing of the dead and wounded at Little Big Horn. On page 65 is the account from the Monroe Commercial, with black mourning borders (and the only article to do so), recounting the news of the battle and the loss of the town's "favorite son." Within weeks, the New York Herald began the effort to raise funds for a monument, and offered $1000 to "seed the pot."
And evidence that "conspiracy theories" are nothing new: Sept. 20, 1876 (possibly the NYT or other NYC paper) had headlines: Was Custer Sacrificed? A new Version of the Little Big Horn Massacre....His Surviving Comrades Refrain from Doing him Justice for Fear of Incurring Grant’s Vengeance.
And a response to those who wanted to wipe the Indians from the face of the earth: New York Mail, July 1876 - In the midst of the excitement raised by the Custer massacre, the country may be hurried into a cruel and disgraceful policy in regard to the Indians. Even an Indian may have some claim on our sense of justice and humanity. Our Indian policy has been by no means, a perfect one, and the bloody deed which has justly excited our indignation is one which the imperfections of our policy has rendered possibly. The time has come for a radical change of our policy. But that change need not be a cruel one. The clamor raised for extermination, or for bloody and wholesale retaliation, ought not to be yielded to. Such a policy would be simply inhuman and criminal. ... This doesn’t mean they were "Injun lovers," however. Later in the column: At the bottom of all the trouble is the nomad condition of the tribes. All nomads are savages.... Allot homesteads to each family, with an outfit sufficient to start them in a way of self-support, and then let them work for what they shall eat. Let the Indians be all disarmed, and let them be no longer recognized as tribes authorized to make war on us.... [Didn't work for the Cherokee, they were still "removed."] They go on to note - something that we still need to remember: ...We want no cruel retaliation that would degrade the American people to the moral level with the savages we would punish....
It didn't take long for dissenting voices to be heard, and elicit nasty remarks in the margins by friend Bulkley. An anonymous Chicago Times author notes: There has been a good deal of very stupid fault-finding with the conduct of the present campaign. He then outlines the campaign, and Sheridan, Crook and Terry’s parts in it (with a long diversion as to whether Sheridan was wrong by locating his headquarters in Chicago). Clearly, the only SENSIBLE MOVEMENT was precisely the one adopted....It may as well be understood that the general outlines of the campaign were carefully and well planned, and that they will bear the most severe criticism without damage. It may as well be understood...that the failure in Terry’s movements... is not the fault of Grant, or Sherman, or of the peace policy, or of anything else in the world save CUSTER’S RASHNESS and inexcusable disobedience of orders. The Times does not wish to say an unkind thing of the dead cavalryman; but the truth of history and justice to the living imperatively demand that the responsibility of this disaster be placed where it belongs.
Custer’s orders were explicit to scout the country...and to hold the enemy in check until the main body should come up....If carried out, its result would have been success. Custer, however, overmarched his men, and then, without giving them time for rest, charged directly into a force 10 times greater than his own. What his motives were has no bearing whatever. It may be that he was soured by his treatment at Washington; but this is absolutely no excuse for leading other men to certain death....The country may as well reach a just conclusion in this case,... There was no "massacre." Custer fell in a fair fight which he himself invited and inaugurated; and which resulted as it did wholly from his rashness, his desire to distinguish himself, to his personal and entirely unwarranted ambition. Whew!
Pages 63-64 have an Autobiography of Sitting Bull in his own pictures. There are a few other reports from Indians, including an interview with Sitting Bull from 1877. Near the end of the scrapbook is an article by W. Kent Thomas, "Little Big Horn," that is thought to be the first printed report (or rumor) that Rain-in-the-Face cut out Tom Custer's heart.
Over the years, descriptions of Custer's offices, birthplace, homestead, etc. were published to keep the interest level high and the donations for monuments coming in. The New York Herald, Aug. 6, 1879 described the office/shrine in Monroe. After describing the many heads and stuffed game animals surrounding the room: ...In one corner of the room is a stand of arms, containing military and sporting rifles, shot guns, muzzle and breech loaders, and two or three pairs of revolvers, one of which is very elaborate, with pearl handles and gold mountings. Under TROPHIES OF WAR the author notes: His headquarters’ flags, with captured colors and other trophies, hang upon the walls, while the floor is strewn with rare and sumptuous peltries of the valuable fur-bearing animals, making an interior which would delight an artist and which has few counterparts. Perhaps the most interesting article in the room, or the one with the most interesting associations, is one which I have omitted to mention. It is a little oval table, and no other than the one upon which was signed the articles of capitulation between Lee and Grant at Appomattox Court House. This most interesting historical relic was presented by General Sheridan to Mrs. Custer shortly after the surrender of Lee, accompanied by a very appropriate note, in which the genuineness of the piece of furniture was fully authenticated.
After approximately page 100, the articles about the monuments become more numerous. Page 103 has a broadside of the unveiling of the Custer statue at West Point (see lot 383), along with photographs of the unveiling of the statue. What Bulkley didn't include were the many complaints Libbie made about how much she hated the West Point monument. She succeeded in getting it removed, leaving only the plinth as a monument. The whereabouts of the statue today is unknown, but most assume it was melted down for other statues. Mrs. Custer worked even more feverishly after that for a statue in Monroe. It did not come to fruition until 1910, 35 years after the "massacre," but Libbie liked this one. It remains in Monroe today.
Overall an interesting group of articles, pamphlets and broadsides.
The Thomas Minckler Collection of Western Americana
Condition: As expected for newsprint with adhesive. All album pages are wrinkled from glue on both sides, but most of it is readable. A couple pages have stuck together sometime in the past, making those articles somewhat problematic, but it is only a few, and the information is probably in another article.
Auction Location:
6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
Previewing Details:
Tuesday, June 23, 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, June 24 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Taxes:
| Tax | Rate | Desc. |
| Ohio |
5.5% |
Ohio State Tax |
Buyer's Premiums:
| From (Incl.) | To (Excl.) | Premium |
| 0.00 |
Infinite |
17.5% |
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