Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598

Sale 2598 - Lot 106

Price Realized: $ 75,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000
THE FIRST ALMANAC BENJAMIN BANNEKER. Banneker's . . . Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of our Lord, 1792. Anatomy engraving on page 6. [42 of 48] pages. 12mo, stitched; Banneker's name written thrice on title page, lacking leaves B5, B11, and B12, some loss to fore-edge not affecting text except for a few words on leaf B10, moderate dampstaining; uncut; several early ownership inscriptions in margins. Baltimore, MD: William Goddard and James Angell, [1791]
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Banneker's scarce first almanac. It begins with an endorsement by James McHenry, one of the signers of the Constitution: "Benjamin Banneker, a free Negro, has calculated an Almanack, for the ensuing year. . . . His father was an African, and his mother the offspring of African parents. . . . Whatever merit is attached to his present performance, is exclusively and peculiarly his own. . . . I consider this Negro as a fresh proof that the powers of the mind are disconnected with the colour of the skin. . . . I cannot but wish, on this occasion, to see the Public patronage keep pace with my black friend's merit." The editors add an additional note of support to introduce "an extraordinary Effort of Genius . . . calculated by a sable Descendant of Africa . . . controverting the long-established illiberal Prejudice against the Blacks."

Among the important dates noted in Banneker's almanac are Washington's birthday. Among the bits of information and wisdom which precede and follow the calendar portion, a note on page 5 reads "Needles first made in London, by a Negro, from Spain, in the reign of Q. Mary." Banneker sent the manuscript of this first almanac to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, which began a famous correspondence.

The title page appears in two states; this is apparently the second state with the author's name corrected from "Banniker." No others traced at auction since the 14 February 1985 John Howell sale, lot 42. Drake 2226; Evans 23148.