Bidding continues on historical pieces of American history at an auction in Dallas. Heritage Auctions' "Historical Platinum Signature Auction" continues through Saturday.
"They're some of the most important touchstone moments in American and world history," says Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena.
Among the items up for bid is a copy of the Declaration of Independence that was printed in Massachusetts between July 14 and July 16, 1776. It was the first copy of the Declaration of Independence printed in Massachusetts.
"This is the real Declaration of Independence. This is how you and I learned the fate of what happened to us," Maddalena says. "This is truly one of the greatest pieces of American history."
Wednesday afternoon, bidding for the print was $1 million. Heritage estimates the final bid will be between $2.5 and $3 million.
"You have to have that moment when you're holding this thing or looking at it, 'What did this mean to these people?'" Maddalena says. "To this very day, we're arguing as a society about who we are. They told us. They told us how to interact with each other. They told us how to be cordial and civil. They laid out a groundwork with the Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights that guides us to this very day."
Other items include letters and other papers signed by John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and John Hancock.
Several items signed by George Washington are among lots that will be auctioned. In one letter from 1780, he wrote to Constitutional Convention Delegate George Mason about issues the Continental Army was facing.
"We are without money, and have been so for a great length of time; without provision and forage, except what is taken by impress; without cloathing [sic], and shortly shall be (in a manner) without men. In a word we have lived upon expedients till we can live no longer, and it may truly be said that the history of this war, is a history of false hopes and temporary devices, instead of system, and œconomy [sic] which results from it," Washington wrote.
"These are really important pieces of American history because you're in the moment," Maddalena says. "'We're struggling. We're losing the Revolutionary War. Nothing is going well. We have no clothes, no money.' Washington's complaining, saying, 'Look if this doesn't stop, we're going to lose the war.' That puts you in the moment."
Other items include reward posters for the capture of John Wilkes Booth, John Surrat and David Harold after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The reward for the capture of all three totalled $100,000.
"Photography just was born a few years earlier, no internet, there's no way to transmit this information," Maddalena says. "When the government decided to offer a $100,000 reward, which is a gigantic amount of money in 1865, they had to describe what Booth looks like because the average person doesn't have access to a photograph."
Maddalena says later printings did include photographs.
Items from the 20th century include a letter from a 16 year old who was onboard the Titanic. Maddalena says Thomas Mudd sent the letter from the only port where Titanic docked after leaving Southampton and before sinking.
"We have been having very rough weather but the ship is so steady you would hardly know it was moving, was it not for the throbbing of the engines," Mudd wrote.
"This is Tom writing his mom, talking about how amazing the voyage is, full of hope and literally within hours of the greatest maritime disaster in history," Maddalena says.
The starting bid for the letter is $40,000.
Marilyn Monroe's first contract has a current bid of $11,500. She signs the contract with her given name, Norma Jeane Dougherty.
"This is the birth of Marilyn Monroe. She's still Norma Jeane. That's incredible," Maddalena says. "She had no idea she'd even be successful nor would she be Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe doesn't exist yet."
A letter from Ringo Starr to his girlfriend has a starting bid of $50,000.
"I got a phone call asking me would I join the Beatles and I said yes and I left Rory," he wrote. "I am doing verry [sic] well with the new group we have a record out [Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You]."
Other items include Jesse James' Colt .45, a map of Texas owned by Sam Houston, a handwritten manuscript by Sigmund Freud and Martin Luther King Jr.'s signed room receipt from the hotel where he stayed the night before he was assassinated.
"I look for documents and artifacts that are really and truly the best," Maddalena says. "Everything in this auction is of that stature."
The auction continues through July 8.
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