Books, Maps & Historical
Books, Maps & Historical
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The story of the human experience is told by our surviving material culture. The Leland Little Auctions Historical Department illustrates this collective narrative with important objects from all over the world, from a 16th century illuminated Koran to an Apollo 12 lunar module plate. In so doing, we regularly bring museum-quality artifacts to those individuals and institutions who will make sure these treasures survive for generations to come.
Contact
Emily Kerrigan
Books, Maps & Documents Director
emilyk@lelandlittle.com
Emily Kerrigan grew up surrounded by books in a family of booksellers and historians, and spent much of her early adulthood working in independent bookstores. After earning an MA in Art History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, completing her PhD coursework in Art History, and spending nearly two decades working in museums and teaching, she returned to her bookselling roots. In 2022 Emily attended Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar in Minnesota where she had the opportunity to learn from some of the country’s best booksellers. She has been working with books, maps, and a variety of historical documents and objects at Leland Little Auctions since 2023.
Current and Upcoming Auctions
Collectible Books, Maps, & Documents Auction
Jan 22, 2026, 10:00am
Upcoming: Winter Estate Auction
Feb 5, 2026, 9:00am
Exceptional Results
Explore Recent Stories
Anne of Green Gables and the Significance of Children's Books
"There is no friend as loyal as a book." - Ernest Hemingway
Art and Innovation in the Rare and Collectible Book Auction
Where Innovation Meets Art: A Life Changing, Illustrated Firefighting Manual
A Moment With Rob Golan
The Very Very Successful Anne Catharine Hoof Green
A Moment With Rob Golan
Tour the Collectible Coins & Rare Currency Auction with our Rare Coins & Historical Director, Rob Golan.
The Finer Points: The Art of Cartography
"Among the map makers of each generation are the risk takers, those who see the opportunities, seize the moment.." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Moment With Emily Kerrigan
"One of the great strengths (of this auction)...are the many illustrated books -- whether a medical book, a Bible, an art book of Picasso illustrations, a book of maps -- there is so much to enjoy in this Single-Owner Collection." - Emily Kerrigan, Historical and Book Cataloguer
An Insider's Look: My Bondage and My Freedom
"I shall place this book in the hands of the only child spared me, bidding him to strive and emulate its noble example." - Dr. James McCune Smith in his introduction to My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
A Moment With Emily Kerrigan
Over the years I have become very good at getting out of things I don't want to do. And if ever there was something I didn't want to do, this was surely it: to deal with the mother of a dead novelist and, worst of all, to have to read a manuscript that she said was 'great.' - Walker Percy
An Insider's Look: A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
First person impressions of life on Roanoke Island, between 1585 and 1586, by two, ultimately, very influential Englishmen.
Special Feature with Rob Golan
A Scholarly Collection of 19th Century American Military Longarms
The Discovery of the Venus de Milo in Print
What would be the use of describing it [The Venus de Milo]? Can we? A single glance makes her better known than all our words...
Musical Instruments in the Memorial Weekend Auction
"Rob and I have both been passionate about music, both as listeners as well as musicians." - Leland Little
An Insider's Look: Faces of the Civil War
Capturing life in the face of death, these documentary photographs show individual soldiers forever changed by the American Civil War.
A Revolution in Sound
Portable and Affordable Mechanical Music, A Revolution in Sound
The Science of Shadows
Measuring the Days with Shadow and Light
An Insider's Look: Inspired by the European Grand Tour
Back from your European getaway and longing for some of its beauty at home? We get it. Feeling inspired by our own travels and the tradition of the Grand Tour, we have curated this timeless selection of continental art, furniture, and decorative accessories from our End of Summer Estate Auction.
Exquisitely Beautiful Specimens of the Ambrotype
Our Rare Coins & Historical Director, Rob Golan, is proud to present a remarkable quarter-plate ambrotype of two young Confederate cavalrymen from Louisiana. This rare ambrotype, along with other ambrotypes and tintypes, was offered in our June Estate Auction.
Historical Archive Documenting the Final Weeks of Ulysses S. Grant
I have fought a Good Fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. - 2 Timothy 4:7 KJV
Five Things: What The Emancipation Proclamation, Organized Philanthropy, The Chicago Fire, & Suffrage Have In Common
On The Hunt
The world turns, the millennia pass, and the hunter becomes the hunted. But possibly not until the hunter is long-extinct and thoroughly fossilized. Robert E. Wilke, who spends his leisure time at the bottom of the ocean, hunting for Megalodon teeth, has reason to be glad for that reliable passage of time.
The Collection of Art Historian and Designer Sterling Boyd
A great eye is rarely confined to a single category. For Sterling Boyd, the synthesis of his extensive knowledge and impeccable style was a personal collection of art and antiques that brought together beauty and history.
A Window Onto An American Dynasty
As the record-breaking viewership of the current season of Netflix’s The Crown tells us, we are endlessly fascinated by what goes on behind the closed doors of the world’s royals.
