CHICAGO, IL.- For natural history print collectors, the auction includes a unique proof copy of Audubon’s Great Blue Heron, from The Birds of America ($80,000-$120,000). Other Audubon prints from The Birds of America include The Large Billed Puffin, Wilson’s Phalarope, and Sooty Tern, and from the Quadrupeds of North America, a rare study of Townsend’s Ground Squirrel, attributed to Audubon, that is expected to exceed its preliminary estimate of $4,000-6,000. The highlight of the History of Science session is an exceptional copy of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica that was gifted to the present owners by Bern Dibner of the Dibner Library of Science and Technology, and is expected to sell for over $15,000.

High spots of Americana include a reverse glass painted and mother-of-pearl inlaid train sign made for the Rock Island System Railroad. The sign, one of 50 created in the late nineteenth-century, is estimated at $20,000-$30,000. Presidential autograph collectors will be enticed by Continental Army discharge papers signed by George Washington ($6,000-$8,000), a ship’s passport signed by Andrew Jackson ($1,000-2,000), and the Complete Works of Lincoln which includes 142 presidential and political autographed documents, estimated at $25,000-$30,000.

Other highlights include illuminated manuscripts from the collection of David H. Gee; illustration and animation art, featuring an original Charles Schulz Peanuts comic strip ($10,000-$15,000); a first edition of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ($2,000-$4,000); and a significant collection of rare bibles and theological works from the library of Herman Blum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Public previews for the auction will be held on Sunday, August 5, 12pm – 4pm, Monday, August 6, 10am – 5pm, and Tuesday, August 7, 10pm – 5pm. A fully illustrated catalogue is available at www.lesliehindman.com.