Swanns Nov. 21 auction of Printed and Manuscript Americana brought $608,036, landing squarely in the pre-sale estimates, with 234 of the 320 lots offered finding buyers. This auction found collectors going back to basics, with particularly strong results for the early Colonial period, the Constitution and early republic, and especially the Civil War, perhaps part of an increasing interest in the foundations of the American experiment, noted specialist Rick Stattler following the auction. The sale was led by a rare 1643 first edition of New Englands First Fruits, selling at $60,000, which examined the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first years and Harvard Colleges establishment. Additional top lots includedthe 1815 Catalogue of the Library of the United States, which described Thomas Jeffersons personal library, the initial core of the Library of Congress ($30,000), as well as three important Mormon lots relating to founder Joseph Smith: a diary of an 1833 mission to western New York with Joseph Smith ($50,000); a family register of Brigham Young written by Rhoda Richards, one of Smiths plural wives ($20,000); and a pair of deeds signed by Smiths grandfather and uncle ($27,500). Book highlights included a 1784 to 1793 volume of Connecticut acts and laws featuring an early printing of the Constitution made after the Revolution ($15,000) and Agustn de Moras rare illustrated 1701 Mexican book El sol eclypsado antes de llegar al zenid ($8,125), making its first appearance at auction since Swann sold another copy in 1946. Ephemera included the cover lot, a tintype sheet of 1860 presidential candidate campaign photographs ($11,875), and a set of three ca. 1790 engravings of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, which showcase early views of one of the most visited Catholic pilgrimage sites ($7,000). Large archives included papers of Consul James Maury and his family (Maurys father had been Thomas Jeffersons teacher), ($5,750); family papers of noted physician Cornelius R. Agnew ($13,750); and records of the Sterling Iron & Railway Company in Orange County, N.Y. ($4,250). No Swann Americana auction is complete without a great diary. Notable manuscript diaries included Catherine Colver Williams, a mother searching the South for her lost soldier son in the Civil War ($5,750); W. Everette Clark, a Civil War hospital worker describing Lincoln, contraband, and more ($7,000); and the journal of the whaling ship Hunter out of New Bedford, Mass. ($12,500). The sale established several new auction records. A panorama view of the Gold Rush boomtown of Dawson City, Yukon Territory, brought $1,875, a record for photographer Floyd W. Sheelor; the Civil War pamphlet The United States Conscription Law of 1863, which established the military draft, brought a record $4,250; Kate Cummings Journal ofHospitalLifein the Confederate Army, 1866, brought $2,210. Daniel P. Smiths Three Years in the Confederate Service, 1885, realized $2,375. To learn more, visit www.swanngalleries.com.