Collection Detail

Buffalo BillNewton and DorothyJules Verne

Newton Powers Tomkinson (1874-1936) was aligned with history even as a child. As an infant he was held by none other than Sitting Bull, the famed Lakota Sioux war chief. Born in Philadelphia, Tomkinson’s father took him to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia where they met Sitting Bull, who deigned to hold the child. As Tomkinson grew to adulthood, he became a renowned Philadelphia lawyer, eventually admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In addition to his law career, Tomkinson was an early collector of autographs from personalities of both his era and those before, as evidenced by the assortment offered in this auction. Signatures of presidents, U.S. Civil War officers, poets and authors, as well as Wild West personalities like Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley populate the July auction, courtesy the Newton Powers Tomkinson Collection.

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