Three copies of the first book printed in Jackson County, Missouri, where I live, A Book of Commandments, 1833.

Numerous hymn books, including a half-dozen copies of a rare book of Sacred Hymns, from Kirtland, Ohio, 1835; several copies of the second edition from Nauvoo, Illinois; and many associated hymn books of that period from 1835-1864.

Any early book of scripture, particularly multiple copies of any American scriptures or ancient historical writings discovered in or published in America, many in early treed calf bindings; particularly those printed between 1830 and 1856.

Select early American Bibles, ranging from the Holy Bible from Cooperstown, New York, 1828; to the Holy Scriptures from Plano, Illinois, 1867, bound in gilded scarlet goatskin.

Arguably the most significant private collection of rare bound volumes of American newspapers, 1830-1856, and rare tracts in original printed wrappers, 1830-1880.

Books about American cultural tolerance, including certain religious books owned by American slaves; as well as books written by civil rights leaders of the 19th Century who ran for public office as high as the presidency, including presidential campaign pamphlets from 1844.

The only copy in private hands of a book printed in America by a crowned king on a royal press.

A complete copy of a rare religious book in uncut sheets, that was rescued from a frontier mob that destroyed its press.

A rare 1848 pamphlet by Lyman Wight, the founder of the Texas settlement where the ancestors of my children lived.

Rare religious art, including Mississippi River scenes of a Latter Day temple by the western artist Seth Eastman, the largest existing portrait collection painted by the folk artist and pattern maker named Sutcliffe Maudsley, and a portrait by David W. Rogers.

A hand-carved sun-faced white Mississippi limestone sculpture that is partner to the one that the Smithsonian Institution has displayed next to the original Old Glory flag.

Rare black and white photography of churches and other architecturally important buildings, like the earliest known photograph of the “The House of the Lord” in Kirtland, Ohio.

The most important book written by Alexander Campbell, founder of the other Church of Christ, published at Boston, 1832; and a similar book by E. D. Howe printed in Painesville, Ohio. Even children’s books, such as the first popular Americanized edition of Mother Goose’s Melodies, 1833, with hand-colored engravings, and other unusual and frequently overlooked curiosities.

All materials consequential to early American religions, especially the earliest members of the Church of Christ organized in upstate New York in 1830.

Everything related to the history of religions in upstate New York, 1820-1831; Ohio, 1831-1837; Missouri, 1831-1839; Illinois, 1839-1848; Wisconsin, 1844-1856; Michigan and Lake Michigan (particularly the Islands of the Great Lakes), 1846-1856; and Utah and the West, 1847-1857.

Everything written by or about the earliest Latter Day Saints, the primitive founders of a restored American religion, before the settlement of the West.

Twenty-five thousand related religious items: early maps, diaries, manuscripts, letters, minute books, newspapers, books, tracts, broadsides, association artifacts, sculptures, paintings, sketches, prints, early photographs, and so forth.

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