Bob Beckwith with President George W Bush at Ground Zero. Photograph: Nate D Sanders Auctions
This week’s auction has autographed photos and papers. Neil Armstrong’s shot of Buzz Aldrin on the moon, Rosa Parks’ bus photograph, and Nick Ut’s photo of Kim Phuc escaping napalm in Vietnam all for sale.
During Operation Neptune Spear, when US Navy Seals invaded Osama bin Laden’s compound, critical moments are captured in a situation room image that Joe Biden has personally signed. Keep the faith! is signed. Mr. Joe Biden
Picture: Reuters/Pete Souza
On her first day of classes at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, Elizabeth Eckford shows up. I am one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American teenagers who became the first black students to ever enroll in courses at the formerly all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957, according to excerpts from her handwritten autobiography. […] I saw Arkansas National Guard members around the campus as I made my way to the school. […] The troops lined up to block me as I approached, shoulder to shoulder. I continued walking till I came to a halt beside another sidewalk that led to the school. The state militia blocked me this time by crossing their firearms. […]. An irate throng began after me as soon as I entered the street and began yelling abuses. In front of me, photographers were moving backwards. “Get a rope,” someone shouted. Hurl her toward the tree! We should hang her! Other speakers yelled and yelled threats. I tried to find aid. She spit on me as I approached an old lady with a kind expression. Two white middle-aged reporters attempted to console me as the crowd pursued me to the bus stop. The crowd’s rage escalated as one reporter hugged me across my shoulders.
Image by Will Counts/AP
A rare shot from Apollo 11 that Buzz Aldrin has autographed. The image is a visor shot in which Neil Armstrong is seen photographing Aldrin on the moon as his reflection is seen in the visor.
Image credit: NASA/Neil Armstrong
President George W. Bush and firefighter Bob Beckwith visited Ground Zero on September 14, 2001. Hoping to have a good view of the President, I went up on a covered engine next to the command post, according to Beckwith. I was contacted by a member of the secret service who inquired about my safety. It’s a fire engine, I added. Jump on it, he commanded. Then I did. There’s someone coming over here, he said. When he does, you assist him in standing before getting down. Then I did. The President then appeared. He was walking toward the command post when all of a sudden he turned and came walking toward me. He extended his hand to me, and I helped him get up before turning to face me and asking, “Are you OK, Mr. President?” “Yes,” he answered. Where are you going? he said as I began to descend. I was instructed to sit down. “No, you stay here,” he responded. He started speaking to the crowd. “We can’t hear you,” cried the audience. I can hear you, he yelled via a bullhorn. The rest of the world hears you, and soon the individuals responsible for demolishing these structures will also hear us all. They started screaming “USA, USA, USA” I said, “Look at me now, I’m with the President,” while pointing upward to heaven. Bob Beckwith, from New York City
Picture: White House/Getty Images/Eric Draper
President Donald J. Trump has signed the articles of impeachment. House Resolution 755, titled “Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors,” has his prominent signature over the top half of the page.
Nate D. Sanders Auctions, in picture
A shot of Kim Phuc Phan Thi, often known as “Napalm Girl,” taken by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut during the Vietnam War On June 8, 1972, we were permitted to play inside a temple close to the bomb shelter, according to Kim Phuc. After lunch, I recall, we heard some fire crackling outside, and the soldier immediately ordered the kids to leave the temple. The aircraft were incredibly loud and rapid, as I could see. I didn’t know anything when I was a kid. I then cocked my head. Four bombs touched down, and then all of a sudden, there was flames all around me. Nobody else caught my eye. I saw the fire on my left arm after the flames had burnt off my clothing. I rolled it up with my right hand. My right hand also suffered burns as a result of this. I used my hands to extinguish the fire. I was in fear. I then continued running indefinitely till I was unable to continue. A soldier then sprayed water on my skin. I fainted at that same time. “Napalm girl,” Phan Thi Kim Phuc, is 9 years old. After that, Kim Phuc penned Henry Kissinger’s order for the bombing campaign in Vietnam and Cambodia: Henry Kissinger once said, “Anything that flies on anything that moves”
Photograph: Nick Ut/Associated Press
FBI wanted poster for Osama bin Laden, inscribed with “Barack Obama.” Operation Neptune Spear, the successful operation to assassinate the al-Qaida head, was authorized by President Obama in 2011.
Image: Nate D. Sanders Auctions
When Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President Bush in 2008, it became known as the “shoeing incident.” Zaidi explains his motivation for approaching the US president, a defiant move that would result in a three-year jail sentence for attacking a foreign head of state: Everyone had been repeating George W. Bush’s assertion that we had welcomed him with flowers, and sadly, the whole world had fallen for this deception. Because of this, my plan was to come up with a solution that complied with Newton’s Third Law, which states that “there is an equal and opposite reaction to every action.” I pursued George W. Bush everywhere in order to throw my shoes at him and demonstrate my disapproval to the world. I anticipated being murdered for it. He claims I was attempting to draw attention to myself, but I respond by pointing out that my people are being killed and denied of their rights. It is a nonviolent statement of opposition to mass murder. I recently seen a painting by GW. What a coincidence that Bush and Hitler, two men who steeped themselves in war, were artists. (Muntadhar al-Zaidi)
Image: Nate D. Sanders Auctions
Rosa Parks is seen in a picture with her signature while riding a bus, a simple act that resulted in her incarceration in 1955.
Image courtesy of Bettmann
Archive/Getty Images
A picture of President John F. Kennedy giving his well-known statement on the moon landing before 1970 on September 12, 1962. Charlie Duke, an astronaut on Apollo 16, autographed the photo and included a phrase from JFK’s “We Choose to Go to the Moon” address. Not because they are simple, but because they are difficult, we decide to get to the moon this decade.
White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library photo by Robert Knudsen
A facsimile of Barack Obama’s birth certificate, on which the 44th US president proudly signed his name to attest to his 4 August 1961 birth in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Image: Nate D. Sanders Auctions
John Pasche created the Tongue and Lips logo for the Rolling Stones in 1970 while still a young art student. At the time, he had no idea that he would be producing one of the most immediately recognizable pop artworks of the contemporary age.
Image credit: John Pasche
Thanks to The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.