NEW YORK.- Philadelphia businessman Jay T. Snider announcec the sale at auction of his preeminent Americana collection related to the City of Brotherly Love. Formed over the last fifteen years by Mr. Snider, this comprehensive collection chronicles the history and growth of the birthplace of freedom.

The auction, to be held in November at Bloomsbury Auctions in New York, encompasses books, manuscripts, broadsides, maps and views of or concerning Philadelphia from its 1681 founding to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. It is believed to be the largest such grouping of material in private hands and is expected to yield in excess of $3,000,000.

Highlights from the early colonial material in the collection include documents and letters by William Penn, Jonathan Dickinson, James Logan and other prominent early Philadelphians and a stunning hand-colored copy of Thomas Holme's A Mapp of ye Improved Part of Pensilvania.

Material related to Benjamin Franklin is well represented by a 1729 unrecorded bound volume of mortgage deeds printed by Franklin and believed to be the earliest such imprint to appear at auction, as well as first editions of treaties with Native Americans printed by Franklin and other important works from his press. Other colonial material of note includes Nicholas Scull's excessively rare 1759 Map of Pennsylvania, as well as a lovely example of Scull and George Heap's East Prospect of the City of Philadelphia.

As Philadelphia played a central role in the movement for independence, the collection includes stellar pieces related to the American Revolution, including a remarkable 1781 Philadelphia newspaper extra detailing the fall of Yorktown and a rare broadside issued by the Continental Congress announcing the end of the war.

The Federal period is highlighted by a highly-important autograph letter signed by founding father James Madison, discussing in detail the relationship between the Constitution and the Common Law.

Pictorial material in the auction, much from the famed collection of Martin Snyder, includes the first edition of William Birch's scarce volume of views of Philadelphia -- the first American color plate book and a noted rarity, and a wonderful group of 19th century printed and original watercolor views of the city, including examples by William and Thomas Birch, Augustus Kollner, John Rubens Smith, James Queen, J.W. Hill and other noted Philadelphia artists. Also in the sale is a unique bound volume of some of the earliest photographs of the city, assembled by 19th century Philadelphia historian Joseph Jeanes.

Mr. Snider is planning on gifting a percentage of the sale to subsidize acquisitions by select Philadelphia institutions. A Philadelphia exhibition of highlights will be held prior to the November auction.