MARLBOROUGH, MASS.- This spring’s Fine Books & Manuscripts online-only auction will open for bidding on Wednesday, May 18 at 12 PM and conclude on Thursday, May 26 at 3PM.

The auction features a well-rounded selection of unique documents and rare printed books, including three documents signed by George Washington (Lots 1107, 1108, & 1109); a large archive of letters and notes by Nantucket whaler Seth Pinkham (Lot 1072, estimated between $10,000 and $15,000); a rare large-format signed photograph of Charles Dickens (Lot 1025, $8,000-$10,000); an early John F. Kennedy letter written just after the death of his brother Joe in 1944 (Lot 1053, $7,000-$9,000); a manuscript leaf from Henry David Thoreau’s Cape Cod (Lot 1099, $6,000-$8,000); two signed photographs of Theodore Roosevelt (Lots 1083 and 1085); and other interesting original material.

The history of science is represented by first editions of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (Lot 1144, $60,000-$80,000); Alfred Russel Wallace’s A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon (Lot 1267, $2,000-$3,000) and The Malay Archipelago (Lot 1268, $2,000-$3,000); the first separate edition of Albert Einstein’s Foundation of the Generalized Theory of Relativity in German, 1916 (Lot 1163, $4,000-$6,000); and a first edition of John James Audubon’s octavo Birds of North America (Lot 1127, $30,000-$35,000).

Illustrated books are also featured in the auction, along with Audubon and other natural history prints and a very strong section of historic maps. Other highlights include a very early Helen Keller letter (Lot 1051, $3,000-$5,000) and a stunning illuminated manuscript from 1917 by Jessie Bayes (Lot 1131, $15,000-$17,000).