Seth Kaller, Inc.

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[FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT]. Broadside. Auction Sale / I will offer for sale to the highest bidder, at the White House (near / the empty Treasury Building), no place, [c. 1936]. 11½ x 5⅜ in., on orange paper.

Inventory #22817       SOLD — please inquire about other items

Excerpt

“Auction Sale / I will offer for sale to the highest bidder, at the White House (near / the empty Treasury Building), Washington, D.C., at / 10 o’clock on / Wednesday,  Jan. 20, 1937 / the following described property, to-wit:

1 Democratic National Platform - Never Used - As Good as New.

1 Aged Donkey, unbroken - good brayer

1 Carload Feeding Cattle - if not shot before time of sale.

Quantity FERA Textbooks - printed in Moscow [and 15 similar items]....

Excellent Lunch - Imported Pork with Democratic Applesauce, Alphabet Soup, Blue Eagle Gravy, Administration Chasers....

Terms of Sale

All Sums of $10, Cash in Hand in 50c Dollars. No Gold Accepted

All Sums Over $10, 200 Years Time Will Be Given to Foreigners, Without Interest. 30 Days Time Will Be Given to Americans, on Good Bankable Notes to Draw All the INterst and Taxes They Can Stand.

GUARANTY, Every item offered guaranteed to be a product of the “Amalgamated Brain Trust of America,” Insolvent.

UNCLE SAM, Owner

Vote Straight and Put ‘em Out} Auctioneers

G.O. Party, Trustee.”

Historical Background

In the 1936 election, the popular incumbent, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, ran against Republican Alf Landon. Despite Republican claims, as well as the Great Depression’s persistence, Roosevelt routed Landon in the fall, winning in the Electoral College by a vote of 523 to 8. FDR celebrated his second inaugural on the date proposed for this satirical auction. Not in ETSC or OCLC (which does locate a broadside with similar text at the Vermont Historical Society).

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) was the 32^nd president of the United States. A child of privilege from a New York Dutch patroon family, Roosevelt served as assistant secretary of the Navy and governor of New York before running for president at the height of the Great Depression in 1932. Consistently ranked by historians among our nation’s greatest presidents, FDR’s unprecedented four terms guided the United States through the twin crises of the Depression and World War II.