Printed and Manuscript Americana

Washington, D.C., ca. 1981-86. Color photograph, signed in various colored inks (from left to right) by Presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon. Approximately 10 x 7 1/2 in. (254 x 190 mm) (sight). In mat and unexamined out of frame, 17 1/4 x 14 1/4 in. (438 x 362 mm).

Lot includes a typed letter, signed by Fred F. Fielding, Counsel to President Reagan, to Lester S. Hyman, forwarding the above photograph; dated March 17, 1986.

A fine signed photograph, taken on October 8, 1981, and showing the meeting of all four of the then living and consecutive presidents. The historic meeting was precipitated by the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who was killed two days prior during a military parade commemorating the 1973 Yom Kippur War with Israel. Following this photograph, all four presidents then headed into the White House where a small celebration was held in the Blue Room, and two days later Carter, Nixon, and Ford flew to Egypt for Sadat's funeral to represent the United States (Reagan, who survived his own assassination attempt earlier in March, opted to remain in the United States for security reasons).