(Autograph Book): Inscribed and Signed by several of the World’s Most Famous Musicians and Other Leading Figures, including Polar Explorers Robert Peary, Ernest Shackleton, and Hubert Wilkins; and containing two Self-Portrait Sketches by Enrico Caruso, 1908-52

Small quarto (6 ½" x 8"). Bound in textured black leather over flexible card covers, white moiré endpapers, all edges gilt. Short tears and chipping to the head and tail of spine back and along the edges of both covers, else very good. Laid-in is a page from a 1950 Boston Symphony program inscribed by Leonard Bernstein, a Pierre Monteux autograph, and printed flyer announcing a 1956 lecture by Sir Hubert Wilkins at the Georgia Institute of Technology. An important autograph book kept by the Philadelphia architect LeRoy B. Rothschild from 1908 until his death in 1935, and later by his wife Mille up through 1952. Rothschild was a member of "The Ell Kube" – a secret society founded by American Jews at the University of Pennsylvania, and designed several commercial buildings in Philadelphia. The book contains 48 autographs and inscriptions, several of which date from performances given by the New York Metropolitan Opera at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia from 1908-12. Included is one autograph and two full page self-portrait sketches signed by Enrico Caruso, together with autographs and inscriptions by several other world famous singers and musicians. The album also includes autographs and inscriptions by several world famous explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, Robert Peary, and Hubert Wilkins, and the American traveler and filmmaker E. Burton Holmes. Among the later entries in the book are autographs by virtuoso violinists Naoum Blinder (1947), Isaac Stern (1947) and Yehudi Menuhin (1952), and laid-in is a program inscribed by Leonard Bernstein "For Mrs. Rothschild." An impressive autograph book kept by two prominent figures among Philadelphia’s Jewish community. A more detailed list of selected entries is available.…