Women's Work

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is celebrating women makers, movers, and shakers.

She was a force of nature.

I'm surprised.

APPRAISER: Not bad for a girl baseball player.

Not, not bad.

PEÑA: It's "Antiques Roadshow: Women's Work."

♪ ♪ This belonged to my great-great-aunt.

She was a civil rights activist.

She was an author, a poet, a songwriter, an educator.

PEÑA: What's women's work?

Well, everything, of course.

In this special episode, "Roadshow" looks back at the work of women.

But at the turn of the century, to have a mother who was a doctor and an obstetrician is just, is just amazing.

PEÑA: The famous and the unsung who created lasting works of art...

In a movement that was dominated by male figures, she brought a distinct feminine appeal to the movement.

PEÑA: ...made history... She's a very important figure in aviation history.

She's a very important figure in women's history.

PEÑA: ...or both.

APPRAISER: Margaret Bourke-White was a woman of many firsts.

PEÑA: First up, it's the baseball collection of one trailblazing athlete of the 1950s.

Okay, put on that glove-- I want to see what you do.

Hmm, babe!

Scrunch down.

That's right.

Is that all right?

This is you, circa 1951.

How did you drop down into the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League?

I went to visit a friend and a cousin in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

He said, "How would you like to go see the Fort Wayne Daisies play baseball tonight?"

And being a softball player myself and having played baseball with the boys, I said, "What a great idea-- let's go."

At the end of the ninth inning, I turned to him and I said, "You know, I can do that."

The next day, I had a tryout with the Fort Wayne Daisies, with Max Carey, right here.

Great center fielder, Hall of Famer.

And four or five of the Fort Wayne Daisies at the time.

And at the end of the hour or hour and a half, he said to me, "Lois, we'll call you."

(laughs) "We will let you know."

Wow.

In January, I received a letter inviting me to spring training in Alexandria, Virginia.

And off I went.

17 years old.

Got special dispensation from the county superintendent to go, to get out of school.

Wow.

And how long did you play for?

Four years.

The league folded, actually, in 1954.

Right, disbanded.

Bill Allington decided-- he was one of the longtime, very, very great managers in the league-- and he said, "I am going to take "a group of former players in the league, "and we're going to barnstorm.

We're gonna play against men."

How did you do?

I was just happy that every night I didn't get killed.

And you've brought your collection, some of your collection-- there's much more...

Yes, yes.

...from your time with the All-American Girls Baseball.

I know you played for two teams, the Daisies, and you played also for, uh, the Blue Sox, correct?

Blue Sox, yes, yes.

South Bend.

This is when you played with the Daisies.

Here you are, and Jimmie Foxx is right here.

He was your manager.

He managed for one year.

That's right.

Jimmie Foxx, another great Hall of Famer.

And I believe Jimmie Foxx was pretty much the, the figure that they used to base Tom Hanks' character in "A League of Their Own."

Now, was he really like that?

No-- if I had an opportunity to set the record straight, I don't think there was a player on the Fort Wayne team that did not adore Jimmie Foxx.

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League got started in 1943, when the Major League players, many of them, went off to war, and Philip K. Wrigley, who was the, uh, chewing gum magnate...

Yes.

Started it so they could maintain baseball in the public eye.

And I see they made the women at that time wear these spiffy outfits.

Yes.

Which today would almost be considered miniskirts.

So there's your catcher's mitt that you caught the game.

This is your original cap.

That's your jacket with the original patches.

This is an example of a ball that they used in later years.

The ball kept changing, getting smaller.

Yes.

From 12 inches to nine inches.

We have the championship photo signed by Jimmie Foxx and the entire team.

This is a facsimile of an actual program that you have signed to you by Jimmie Foxx.

Your patch, the photo of you at 17 with Clark Griffith and Max Carey and the other lady who didn't make the team.

Yeah, I have no idea who she is.

Right.

Plus, we have your scrapbook that we're not showing.

We have other photos, we have a locket from you.

We have other programs-- it's a treasure trove.

I would put an auction estimate on the entire grouping of about $10,000.

I'm surprised.

Not bad for a girl baseball player.

Not... Not bad for a 17-year-old that didn't know where New York City was.

WOMAN: I brought four volumes of the "History of Woman Suffrage" by Susan B. Anthony.

I bought them at a silent auction at one of my professional organizations.

It was a fundraiser.

The letter was in one of the books.

Now, when you bought the books, did you notice that they were inscribed or signed?

You... You know, I'm not sure if I did.

I just thought it would be a interesting thing to own.

And what did you pay for them?

I paid $200.

It's the "History of Woman Suffrage," is by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Gage, and Susan B. Anthony, so they were coeditors.

Now, one of the things that I noticed, too, is, the bindings on them don't look to be the original, and...

So how did that happen?

They were in very poor condition when I bought them.

And so I had them rebound.

Was that expensive?

I think it was less than $100.

And how long ago was that?

That's the, uh...

I, I purchased them in the late 1980s.

So you paid about $300 total.

Right.

Well, first of all, it's one of the classic sets on women's suffrage, women's rights.

And when I first looked at the signatures, I said, "Wow, it's signed by Susan B. Anthony," and there was a nice inscription.

But as I looked at these signatures more closely, the handwriting was slightly different.

So...

I see.

This one is inscribed to a Meriwether.

Meriwether was a minor author in the South, who they obviously knew.

But it says, "The authors."

And it was a little tricky.

Whose handwriting is that?

Then I looked at this inscription, and I saw at the bottom, saying Susan B. Anthony.

That doesn't look quite right, either.

Well, what it is, is that I think this is Matilda Gage, signed, saying, "From the authors."

I see.

Then you have, have Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and she writes a wonderful quote in there.

She writes, "The darkest page in history is the injustice of man to woman."

And that's in her handwriting.

Right, uh-huh.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

And then Susan B. Anthony signed it.

So you have all three... Three signatures.

The letter you found in the book...

Right.

...is to the Meriwether family, and it's talking about Susan B. Anthony sending them, uh, final copies, because the books came out over a period of time.

Right.

The first volume here, the one with the inscriptions, was done in 1881.

But the fourth volume was printed in 1902.

The value of this four-volume set as it is, inscribed-- and, quite honestly, the letter sort of goes with it, because it's the same family...

Yes.

...would be in the $2,500 to $4,500 range.

Oh, my.

And that's in the retail value.

Now, these books, being rebound-- and I know you said they were in terrible shape...

Yes.

So rebinding them wasn't a tragedy.

If, though, they had been in the original leather binding, probably they would have been more in the $8,000 to $10,000 range.

I see.

But it's still a great item.

I'm very pleased about all of this.

WOMAN: This belonged to my great-great-aunt, Ruth Muskrat Bronson.

She was a civil rights activist.

She was an author, a poet, a songwriter, an educator.

To me, she is so special.

She was a woman before her time.

And she did a lot of things for Native American people that we can all still be proud of today.

What was her era, so to speak?

She was born in 1897.

This picture was taken in 1923 when she was a junior in college at Mount Holyoke.

And this is at the White House.

Okay.

In Washington, DC.

Can you can tell me some of the people in the picture?

Yes, this is my aunt Ruth, and this is President Calvin Coolidge.

And this is a book that she presented to him that day.

And she also gave a speech that day.

Is the dress that you're standing by the one she's wearing in that photograph?

This is the dress that's in the photograph, yes.

Okay.

And, and that's the same dress that's in this photograph.

Were the moccasins and the dress created for the presidential event?

That's my understanding, yes.

They were intentionally not Cherokee items.

Mm-hmm.

So that she could be representative of more than just her tribe, and be representative of all American Indians.

This is the speech that she delivered at the White House, is that right?

Yes.

And to read through that speech, it gives me goose bumps.

She said a lot of really amazing things in that speech.

And she said such amazing things that President Coolidge invited her to come to the White House for lunch at a later date, which she did.

When I read through her speech, in the speech, she tells who made the beadwork, who did these things.

And both the moccasins and the dress were made here in Oklahoma by Cheyenne beadworkers.

The hides are brain-tanned deerskin, which were never inexpensive.

They were always incredibly high-priced to get them, they were difficult to make.

And I thought the moccasins might be Lakota, because of the designs.

But then I got to looking, and there's a welt right here between the sole and the beaded uppers.

You notice that trait in lots of Cheyenne moccasins from Oklahoma-- you know, the southern Cheyennes.

Do you know what she was talking to the president for?

Well, this was the Committee of One-Hundred in 1923.

And I believe, um, she was asking for civil rights for Native American people.

Right.

And also fighting for Native Americans in the laws that were being created at that time and talking about "the Indian problem."

And she wanted the president to hear from an Indian what the real Indian problem was, and it wasn't what the other people were calling the Indian problem.

She wanted everyone to accept Native Americans as Americans and to allow them to be educated just like everyone else.

Yeah, I saw in the letter, she's asking for education for all.

Yes.

Where did she live?

She was from Grove, Oklahoma.

Oh, yeah.

She was my great-grandmother's sister, and that's where our whole family was from.

That's where our allotment land, uh... We still have that allotment land.

Um, but she, she lived in Washington, DC.

She worked there for the government, for the B.I.A., and then she retired in, uh, Phoenix, Arizona.

She was helping different tribes her entire life.

When she passed away, I believe she was in Arizona working for water rights for tribes out there.

Oh, yeah, that's a big deal.

Yes.

She's asking for what we consider basic human rights in this country today...

Absolutely.

...in the '20s.

And, and after that, you get the Depression, and things really got bleak.

Now people have awakened to these situations, but they didn't do it without a pushback.

And that's why a lot of rules have been passed, laws have been enacted, everything from the Native American sovereignty acts to NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Acts.

And they protect this cultural patrimony that's been handed down, in your case, through your family, but also in national input.

And this was the early days of all that.

These were the people that pushed that to try to make it happen.

When you brought this dress in and the moccasins, I looked at it and I said, "Yeah, nice moccasins, nice dress."

In this condition, and mainly because they're late, if you were gonna see these things at auction, you would expect them to bring $800 to $1,200, but that's not what's here.

That's not what this is about.

This is about, this woman wore these things to represent a pan-culture, almost, that spread across the United States, that she was fighting for, for rights for.

When you start looking at it from that point of view-- her meeting with the president, the original speech-- I think you're talking, for all that you have here, and you have more, you have more archival material, more photographs, if you were to bring these up for insurance, I think it's more like $8,000 to $12,000.

Wow.

And these things are priceless to our family.

Oh, I'm sure.

So, yes.

WOMAN: My mother bought this for me for a dollar at a yard sale to play with.

This is the American Girl hairstyle, and very desirable with a bent knee, made in '65 and '66.

And this is really a treasure to the Barbie collector.

And she's worth $600 to $700 in this condition.

Really a fabulous find for only a dollar.

WOMAN: My grandmother was president of Rhode Island Association of the Blind, and when Helen Keller and her companion, Anne Sullivan, came to Providence, they stayed with my grandmother.

And that was how my mother met Helen Keller.

Wow.

It's a first edition of Helen Keller's journal, and what's really most striking about it is this inscription inside, which, uh, is to your mother.

We would put the value of it at $1,500 to $2,000.

How nice.

But I'm sure it's, it's priceless to you because of...

It is, yeah.

Because it's your mom.

APPRAISER: Margot de Taxco started doing enamel work in the late 1950s, and was one of the few women jewelers working in Mexico at the time.

This is highly collectible.

I would say the value of this snake bracelet is around $800.

Great, thank you.

WOMAN: Well, I inherited this painting from my paternal aunt, and she and her husband would travel down from New York City to Natchitoches, Louisiana, to visit his family.

And they just loved these paintings by "Clementeen" Hunter, is what I'm told, is how she pronounced her name.

She was known as the Grandma Moses of the South.

This is great.

You got the blackbirds.

Mm-hmm.

You got the goose pulling on the little girl's dress there.

Yes, and the dogs.

My Aunt June always... We loved the way she made those old dogs look.

One that size, with subject matter that interesting and that colorful, would probably, retail, be about $6,000.

Really?

(chuckles) Wow, that's great.

That's great.

Cool.

I have a collection of letters, personal letters, uh, from Amelia Earhart to my aunt, along with a telegram sent to my aunt and her husband when Amelia landed in England on her solo crossing.

When my aunt passed away, she left them to me.

My aunt's introduction to the aviation community was through her soon-to-be husband, Porter.

Porter Adams was part of the early aviation crowd, and when they started dating, she was included in that group.

They were close enough so that Amelia agreed to be her maid of honor.

And did your aunt tell you any interesting stories about Amelia Earhart?

She had a great admiration for her.

She'd talk about the last flight she made, which we're, they're-- we're still looking for her.

And said that, uh, most of her friends were trying to discourage it because, technically, she wasn't the most proficient pilot.

She was just a great adventurer with tremendous courage, and just had that spirit.

And they were concerned because this was a very technical flight.

The navigators, everybody knows, had some history with, you know, some problems.

And the equipment, including the radio, we later found out, wasn't very good.

So they were, they were concerned that maybe this was a little bit too risky.

The great thing about this collection of letters is that it shows us what some of her other talents are.

I think one of the things she had a talent for was public relations.

Mm-hmm.

She was a great controller of her image, of the message.

And the other thing was, she had an incredible entrepreneurial spirit.

You have an archive of about eight letters.

There are four typed letters, four handwritten letters.

This one's written on the letterhead of the New York, Philadelphia, Washington Airway Corporation, which, we learn from a later letter, she had a role as vice president of public relations for this.

And in this letter, she's talking to your uncle about trying to get involved in selling swimming pools.

"Let me know if you think it's a hot idea, and maybe you'll know someone who can dump in some cash," says the letter.

(laughs) The other letter, over here, this typed letter, is on Hearst International "Cosmopolitan" magazine letterhead, and it reminds us of her role as a journalist.

She's the aviation editor at "Cosmopolitan."

And the other letters, too, indicate all of the interests and entrepreneurial efforts that she was involved in in promoting aviation.

She's a very important figure in aviation history.

She's a very important figure in women's history.

Letters are more valuable than telegrams, in general.

Although that's an interesting telegram on its own.

I would value the collection with an auction estimate of $12,000 to $18,000.

Very nice.

Excellent.

MAN: I'm a wood carver, and I carved a cane for Mother Teresa and sent it to her, and three, four, five weeks later, I got a thank-you note from her.

And that's, so that's what we're here about.

What year was this that you made the cane?

It was about eight months before she passed away, and I can't tell you the year now.

Yeah, 1997, I think it was that she... Yeah, somewhere... Yeah, somewhere in that range.

And here's a picture of you with the cane.

That is me back when I had color in my hair.

(chuckles) Yep-- you always see her with, with a cane in many of those photographs of her at work.

Yes.

She relied on the cane, I know, especially in the end, for her.

She, uh, I was told that she used it until she couldn't anymore, yes.

The letter is very touching, too.

It's on the Missionaries of Charity, which is her order that she founded in 1950 in Calcutta, where, you know, she worked with the poor.

And she writes a nice letter: "Dear Ernest, "Thank you very much for the walking stick, "so beautifully carved.

"My gratitude is my prayer for you, "that you may allow by God's grace "to carve Word of God on your soul, on your mind, so that you may become more and more like Him."

And it's signed: "Teresa MC," which is Missionaries of Charity.

Yes.

And then, on the back, a little prayer from Isaiah: "See!

I will not forget you.

I have carved you on the palm of My hand."

Yeah.

And then Mother Teresa's written a little "you" there.

Yeah.

You must have really touched her with your, with your generous carving.

Yeah.

The note is something that's obviously priceless for you.

To give it some kind of a value, I would insure it with a value of around $1,000, but this is about something... Yeah.

...that's much more valuable and priceless.

Oh, yes, exactly.

I was curious about her signature, basically, and...

It's all right, it's perfect.

Yeah.

She didn't have a lot of secretaries.

I think she did a lot of things herself.

No.

Right, right.

When you were standing in line and brought this doctor's bag, I couldn't wait to see what you were gonna pull out of it.

But little did I expect you were gonna pull out an earlier doctor's bag, which is full of all kinds of obstetrical equipment from the turn of the century.

Can you tell me a little bit about how you got this?

This was my mother's.

She was born in 1882.

Mm-hmm.

This bag you see here was her first original doctor's bag.

My grandmother wove this material.

She graduated from the Royal University of Messina.

It was very, very unusual for women... Mm-hmm.

...to be graduated at that time with her degree.

Well, I mean, we think right now of the strides that women have made, but at the turn of the century...

Yes, yes.

To have a mother who was a doctor and an obstetrician is just, is just amazing.

You brought her diploma, her certificate of health from New York City, and a wonderful picture of her.

Thank you.

But tell me a little bit of some of the other things.

You have a list of all the births that she did, as well?

Well, she kept a record of all of them.

This is a wonderful record of all of these births, and it carried all sorts of things-- very early stethoscope... A wooden stethoscope.

A wooden stethoscope.

Some very early painkillers.

Medication.

And medications.

Medical collectibles right now are becoming very, very popular.

They're being collected by doctors, mostly.

Yes.

But to have a female doctor from 1905, who-- and all of the equipment that went with her-- is just a phenomenal archive to have saved.

Do you have any idea what this might be worth?

Uh, no, I didn't get a full appraisal on it, actually.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I'm assuming that the stethoscope is very valuable.

Well, this would be your most valuable piece, and sometimes these sell for as much as $800 to $1,200.

But I would value everything that you have here in your collection at $3,000 to $5,000.

Oh, my-- my mother would be surprised.

(laughs): She would be surprised.

Well, a lot of very happy babies and mothers were made from this little bag.

Never lost a mother, never lost a baby.

(laughs) And she had a great deal of compassion.

APPRAISER: They're called garter bracelets.

WOMAN: Oh.

It was a fashion set by Queen Victoria in England.

Now, Queen Victoria did not like to show her legs in public, so she wore her garters on her arms.

So people followed this trend and eventually made gold bracelets that looked like the garters.

Oh.

I would estimate them somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 as a pair.

Wow.

Wonderful, thank you very much.

You're welcome.

APPRAISER: Toshiko was one of the postwar contemporary artists working in clay.

She invented these, this form.

"Moon pots," they're called-- a pinched top.

She put, usually, a little stone or a pebble that would... (pot rattling) create a rattling sound.

At auction, these tea bowls are worth about $200 to $250 apiece, but a moon pot like this would sell for between $1,500 and $2,000.

It is exciting to see it, because it really is Chanel.

The label is exactly right.

Oh, yes.

This is not just Chanel, this is Chanel Couture.

It is a whole nother level of value, because this garment was custom-designed, custom-made.

If you were to go to a major auction or a major dealer to buy a piece like this, you would expect to pay somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000 for this coat.

Wow.

Isn't that cool?

Yes, it is.

MAN: This is a photograph that was given to my aunt right at the end of the Second World War by Margaret Bourke-White.

They met each other in, in Europe.

My aunt was working with the displaced persons at the end of the war-- in fact, my aunt was very senior in the administration-- and many millions of people they had to relocate back to homes that were thousands of miles, I guess, from, from where they'd been forced to flee from.

So, what part of Europe did your aunt work in?

She talked about France and Germany.

I think most of the time, she was in Germany.

Well, your aunt sounds like a remarkable woman, and Margaret Bourke-White was a remarkable woman, as well.

She was a woman of many firsts.

She was the first woman photographer to be hired by Henry Luce for "Fortune" magazine.

Okay.

She was the first American photojournalist to go to Russia, in 1930.

She was the first photographer to have a cover image on "Life" magazine, in 1936.

Ah.

And during the Second World War, she was the first woman combat photographer.

But if we go back and look at this picture, what you have is a picture of the George Washington Bridge during construction...

Okay.

That she did as part of a photo essay for "Fortune" magazine, which was the first American magazine to really focus on the industrial landscape, the corporate landscape.

And what Margaret Bourke-White brought to her images was a very sophisticated sensibility that drew on a Modernist aesthetic, an artistic aesthetic, but also an appreciation for the machine, for the industrial age.

You have a vintage photograph, which, of course, is the preferred photograph, was done in 1933.

And if we look at the edges, we see that they have this black border.

Oh.

This is characteristic of what Bourke-White elected in her exhibition prints.

The picture is, of course, mounted, and she has her penciled signature, which indicates it is a final print.

Oh, okay.

An exhibition print.

At auction, an estimate that I would place would be $20,000 to $30,000.

Wow.

It's probably one of Margaret Bourke-White's ten best photographs.

Really?

Thank you so much for bringing it in.

Wow, that's... that's amazing.

I wouldn't have had any idea that it was worth that.

When you walked in, the blood started coursing through my veins.

(chuckling): I saw that-- I saw that.

WOMAN: My mom gave this, what is now a vase-- it used to be a lamp-- to me.

It was my great-grandmother's.

And she had it in her house as a lamp for many, many years.

And when she went to the retirement home, my mom got to pick it out, and brought it home with her.

A couple of years ago, she got two young boy cats, and they were playing in the house, and she came home, and it was knocked off, and it had broken the lamp shade, but luckily, the vase was completely intact.

And a friend of ours had come in to the house that works at UTC as, um, in the art department, and had said, "That's a Newcomb Pottery vase.

"I think you need to get it checked out and see what it is."

This was indeed done at Newcomb College Pottery.

Okay.

It was done by one of their artists, Leona Nicholson.

Okay.

And I could tell that because her mark is down here, along with the Newcomb College mark.

She was a student at Newcomb College in 1896 to '97.

All right.

Then, she went to the New York State Ceramic School at Alfred University.

Oh.

And that is a very prestigious school.

Okay.

And then she came back to Newcomb College, and was there between about 1908 and the late '20s.

And she would have done this in about 1908.

Okay.

These are known as late glossy or carved glossy pieces.

It has everything that you want in a piece of Newcomb College.

This is one of the greatest pieces of Newcomb College I have ever seen.

Yay.

And I've seen a lot of them, okay?

(laughs): Well, that's wonderful.

It's glossy, it's carved, it's tall, it has orange, which is so rare.

Really?

It has these beautifully stylized trees.

It's awesome.

Wonderful.

Okay?

I've always loved it.

I think it's an absolutely beautiful piece of pottery.

Now, you said somebody turned it into a lamp.

It has a hole in the base, and it was a lamp as we saw it, growing up.

And we thought that maybe the fact that it had been turned into a lamp would have devalued the piece.

Yes, it did devalue.

It's still worth, at auction, from $30,000 to $40,000.

Really?

In this condition.

It would probably be worth about twice as much... Oh, my gosh.

Had it not been drilled.

Oh, no-- well, still, that's a lot for a vase that's been in our family.

It'll stay in our family.

It's been an heirloom passed down, and I wouldn't ever think of parting with it.

Thank you very much.

WOMAN: We have three Ayn Rand books.

My great-grandmother Sarah was Ayn Rand's first cousin.

APPRAISER: Wow.

And Sarah was Ayn's sponsor to the United States in the 1920s.

Ayn was very intelligent, Uh-huh.

And was able to exit Russia to study film in America.

Mm-hm.

And Sarah's husband at the time was an owner of movie theaters.

So the Russian government allowed her to have a visa to come and study film... To Chicago?

Correct.

Right, well, they're terrific examples.

We have her first published book in the United States, "We the Living," and "The Fountainhead," and "Atlas Shrugged."

And of course, what's wonderful about them is that they're all inscribed.

Rand did not like to sign books frequently.

Oh.

And so, it's lovely to have these inscriptions that were not only written to someone in particular, but a family member, who was instrumental to bringing her to the United States.

It's what we call an association copy.

So, in this particular case, she says, "With profound gratitude for saving me from the kind of hell described in this book."

It's a wonderful phrase.

"We the Living," she had a lot of difficulty finding a publisher.

Nobody really wanted to publish the book, being sort of against Soviet communism, and Macmillan agreed to publish it, and at 3,000 copies, it eventually went out of print.

The book was released on April 7, 1936.

This inscription is dated April 2.

So, a full five days before it actually went out to publishers.

So it's what you would kind of call a pre-publication association copy.

So obviously, she must have kept in touch with the family.

This was inscribed November 30, 1943.

This is the fifth printing of the book.

Right.

And then, of course, back to the tour de force, "Atlas Shrugged," also inscribed on November 6, 1957, about three weeks after the book was published.

There's always a premium to a book with an association to somebody important to the author.

And there's no better association than family members.

The names are different, but you mentioned to me that your great-grandmother remarried, is that right?

(laughs) Four husbands.

Four husbands, right.

These two are first editions, this is a fifth printing.

These two books, with just a general association, might have a auction estimate somewhere in the range of $4,000 to $6,000, $5,000 to $7,000.

This one, since it's a later printing, would be more to $2,000 to $3,000.

But because there are associations with the family, and they were so important in regard to the events in her life and bringing her out of Russia, I would describe the whole group at auction to have a global estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.

(chuckles) Thank you so much for bringing it in.

Thank you-- thank you.

WOMAN: I brought some World War II memorabilia from the WASPs, the Women's Air Service Patrol.

This is Jackie Cochran.

She headed up the WASPs in World War II.

And my mother was her secretary.

And my mother asked Jackie Cochran if she could have a set of the wings, and Jackie said yes.

And so, that's what you see over here, is her wings.

And she had it engraved to my mom on the back.

And tell me about your photographs.

The photographs were autographed by Jackie Cochran to my mom.

This one was, "For Miss McSweeney, with all good wishes, Jacqueline Cochran."

And then, this one over here to the right I think is funny.

Um, "To Miss McSweeney, "This is just the way I feel sometimes.

Jackie Cochran."

And then my mom put a little notation underneath that, "Most times."

(laughs) So did your mom tell you anything about why she made that notation?

It didn't matter what time of day it was, if Jackie called, you, you came.

She was a demanding woman, but she was also, it seemed like she was really a nice person, as well.

Well, she was also a force of nature.

She was somebody who was a very, very accomplished aviator before the war.

She won a number of the air trophies, she worked with Amelia Earhart.

She had connections before the war even started, and we see the WASPs as something that occurred during World War II, but the genesis of that started in 1939, when Jackie wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt and said, "You know, I think there should be a role for women within the..." Oh, nice.

At that time, it was the Army Air Corps.

And that kind of got passed up the chain, and in 1941, prior to our involvement in the war, she was even corresponding with officers in the Army Air Corps, talking about, women could ferry aircraft.

There were jobs that they could take over and let the men go and do something else.

So, when she comes back to the United States, as that first class comes through... Yeah.

They're training with Jackie in command-- she wanted wings for these ladies.

And she simply paid for them out of pocket.

I do remember reading that now, yes.

So, even though your mom was not a pilot, these were Jackie's to give out.

Right.

And clearly, she decided that's what she... That's what she needed to do.

And she has engraved this on the reverse, specifically to your mother.

Yes.

Which is awesome.

Yeah, I think so.

Clearly, you understand the historical value.

Yes.

Because you understand how it relates to women's position within flying, and now we've got...

Some of the best pilots in the Air Force are female.

Mm-hmm.

Which is awesome.

So they've, they've come a long way, but she is really the driving force that got that all started.

Have you given any thought to, beyond the historical value, what the monetary value might be?

Not whatsoever-- have no idea.

A retail value on the market today for this set would be, conservatively, between $6,000 and $8,000.

Are you kidding me?

(chuckling): Oh, my gosh.

Great, well, thank you very much.

I really appreciate it.

It's crazy.

APPRAISER: There's a lot of interest in African American folk artists from the South.

And as this is a kind of a quintessential piece by Minnie Evans, an auction estimate for something of this size would be $2,000 to $4,000.

Wow.

Thank you.

APPRAISER: You've brought the fifth APPRAISER: It is called a Saturday Evening Girl bowl.

On the bottom, that "SG" stands for Sara Galner, who was one of the more important artists that Saturday Evening Girls employed.

It's worth probably around $2,000.

(laughing voicelessly): Oh, my God!

(laughing): Oh, I don't even want to think about what I've done with this pot.

WOMAN: The sculpture was originally obtained by my great-uncle.

He collected a lot of different pieces, and this happens to be one of them.

APPRAISER: So when you came in, I was very excited to see this.

And I was very disappointed in that it wasn't signed.

And while we were talking, and I had my super flashlight, we turned it around, and you were just at eye level with the back of this wreath...

Right.

And the artist's initials are there.

There they are, yeah.

And her name is Janet Scudder.

She was an American artist.

Right.

She was born in the 19th century.

The sculpture's from about 1915.

Okay.

It's called "Victory," and the condition is wonderful.

Scudder was one of the leading artists of the early 20th century.

She was very active as a suffragette.

She was against having separate exhibitions of women art.

So she was really a, quite a dynamic individual.

I would put a retail value of this between $15,000 and $20,000.

Oh, wow-- oh, that's exciting.

That's fantastic.

WOMAN: It's a picture that belonged to my great-aunt, and she was supposedly the subject in the painting.

She lived in Pittsburgh when she was growing up, and her family was a friend of the artist's family.

The artist being?

Elizabeth Shippen Green.

And the picture has been in my aunt's possession until she passed away.

It went to my father.

And then about 11 years ago, he gave it to me.

Elizabeth Shippen Green is quite an important American illustrator.

She goes back to what we call the Golden Age of Illustration in America.

She was a Philadelphian.

Mm-hmm.

And she came from an artistic family.

Her father was an artist, and she studied first at the Pennsylvania Academy under Thomas Eakins.

Mm-hmm.

She subsequently studied at Drexel with Howard Pyle, who's one of the great American illustrators.

When she was in Pyle's studio, she met two other women named Violet Oakley and Jessie Willcox Smith.

Right.

And the three of them formed this triumvirate of the most important female American illustrators.

She was the only woman who was under contract to "Harper's Weekly."

Oh.

And she was under contract exclusively to them for about 20 years, from around 1900 to about 1920.

And with Violet Oakley and Jessie Willcox Smith, she took a communal studio, a living space in Villanova that was called the Red Rose House, or the Red Rose Inn.

Oh, okay, right.

Red Rose Girls.

And the three of them became known as the "Red Rose Girls."

This is a particularly charming picture, and typical of the subjects that she did in the very early part of the 20th century, when she was focusing on, on illustrations of children.

Okay.

And it's typical of her technique.

She would work in charcoal first.

Okay.

And apply some sort of fixative over the charcoal drawing.

Oh.

And then work in these glazes over the top with watercolor and gouache.

And she would get these very jewel-like tones of color in her work.

She was also known for incorporating outdoor landscape scenes.

There's a little tiny example of that here with the window.

Mm-hmm.

Her work has come up at auction, but not frequently.

There are about a dozen examples that I've been able to find, and only two or three that are very comparable to, to this particular picture.

Okay.

I'd say an auction estimate, conservatively, based on some of those prices, would be between $20,000 and $30,000.

Oh, wow.

That's nice.

This table belonged to my uncle, who was an architect.

I have a number of his papers, so I saw that this table he purchased at Palazzetti in New York.

But I didn't see any bill.

It was just in a list of his things.

He had a really whimsical sense of humor.

So, this piece fit right in.

And when did you acquire it?

He died about six or seven years ago.

And I inherited his furniture.

And I sold some things, but this one I loved, and I said, "I'm, I'm keeping this one."

Well, it's interesting that you used the words "whimsical" and that he had a sense of humor, because one of the things that I love about this table is that both of those things are infused into the design.

So, it's not really all about materials.

It's also about imagination and humorous ideas.

And those are hallmarks of the Surrealist movement.

Yes.

And this was designed by Méret Oppenheim, one of the female Surrealists.

In a movement that was dominated by male figures, she brought a distinct feminine appeal to the movement.

And this is not only tall and elegant, but it's also humorous, and that this wonderful sort of oversized, almost "Jurassic Park"-like bird leg is impressed on the top of the table.

If you could imagine a bird walking across a soft stream bed, and the impressions that the bird's feet would make, and she's covered it in gold leaf.

I think this is kind of the epitome of the Surrealist movement.

It was designed in 1939, at the height of the Surrealist movement.

But it wasn't put into serial production until the early '70s.

And there was a company called Simon Gavina that acquired the rights to produce this.

And, in fact, technically, they reproduced it.

So, what you have here is a reproduction.

You tend to hear that word and you think it can't be very valuable because it's a reproduction.

Have you ever had any idea what it might be worth?

I saw it went on auction three times.

The lowest was $2,500.

I saw it, I think it was 2007, and it went for over $13,000.

And then more recently, it was about $7,000, so it could be anywhere there, but I'm not selling it.

The market actually wants items that were produced closer to the original reproduction date.

They were originally produced in 1971.

And in fact, you can still buy them today.

You can buy one for under $3,000 that's still an authorized reproduction.

Now, one thing your table does not have is a label.

The labels changed over the years, and you can tell a little bit more about the production from the label.

The one that you saw that sold for $13,000 actually had one of the original labels from the early '70s, and that gives buyers a confidence about when it was produced.

When it was done.

I think he purchased it in 1979.

So, that puts it in the early period.

One of the ways that I can tell that it was a '70s production is by looking at these screws underneath.

This is exactly how they were produced in the '70s, and it's slightly different today.

In this condition, as an example from the 1970s, I would say that at auction, this table would probably bring about $7,000.

That's excellent news, excellent.

And I really, I love it.

WOMAN: I had a neighbor who worked for a company that produced movie posters.

He was 92 at the time that he died, and he had no children.

His sister-in-law knew that I was his buddy, and asked me if there was anything of Frank's that I would like.

These were in his attic, and I thought they were kind of cool.

Well, I think they're really cool.

I mean, apart from the obvious-- they're all of Marilyn Monroe, which is why I got excited when I saw them-- they're film stills, and the ones that you find in shops today, they're reprinted and reprinted and reprinted, and so they're so far from the originals.

And every one that you have here is a pristine, crisp, clean, shiny original.

We have five different things represented here.

We have a set from "The Prince and the Showgirl," which is complete-- they came in sets of 12, and the rest of them are down here in that stack.

We have nine of the 12 "Bus Stop" images.

Then we have, on this stack, what Fox Studios put out at the time, which was kind of what I call "the omnibus."

It was her greatest hits.

It was all of the most wonderful movies Marilyn's done for Fox, and they were trying to publicize her, and so they sent out this stack of 20.

The stack in the center are the "glamour shots," or I call them.

They came as a set of ten, and you have the complete ten.

And the far side is a complete set of 20 black-and-white film stills from the movie "Bus Stop."

They have numbers on them.

Yup.

What is that?

That's actually a number that's put out by the National Screen Service.

This means in 1956, this was the 343rd film that was approved for its ad campaign.

How long ago was it that you acquired these from the attic?

About 15 years ago.

So for 15 years, you've...

I've been curious.

(laughs) It's not been until probably the past ten years that collectors have really started to value these original vintage prints.

And they're doing quite well at auction.

So if I were you, I would insure them for between $18,000 and $20,000.

(laughs) Thanks, Frank.

(both laugh) Frank's smiling somewhere, I'm sure.

I'm sure-- I am.

(both laugh) And they're just stunning-- they're pristine.

WOMAN: I inherited this needlework from my mother.

It was actually done by my great-great-grandmother, who was from Ohio.

And we know that she was born in 1803.

Correct.

And the family history says that she was about 14 years old when she made this.

Yes.

So we're dating this to 1817.

1817.

And it is a schoolgirl needlework.

And it really has an extraordinary composition.

And this one has some very, very special features.

It's silk thread on a silk background.

Mm-hmm.

Looking at the piece, we see tremendous affluence, and it may not be too hard to believe that she possibly attended school on the East Coast.

Mm-hmm.

But more research needs to be done about that.

Yes.

And each of the women are wearing a different costume.

And they're displaying the styles of the day.

Mm-hmm.

That were worn between 1800 and, let's say, 1825.

The color of this is so extraordinary.

The blues are totally rich, the sky.

And typically, what we have found with pieces such as this, that the scene in the background of the town...

Yes.

...and the faces, might have been done in a gouache watercolor by the teacher.

Mm-hmm.

Now, have you ever had the piece appraised?

After my mother passed away, somebody who came to the house who was an antique dealer in Phoenix did offer me, first, $3,000, and later, when she came back, she offered me $6,000 for it.

Okay.

I would put a market value on this piece of around $40,000 to $50,000.

Oh, my.

(laughs) Now, for insurance purposes, would... For insurance purposes, I would go $50,000 to $70,000.

Oh, my, okay.

PEÑA: Madam C.J.

Walker, the black American entrepreneur WOMAN: I don't really know a whole lot about the book.

I believe it's the first African American beauty book.

APPRAISER: How did you acquire the book?

A friend of mine-- I'm a hairdresser.

Uh-huh.

And he give me the book.

He thought I might enjoy it.

The cover title says it's the "Text Book of Madam C.J.

Walker Schools of Beauty Culture."

Uh-huh, yeah.

So, at first blush, it just seems to be a textbook.

And in the antiquarian book trade, we don't think a whole lot of most textbooks.

Uh-huh.

But you really caught my attention when you said that this was a early hair products and hair care and styling book for African American women.

Yes.

Did you learn anything from the book?

Actually, I did.

There are some home remedies I've tried out of the book, you know.

And then some of the product in the book you can no longer get.

Yeah.

Well, the book's around 100 years old, so... (laughing): Really.

Not surprising.

Yeah.

Let's open the book up here.

Okay.

To the title page.

Okay.

There we have the "Madam C.J.

Walker Beauty Manual."

First edition.

And it, indeed, is... the very first book published for hair styling and fashion for African American women.

There's one more page I'd like to turn to that shows some of the hair care products.

Quite a big, healthy line of different products.

Yes, it was very fascinating to me, looking at it, and looking at the prices back then.

(laughs) Pretty nostalgic.

Yes, yes.

You said that some of the methods and products involved in the book are still valid today?

Some are, and some are not.

Okay.

You would know far more about that than I.

Yes, I am a licensed beautician.

(both laugh) What's interesting about this book is, Madam Walker was actually Sarah Breedlove.

She was born on a Louisiana plantation in 1867.

Really?

Her family were a slave family on a plantation.

Uh-huh.

And she was the first child in her family born into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation.

I didn't know that.

And the company that bears her name is still in business to this day, making hair and facial products for African American women.

Really?

She also, according to the "Guinness Book of World Records," is the first American self-made millionaire female.

Are you serious?

I didn't know that, either.

(laughs): I had no clue.

Pretty fascinating.

Yeah.

Do you have an idea of what the book's worth?

I'm not for sure what it's worth.

Maybe $3,000?

The book's in very good condition.

Okay.

It's not a fine-condition copy.

Right.

But in today's market, with the interest in early and important African American material... Uh-huh.

The first edition of this book is scarce enough that at retail, this book would sell for $10,000-plus.

(laughing): $10,000!

Are you serious?

I am serious.

Oh, you're kidding!

No, I'm not.

$10,000?

Yes, ma'am.

Oh.

(laughing) I don't believe it.

Thank you.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching this special episode of "Antiques Roadshow."

Follow @RoadshowPBS and watch us any time at pbs.org/antiques or on the PBS video app.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."