Turner Auctions + Appraisals is very pleased to present the Edwin W. Sims Collection of Political Ephemera, plus offerings of books, maps, historic collectibles, and much more on Saturday, September 13, 2025, at 10:30 am PDT. The sale showcases the collected archives of late Chicago lawyer and politician Edwin W. Sims (1870-1948), plus his family. Among the Sims family offerings are letters signed by Theodore Roosevelt and the Gemini IV astronauts, campaign and other buttons and pins from the 1910s-1970s, and Republican Convention ephemera from the early 1900s. In addition, this eclectic and diverse auction features John Lennon drawings; maps and medals of Europe; maps, real estate tracts, and related ephemera of the San Francisco Bay Area; vintage books and games; naval memorabilia; coins and stamps; tintypes and ambrotypes; Matson Line menus/art; and signed letters or cards of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Dickens, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and Martin Van Buren.
About Edwin Walter Sims (1870-1948)
Edwin W. Sims was a small-town boy who became a big-time attorney in Chicago, Illinois. E.W., as he was called, was born in Ontario, Canada, but brought up in Bay City, Michigan, after his parents moved there when he was five years old. His father was a newspaperman, then a teacher, and young E.W. became a reporter, editor, and special correspondent on several Michigan newspapers. While he enjoyed these media positions and was very good at them, he recognized early on there was not much money to be made. In 1892, he began studying law and graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan. He was admitted to the bar in both Michigan and Illinois in 1894, then moved to Chicago, which was booming and where familial nepotism toward lawyers was not an issue, unlike New York, his other alternative. In 1898, he married Charlotte Smith, the daughter of a prominent Chicago lawyer, and they had six children – four girls and two boys. E.W. quickly became part of the Chicago elite, rubbing elbows with regional mayors and governors, and moving his family from a nice area of town to an even nicer area.
In 1903, he became Attorney of Cook County, Illinois; he was appointed as Special Attorney for the Bureau of Corporations in Washington, D.C., under Commissioner (and later President) James R. Garfield from 1903-1905. There he found a like soul in Theodore Roosevelt, whom he had met in 1902 and who appointed him to many positions, including Solicitor of the Department of Commerce and Labor and later U.S. District Attorney, Chicago (Northern Illinois) from 1906-1911.
It was in this position that Sims, at the behest of President Roosevelt, became one of the best known trust busters in the country, taking on the wealthiest man in America, J.D. Rockefeller, and Standard Oil, the largest monopoly in the country. From 1906-1911, Sims prosecuted and won this complex case – made up of over 1400 separate violations! – resulting in a fine of over $29 million dollars, then the largest in U.S. history. While the fine was overturned on appeal, the ruling against Standard Oil was kept in force, resulting in a new era of railroad practices.
Sims’ high profile continued, as he claimed to have proof of a nationwide white slavery ring, trafficking young women into prostitution. Although no evidence was produced, Sims’ attention to this matter helped his friend James Mann, chairman of the powerful House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, bring the Mann Act to Congress; this was passed in 1909 and signed into law by President William Taft. Other noteworthy appointments followed, including as the first President of the Chicago Crime Commission from 1913-1922. As Sims’ power and success continued through the years, he went on to own a large legal practice in Chicago, with branch offices in Washington, DC; New York; and San Francisco.
While his power in the legal and political arenas was well documented, Sims, a staunch Victorian patriarch, expressed his power and control in other areas as well. His family compound, the Sims Ranch, was located along several miles of Lake Huron coastline in Au Gres, Michigan. The property included homes for his six children and their families, where they all lived. All were expected -- no, required! -- to come together every day to eat their meals, with food that Sims decided, at the main “Ranch House” of Sims and his wife. Furthermore, to ensure the future well-being of his four daughters, Sims personally chose their husbands for them, although some initial matches proved not to be ideal. Through his political connections, he also was able to arrange that U.S. Highway 23 was rerouted through Au Gres on its way from Jacksonville, Florida, to Mackinaw City, Michigan. This effort also enabled Sims to take full advantage of the money the government paid to build a highway through private property, making him even wealthier.
From the standpoint of his collections, he was a thorough archivist of his storied career and was well aware of what he had achieved, amassing personal memorabilia until he died. This is according to his great-granddaughter B. Gail Demko, whose website, Sims Family Cemetery, provides comprehensive information on Edwin Sims and his family. “He ran the show and wanted things just so,” she said. “E.W. was the only personality allowed in the family, and he had an ego the size of the City of Chicago.” Although a number of valuable items were sold off decades ago by his younger son – including, sadly, a six-foot tall carved ivory tusk gifted by Roosevelt – a number of scrapbooks and other materials remained, recovered from a dirt-floor shed near the Great Lakes Naval Base, north of Chicago. Originally there were nine scrapbooks: six were given to the University of Michigan or the Canadian Historical Society, and three disappeared. Nonetheless, the lots in this auction include noteworthy elements of Sims’ extensive legal and political career during a dynamic era in Chicago and American history.
Some highlights of the Sims collection include correspondence with Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he shared a love of the outdoors, fishing, and hunting. In 1912, Sims served as the treasurer of the national primary when Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were vying to be the Republican candidate for president. After Taft won the primary, Roosevelt formed the Bull Moose Party to run against Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson. However, this split the right-leaning ticket, allowing Wilson to become president – who soon after sent a sarcastic telegram thanking Sims for Wilson’s electoral-vote win in Illinois! There is also the contract that Sims prepared for the 1927 “The Long Count Fight” between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney for the undisputed heavyweight championship (Tunney won) -- plus related ephemera. Another item of interest is the scrapbook with little drawings of Sims by his friend, Sidney Smith, who created “The Gumps” comic strip, which ran in newspapers for 42 years. And collectors of political ephemera will be interested in the many pins and buttons supporting political candidates and other causes in decades past.
Why is the Sims collection going to auction now? Gail Demko, who is also in charge of the acre-large family cemetery near Au Gres, Michigan, says the proceeds will go to support the cemetery, enabling more family members to rest there when the time comes. In the meantime, collectors of history and ephemera will find the sale’s offerings to be most interesting, just like Edwin W. Sims’ own fascinating life and story.
