AUTOGRAPH OF BRITISH LABOUR PARTY POLITICIAN MARY AGNES HAMILTON INSCRIBED BELOW A NEWSPAPER PORTRAIT TO FUTURE NEW YORK POLITICIAN SEYMOUR HALPERN.

July 1930.. 1930.. Very good. - Portrait, 3-3/4 inches high by 2-3/4 inches wide, clipped from a newspaper and mounted on a piece of cream paper, 6-1/8 inches high by 3- 3/8. Signed below the portrait "Mary Agnes Hamilton / July 1930". Very good. <p>The newspaper portrait is a striking head-and-shoulders shot of Hamilton with closely cropped hair, large dark eyes and well-defined cheekbones, wearing a black dress or jacket. The full inscription reads: "To Seymour Halpern / with every good wish from / Mary Agnes Hamilton / July 1930".<p>Mary Agnes Hamilton, known as Molly, (1884-1966) was a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament for Blackburn from 1929 to 1931. In 1916 she caused controversy by writing an anti-war novel "Dead Yesterday". In the early 1920s she was the deputy editor of The New Leader. She also held a position on the Balfour Committee on Industry and Trade.<p>The Queens, New York Republican Congressman Seymour Halpern (1913-1997) started his political career as a campaign aide to New York's powerful mayor Fiorella La Guardia and first served in New York's State Senate for 14 years before seeking a seat in the U.S. Congress. In Albany Halpern sponsored 279 bills that became law, including measures on schools, housing, civil rights, nutrition and mental health. A Liberal, he was something of an anomaly as the lone Republican representative from New York City, and generally garnered support from Labor Unions and endorsement from the Liberal Party. Yet he never even considered switching parties as he considered membership in the Republican Party a family tradition and commitment. While he found ample time for his private pursuits, including painting and collecting autographs, he took his legislative duties very seriously. Of these, he was proudest of his co- sponsorship of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and of the original 1965 Medicare legislation.