From Thomas Jefferson letters to Tiffany glass, a George Inness landscape to 1860s gowns, the personal property of ten generations of descendants from Thomas Green (born 1640) are part of a huge four-day auction underway through Sept. 12.

The R.W. Oliver auction takes place at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass., and online bidding is through LiveAuctioneers.com. Nearly 2,200 lots from Green family members, dating from the Colonial through late Victorian eras, are under the hammer.

One notable member of the clan was Andrew H. Green (1820-1903). Dubbed by his friend President Theodore Roosevelt as the "Father of Greater New York," Green earned recognition for his bold efforts in civic improvement. His vision bound together the five burroughs which form New York City. In 1869, he headed the Central Park Commission which oversaw the creation of Frederick Law Olmstead's masterpiece park. He led initiatives to found cultural insitutions such as The American Museum of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library, among others.