Autograph Collecting is more than baseball players and actors!

• Autograph versus Signature What is an "autograph" anyway? If you break down the word you will find two parts: "graph" meaning anything that is written and "auto" meaning by one's self. So an autograph is anything that is written by someone. Examples include letters, documents, musical scores, maps, diaries and journals, and of course the "signature". Note that a letter may be handwritten by the individual whose signature it bears, or it may be dictated or otherwise written by an aide and signed by the author. In the later case we have an L.S. (Letter Signed), in the former case an A.L.S. (Autograph Letter Signed).
• What do Collectors Look For? The most important thing about an autograph is the interest or importance of its content. When an autograph was written is also very important. For example, collectors are more interested in Presidential material written while in office, signers of the Declaration of Indendence are invariably more desireable from 1776 than 1790---content being equal. The form of the signature can also be important, for example letter and document signed by the British Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell who defeated King Charles I (for whom the Charles River is named) tend to be more interesting to collectors when signed as "Oliver Cromwell" or "O. Cromwell." When he became Lord Protector he altered his signature to "Oliver P.," a rather pompus move. In general an A.L.S. is more interesting to a collector than an L.S.; however content is almost always more important.
• Patrons of History: History is about the stories, personalities, life, conflict and way of life as "written" on paper, vellum, papyrus or tablets. It is a record of our past given in writing. Hence, autographs are central to learing history. They are not the only thing---archeology and other sciences are also important. However, archeologists can also study pre-history. If there is no form of writting, there is no "history" only "pre-history." Thus, autographs provide the fundamental basis for the exploration of the human mind, action and thought over thousands of years. A collector is only a temporay protector of some small pieces of historical data.

So you want to take a look into part of my collection? (large MS Word Document)