SIGNATURES OF LEADERSHIP

It’s a trip of American history contained in a small theater within the Steele County History Center in Owatonna.

The focus is a collection of presidential autographs, all 45 of them who have served 47 presidencies since the country was founded 250 years ago.

“This is a one-of-a-kind collection,” said MaryAnne Higgins, event manager for the SCHS. “You’re not going to find this anywhere else.”

Higgins latched onto the collection for a temporary display from an Owatonna man who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons. It’s being offered as part of SCHS’ programming through the end of August in the Lange Theater.

“Two hundred and fifty years is a long time,” Higgins said. “You can put this in a small room and it’s pretty amazing,” she added.

America is celebrating its 250^th anniversary this year.

Higgins said the display will allow guests to discover a remarkable private collection of presidential signatures spanning the history of the U.S. This particular collection has never been shown before.

“From George Washington to the present day, each signature offers a unique connection to the leaders who have guided the nation through 250 years of growth, challenge and achievement,” Higgins said.

The display offers much more than just a simple signature on paper. There is brief history provided about each of the presidents and the significance they provided to the country. There are also photographs of each president.

“These are real autographs,” said the unidentified collector. “I’ve been a collector for 50 years. They are authentic, not copies.”

The man identified Abraham Lincoln as his favorite signature. “He was a president at a very pivotal point in our American history where the country could have gone either joined together as a union or split,” the collector said.

Another of his favorites is George Washington, noting “he was our first president and had tremendous insight about what our government should look like and how it should be formed. America is an experiment. He got us through the American Revolution.”

The collection started in 1975 when he got married. He recalled reading a newspaper story about antiques in the Wisconsin Dells where it noted “You, too, can collect autographs.”

His first presidential autograph came from William Howard Taft, who served as the 27^th president from 1909 to 1913. “I paid $35 to get my feet wet,” he said, adding it was a “little document” signed by Taft.

Some of his other early finds in the 1970s were George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

When the Steele County man began in the 1970s, collecting was big, though the interest has waned significantly in recent years. “The whole thing dismantled when computers came around,” he said of his collection.

He finds there is more than meets the eye when it comes to signatures. Many of the presidents in the 18th and 19th centuries had beautiful penmanship and that is always interesting to look at from a historical context. “The majority have beautiful signatures,” he said.

The collector said what people can gain from viewing the signatures is that a person's signature can reveal many things about their personality. “There are professional signature analyzers who have studied the way people slant their letters, cross their Ts, dot their Is and can reveal all kind of idiosyncratic behavior patterns about a person just by analyzing their signature.

“Looking at autographs also helps people truly understand that these were real live people that served in the office of the most powerful individual in the Western Hemisphere for the most part.”

He said the one signature that speaks loudly to him from his collection is FDR'S bold personality and his personal philosophy of not letting obstacles stand in his way or that of the nations.

Most of his autographed documents are contained in photo albums, while some are in large document frames. He assembled most of them behind glass cases at SCHS for the limited display. 

He estimated there are less than 5,000 autograph collections of presidents throughout the U.S. However, he said, the number of people having all the presidential autographs is substantially less at about 200. “Most people don’t take the time and effort to do it,” he added.

“You have to have a passion for this,” he said. “I’m a collector and I collect autographs, antiques and coins. I don’t do it for the money.”

He said the interest in presidential collections has dropped in recent years. “(Donald) Trump is not making it appealing. It’s a hard sell right now. Trump may be a prick, but (Joseph) Biden was ready for rest home.”

The collector shared his disdain for the more recent presidents. “We haven’t had any dynamic presidents for a while,” he said.

But politics aside, he assures the public of one thing. “There are very few times you will ever see the president’s autographs in one spot.”