Stuart Lutz Historic Autographs has released a new catalogue of autographed items. It is filled with the signatures of famous people from politics, the arts, science, technology, and other fields. Eisenhower, LBJ, Grant, Reagan and Bush, Jackson, Carter, McKinley, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Nixon, W. Harrison, Hancock, Frankfurter, Darrow, Pershing, Winfield Scott, Edison, Whitney, Bell, Cody, Matisse, Pope, Dylan Thomas, Verlaine, H. G. Wells, Woolf, Berlioz, Gershwin, and more. Even Benedict Arnold is in here, from the time when to Americans he was still a hero. As exciting as these are, there are signatures from people you don't know that may be even more fascinating. These are the ones from ordinary people who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances, such as wars and explorations, and relatives of famous people. Here are a few of the items that you will find in this catalogue.
Here is one of those letters from someone you never heard of before. His name is Siegfried Neumann, and he writes to his wife back at home, “My dear Elisabeth Though we should dwell far, far apart and Rivers between us roll I still thou shall swell within my heart And light my inmost soul And you shall be my proudest prize and ne’er forgot shall be Yes while the Star of life doth rise I will remember thee.” Neumann has attached a lock of his hair to the letter. Touching sentiments, made even more so by the circumstances. It was 1864 and he was serving in the Civil War. Hopefully, he made it back home to New Jersey all right as he must have been a very loving husband. Item 23. Priced at $300.
Here is another unknown, serving in the army out west. He invites his mother to come visit him and his family. Traveling west was a little more difficult in those days. John Woart was stationed in Dakota, but there was no airport in Fargo, nor anywhere else, then. It was 1871, and evidently there was train service to St. Paul. Then, it was just a little under 200 miles by stage to the Red River. Then, she could join the officers and their families on the “half a thousand miles” to Mt. Garry. He says the journey down the “snakelike stream” running 3 or 4 mph, is reminiscent of the Israelites forty-year passage to Canaan. That sounds like a great selling point for an elderly lady. Woart does point out that his mother would get to see her “remarkable great-grand-child.” I don't know how old Mr. Woart's mother was, but as a great-grandmother she couldn't have been any spring chicken. She must have been one tough lady if she took on this journey at her age, but we don't know how she responded. Item 46. $350.
This is a book from the Lakeshore Series, Brake Up. It bears the famous signature of Abraham Lincoln, “A. Lincoln.” However, it is not Honest Abe's signature. If you are thinking it's a forgery, it isn't that either. It is the signature of Abraham Lincoln, it just isn't that Abraham Lincoln. This is the signature of Abraham Lincoln II, and if you're saying, “what the...”, Abe didn't name any of his four sons after himself, you are right. Abraham II was his grandson, son of Robert Todd Lincoln, the only one of Lincoln's four children (all sons) to survive to adulthood. Robert had one son and two daughters so this Abe was the only grandchild to continue the Lincoln name. It was not to be. Abe and Abe II never met, the latter, known to all as “Jack,” not being born until 1873. His father served in the government. In 1889, Robert was appointed Ambassador to Britain. His parents sent Jack to a school in Paris. While there, he developed a boil under his left arm. Doctors lanced it, but it became infected. Jack, now ill, went to England but his illness stayed with him. It was a slow, painful process, with Abraham Lincoln II dying at the age of 16, 17 weeks after he became ill. Robert had two daughters, so the Lincoln line, sans the Lincoln name, continued for a couple more generations, but they were not a prolific lot and the last of President Lincoln's heirs died in 1985. Young Lincoln II practiced copying his grandfather's handwriting, so his signature looks very much like his grandfather's. Item 85. $1,500.
Next we have another famous person's relative, only this one is from the previous rather than the next generation. It is a photograph of Maria Custer, mother of General George Armstrong Custer. It is inscribed “From Mother to Ann and Nev and the little ones.” “Nev” was Nevin Johnson Custer, the more famous Custer's brother. Maria outlived her famous but incautious son by six years. Three of the seven brothers died at Little Big Horn so that must have been an awful time in Maria's life. Only Nevin and a sister (whose husband also died at Little Big Horn) outlived Maria, Nevin being the last, passing in 1915. Item 30. $750.
Here is another general, but one a bit more careful than Custer. That enabled him to have a long military career, including 20 years as the Commanding General of the U. S. Army. Few have been honored as much as Gen. Winfield Scott. He even found time to run for the presidency. Scott was nominated by the dying Whig Party in 1852 but was soundly defeated by Franklin Pierce (it's safe to say he couldn't have been a worse President than Pierce). Scott joined the army in 1808. This signed document comes from early in his career, a year prior to the outbreak of the War of 1812, where he first made his name. It is a supply document signed “W. Scott” and dated October 1811. Half a century later Scott would still be around, commanding the army at the beginning of the Civil War. He resigned in that first year of the war as Lincoln relied more on others. Item 124. $550.
This is a famous photograph. It shows the four living U. S. Presidents in 1981. They were Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and then President Ronald Reagan. The three former Presidents gathered at the White House before traveling to Egypt to represent Reagan at the funeral of Anwar Sadat. There were concerns for Reagan's safety if he went. The photograph has been signed by the four Presidents. Item 112. $2,750.
War is hell. So is the aftermath. For those who think what is happening in the world today is unusually bad, a letter writer named “Van” can apprise you of what it was like in Japan in 1945, after the war ended. He writes, “Japan so far has been nothing but misery and disease to me, along with big towns or small villages in complete ruins. So the people are living in the streets, under buildings, bridges, sleep under wrecked cars, busses, trolleys, etc. Every day thousands of small kids approach you their little hands stretched out in the hope that you’ll give them a piece of candy. Women unable to feed their babies, come up to you, with the little child sucking away on their breast, but not getting any milk at all. They beg for milk on their knees. Other women offer their gold wedding rings for a couple of C ration crackers. Disease is all over. Children with sores as big as a silver dollar all over their skinny bodies by the dozens... This afternoon I actually couldn’t walk, because I was surrounded by women who kneeled down in front of me begging for food.” Item, 73. $200.
Stuart Lutz Historic Documents may be reached at 877-428-9362 (or 862-252-6292 for overseas callers), or at HistoryDocs@aol.com. The website is www.HistoryDocs.com.
