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Impressive mid-to-late 19th century hardcover autograph book, 12 x 8.5, containing more than 225 affixed signatures of notable presidents, politicians, military figures, entertainers, and other celebrities of the era. The first page boasts a remarkable selection of six presidential autographs: Abraham Lincoln, U. S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, and Grover Cleveland. Subsequently affixed within the book are a number of Lincoln-associated autographs, including his son, Robert Todd Lincoln; cabinet members, including Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, Secretary of War Simon Cameron, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, Attorney General Edward Bates, Secretary of State William Seward (and his son, Assistant Secretary Frederick W. Seward), Private Secretary John G. Nicolay, and several of his military commanders, including William T. Sherman, Winfield Scott, John Dix, Winfield S. Hancock, George McClellan, Nathaniel P. Banks, John C. Fremont, and Charles Wilkes.
Other especially notable political signatures within the book include Garfield assassin Charles Guiteau, Garfield's attending physician Doctor Willard Bliss, Aaron Burr, Reverdy Johnson, Charles Sumner, James G. Blaine, John A. Logan, Hamilton Fish, Jefferson Davis, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Thomas A. Hendricks.
The first section, principally devoted to politics and military men, contains some 75 signatures; it is followed by several blank pages, then the entertainment section begins, with about 150 autographs, including: P. T. Barnum, Lotta Crabtree, Maggie Mitchell, Lillie Langtry, Richard Mansfield, William H. Crane, Sol Smith Russell, Helena Modjeska, Adelaide Ristori, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Fanny Davenport, Otis Skinner, E. H. Sothern, Frederick Hobson Leslie, and Digby Bell.
At rear is a small section devoted to noted lecturers and writers, including agnostic orator R. G. Ingersoll, ASPCA founder Henry Bergh, journalist Charles Anderson Dana, poet Matthew Arnold, poet James Russell Lowell, poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., playwright Bartley Campbell, theatrical producer David Belasco, author Alexandre Dumas fils, and novelist Wilkie Collins.
Also loosely accompanying the album are choice autographs of Thomas Edison (an early, ideal example of his classic 'umbrella' signature), Statue of Liberty sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, and Texas statesman Sam Houston, plus various clipped signatures of the likes of Fitzhugh Lee, John J. Crittenden, Edward Everett, Peter Cooper, Charles Sumner, and others. Additionally includes a handful of letters signed by various notables, highlighted by Rudyard Kipling and James G. Blaine. In all, the collection consists of over 250 autographs.
In overall very good to fine condition, with heavy wear to the album's spine and covers, and varying degrees of light mounting stains to the majority of signatures. A remarkable, diligently assembled compendium of 19th-century notables.
