Compiling a collection of autographs from every U.S. president from George Washington to Barack Obama is a daunting task for even the most advanced and deep-pocketed collectors. But a near-impossible task? Limiting each of those signatures solely from the time each leader was in office.
That is exactly what one Dallas collector managed to do, accumulating signatures from 43 presidents from 1789 to 2009, all signed during their presidency.
(Though Obama is counted as the 44th president, that includes Grover Cleveland’s non-consecutive terms as the 22nd and 24th president. The collection only includes one signature from Cleveland, making the final count 43 presidents.)
The collection is being auctioned by University Archives, which provides a pre-sale estimate of $400,000 to $500,000.
While many of the most difficult signatures, whether due to rarity or price, come from names one would expect, such as Washington, the most difficult signature to find from his time in office is that of William Henry Harrison. At age 67, Harrison became the oldest man ever inaugurated to the presidency at the time in 1841. After delivering an address that went on for an hour and 45 minutes — the longest inaugural address in history — during a frigid March day in Washington, he famously contracted pneumonia, dying a month later.
The result is signatures from his time as president are among the most valuable and difficult to obtain of any president in history. While earlier signatures penned by Harrison, such as those from his time as the governor of Indiana Territory, can sell for around $1,000, those from his brief time in the White House command a hefty premium.
The Harrison signature alone could make up half the value of the set, according to University Archives founder John Reznikoff.
In 2015, Christie’s sold a Harrison-signed document for $75,000, noting his signature was “the rarest of Presidential autographs,” with a mere 20 examples appearing in public auction since 1974 and just four in the prior decade.
University Archives cites studies conducted by historical manuscript dealers Joseph Rubinfine in 2002 and Seth Kaller in 2023 to conclude less than a dozen comparable collections are known to exist in private hands, claiming the example currently offered at auction to be “one of the very best.”
Less than 40 examples of Harrison signatures from his presidency are known to exist, with many of them sitting in public institutions.
This makes the set even rarer than a full set of signatures from signers of the Declaration of Independence, of which there are believed to be around 40.
Reznikoff says he has never seen another set sell publicly.
In 2022, Heritage sold a set of autographs from all 56 signers of the Declaration for $1.4 million. Much like Harrison is to the set of presidential signatures, one name is widely considered the rarest for collectors of Declaration signers: A Georgia representative named Button Gwinnett, who died in a duel less than a year after signing the Declaration.
A 2002 sale of a Harrison ALS (autographed letter signed) to Robert Buchanan, formerly part of the legendary collection of Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine, fetched $127,000. The same auction included a rare Gwinnett signed document which sold for $270,000.
James Garfield is another rare signature to find from his presidency as he was assassinated just 200 days into his term.
"To put together everyone as president, and to get the kind of quality found in this set, it's almost impossible," Reznikoff said.
A key distinction between the Declaration of Independence signers set and the presidential signers set is the age of every single one of the Declaration signers. While finding signatures from some presidents, such as Harrison and Garfield, from their terms is remarkably difficult, modern names, such as Bush and Obama, are easy. All of the signatures from the signers of the Declaration are century's old and far more difficult on average.
But Reznikoff, who emphasizes the importance of the timing of the sale as the upcoming presidential election arrives, believes there is far more interest among collectors for presidents.
"A lot of people have never heard of Samuel Chase. But people identify with the presidents more," Reznikoff said. "Will anybody be able to put together a set after this? I don't know. It may be one of the last and best chances to acquire something like this."
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.