Look who we found! Notable Autographs and Signatures in Special Collections
Exhibit Dates: July 10, 2014 – August 22, 2014
Autographs and signatures have been favorite collectables in Europe from as early as the 16th century and in America from about 1815. People have long sought to hold in their hands items that have been touched by figures of note. Scientists, authors, philosophers, politicians, and artists have shared a celebrity culture with athletes, actors, and models.
It might surprise you to know that there is a difference between a signature and an autograph. A signature is a handwritten and often stylized depiction of someone’s name, nickname, or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. An autograph is chiefly an artistic signature. Rather than providing authentication for a document, the autograph is given as a souvenir which acknowledges the recipient’s access to the autographer. The collecting of autographs is known as philography.
This summer exhibition showcases autographs and signatures found throughout the many books and manuscript collections in Special Collections, with notable subjects who have connections to Furman, to the region, the state, or the nation.
Published in 1922, this book is the first volume of a 35-volume definitive edition of Mark Twain’s works. In anticipation of the future publication, the publisher had Twain sign the fly-leaf for 1,024 sets in 1906, later to be bound with the first volume of every set.
Using tape recorded conversations and interviews with Andy Warhol, this book was written by Warhol’s ghost writer and personal assistant Pat Hackett and other Warhol associates. This signed copy was purchased at the Andy Warhol Museum in his native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and generously donated by a Furman professor.