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Be a Caretaker of History

On the eve of his inauguration April 1, 1789, George Washington penned a letter to Henry Knox, expressing his doubts and reluctance to assume the office of the first president of the United States. “…that my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution: so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an Ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities and inclination which is necessary to manage the helm.”

The day after his inauguration in 1841, William Henry Harrison wrote a letter to his wife Anna, telling her about his inauguration and his first night in the White House. Harrison would die a month later, on April 4, from pneumonia caught during his nearly two hour inaugural address.  One of two known handwritten letters written as President in private hands.

On January 8, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln responded to a letter from one of his top generals asking him to reconsider his freeing of the slaves. Lincoln replied, “Broken eggs cannot be mended. I have issued the emancipation proclamation and I cannot retract it.”

Chances are you’ve heard of all of these remarkable pieces of American history. But who owns them? The National Archives? The Smithsonian? The Library of Congress?

As unbelievable as it seems, they’re in private hands; acquired for clients by Joseph Maddalena, president of historical autograph dealer Profiles in History. To better understand autographs as investments, we turned to Maddalena for perspective and context.

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“None of my other investments give me the joy that autographs do,

because they make me feel that I am holding a piece of history in my hands.”

Malcolm Forbes, Sr.

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