Autograph Collection

The collection comprises a variety of documents from the late eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, most being from the first half of the twentieth century. They were collected and donated by various individuals. One of them was Mrs. Phyllis Bass, from Florida, who donated her husband's book collection to Oakland University along with autographs of Presidents Lincoln, Jackson, Madison, and Monroe as well as Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo. With this exception, little is known about the history of the collection, or how they were assembled, but at least one name appears several times in the letters – Edgar DeWitt Jones, pastor at the Central Woodward Christian Church in Detroit, who was also a passionate student of Abraham Lincoln and who seems to have been collecting letters from politicians, judges, and other characters in American political life. Jones was friends with William Springer, a fellow collector of Lincolniana, who sold his collections to Oakland University. It appears that the letters sent to Jones were transferred to OU as part of this transaction, although there is no written evidence of this.

The items in this collection consist of signed official documents, correspondence, and portraits. This includes the autographs of presidents and elected officials, writers, prominent businessmen, and more. Of particular note is a holograph letter by Thomas Jefferson, with its accompanying envelope. Written in Philadelphia in 1798, when Jefferson was Vice President of the United States, the letter was addressed to David Longworth, a friend and New York printer. In it, Jefferson ordered copies of and praised Longworth’s “typographical art.” The letters are organized alphabetically by last name.Their authenticity has not been determined. Additional letters received by Rev. Edgar DeWitt Jones are listed separately.

For more information, see "Thomas Jefferson: American bibliophile," https://library.oakland.edu/collections/special/exhibits/Jefferson/index.html Additional autograph documents can be found in other collections, especially the William Springer collection (3 Lincoln documents) and the Donagh McDonagh papers (letters from T.S. Elliot).