Foreword
Within this exhibition, is the opportunity to explore a myriad of documents generously on loan from the collection of David F. Brown signed by people who served as president of the United States. Some of these are from the period these men served in the nation’s highest office and others represent different periods of their lives. In both cases, this exhibition provides a unique and historic setting of signatures executed by people who reached the pinnacle of the American political and governmental systems. Whether you agree with the politics of these individuals or not, take time to study these documents that came from the hand of the president.
Thomas R. Lonnberg
Chief Curator and Curator of History
Collector’s Statement
I grew up in Vincennes, Indiana. There is a lot of history there with the George Rogers Clark Memorial and Grouseland, the home of William Henry Harrison I started collecting presidential biographies and histories in the late 1970s. I was inspired during my visits to the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago. Carl Sandburg was a patron of the shop that was founded in 1938. I also started visiting the homes, museums, and libraries of all the presidents. I joined the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Theodore Roosevelt Association. The combination of traveling to the presidential sites and attending association meetings made the collecting even more interesting. During a visit to the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in 1992, I purchased a letter signed by Theodore Roosevelt.
And the rest is HISTORY!
Dave F. Brown
Collector
