Historic autographs to hit auction block

PORTLAND – A bundle of autographs belonging to Civil War generals and famous musicians, composers and authors was forgotten, left in a shirt box and squirreled away in the closet of an old house.

But collectors will have a chance to buy the recently discovered John Hancocks belonging to historical luminaries such as abolitionist Frederick Douglass and former President Ulysses S. Grant when the collection goes up for auction in May.

Most of the material dates to 1894 and 1895 and features key personalities of the day. The collection is a time capsule of sorts, including the signatures of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle.

“There isn’t a George Washington autograph, and there’s no Abraham Lincoln,” said Bill Gage of Julia’s Antique and Fine Arts Division. “But there’s a Thomas A. Edison autograph, which is quite valuable.”

There are autographs of well-known Mainers, too, including Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain; author Sarah Orne Jewett; James Baxter, the former mayor of Portland; and Hannibal Hamlin, who was vice president under Lincoln.

Harry E. Burbank of Augusta accumulated the autographs by writing to 19th-century celebrities, sometimes enticing them to reply by asking them for a favorite quote or information about their careers.

But little else is known about the collection. Gage has been unable to dig up any information on Burbank or why he collected the autographs. The family selling the collection wishes to remain anonymous.

Al Wittnebert, a Florida collector, said autograph collecting was a favorite pastime of the 19th century. People kept leather-bound autograph albums in their homes and took the albums with them on their travels.

The Burbank collection contains both clipped signatures and letters. One letter, dated Oct. 10, 1894, is from Susan B. Anthony and was written on stationery from the National-American Woman Suffrage Association.

Also in the Burbank collection is a letter from Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, on Red Cross stationery.

Similar signed letters from the 1890s were selling recently on the Web site “History for Sale” for $2,499 and $4,999.