Autographs
Collecting manuscripts, letters and autographs as a business and hobby dates back to Aristotle who amassed a library of maps and scholarly papers. During the era of the Ptolemys beginning in 306 BC, autographs were acquired and preserved. Empires conquering other empires helped themselves to these collections storing and preserving them until some other empire “borrowed” them. Centuries of fallow collecting occurred until the 17 th century when a rekindling of interest in autographs and preserving documents became de rigeur. England created a market place for autographs with auctions. Collecting became a profit centered business. Ushering in the Victorian era, people created autograph albums of a wide range of people who were unconnected. One autograph may have been from a person famous in one field of expertise with the next autograph from someone far ranging from that knowledge. Autograph hunting became an insatiable mania!...