James G. Stahlman Autograph Collection

The inventory utilizes the following abbreviations to designate material types.

A = Autograph
D = Document
E = Engraving/Etching
Env = Envelope
(FDI) = First Day of Issue (stamps)
L = Letter
M = Manuscript
N = Note
PH = Photograph
Po = Postcard
Por = Portrait
S = Signed
T = Typed
Tel. = Telegram

Lord David Cecil, in his memorable story of the Cecils, Hatfield House, an English ruling family for more than 500 years, best describes my feeling about historical documents, pictures and hallowed memorabilia. He describes his own feelings in looking at family papers, documents, favorite portraits and books housed in the magnificent library at Hatfield House, with a degree of personal feeling as follows: "There is something strange and ghostly in looking at these papers, and still more in handling them. As nothing else does, they seem to put us in direct, almost physical touch with their long-dead authors. Portraits show them to us at second hand and through the eyes of the painter-and who knows if his eyes were to be trusted? But these sallow pages have been touched by their actual hands; they are creased where their fingers have folded them; those same fingers have traced the writings now faded to a faint brown, by which they uttered their thoughts and feelings at the very instant these passed through their minds; so that as we read we become for a moment their contemporaries and find ourselves existing in the drama of their lives while it is still in the process of happening."

Such papers, to me, hold a power to stir the sense of history. It is my earnest hope that these treasured documents, pictures and other memorabilia represented in this extensive collection will give all those who look upon them in the years to come a realization of our debt to so many who have added so much through the years since Ferdinand and Isabella, to America's achievements in every category of human endeavor, now become its permanent record.

Not all the personages represented in this collection deserve admiration or emulation. Some were oppressive tyrants, some genocidal murderers, some despotic enemies of Man's most precious, personal possession-liberty, the foundation stone of this great nation of ours, for which we have given so generously of our blood and substance that men everywhere, of every color, creed or origin, might live in peace and freedom.

So, when you look upon the contents of this collection, remember that the men and women, the good and not-so-good represented here in book, picture, autograph, document and other memorabilia, have justly or unjustly played their respective roles in bequeathing a very unique legacy which this collection seeks to preserve for us and millions of yet-unborn beneficiaries of our national strength and glory.

Why shouldn't any man or woman love America, respect its flag, obey its laws, and serve it with devotion and sacrifice in peace or in war?

This is an inescapable obligation, especially if he or she were native-born, or sprung from men and women of foreign birth who sought the blessings of liberty and the protection of this nation's precious guarantees to every individual, embraced in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

I love America for all these reasons, and I take pride in the heritage which is mine through grandparents descended on the one side from Scottish kings and highland MacGregors and on the other by British colonial settlers and German Lutherans, all lovers of liberty and devout in their faith and trust in Almighty God, without whose abiding love and continued blessings, this Republic and its democratic processes would disappear from the face of the earth.

May all of us continuously strive to be worthy of at least an honorable footnote in these annals.