Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-05-12
Interesting Collection of Autographs
by the Wife Of Hugh Lawson
White.

A very curious and valuable collec.
tiuu If autographs Is now in the pos
session of Mr-. Philip Livingston, at
so. 10 East Fifth~sixth street in this
city. 1t lil- three large quarto vol
unl.- On which the names are st off
10y ortrai of the writprs) and two
pUrtlOiOs; and was made by her
grandmother Che wife of Judge Hugh
Lawson White, who WAS formerly
senator from tennessee, and In 1886
as "A candidate for Pre-ident.) during
: Residence of many years IN WASH
ington and in Europe IL includes in
about equal proportions names distin-
guished on either side uf the ocean.
Not only does AN American recognise
the familiar handwriting Of Wash
ingtnn, franklin and Jefferson, of
jackson, Webster aud Henry Clay
but also of Sir Walter Scott, Lord BY
ron and Tom Moore, Lady Blessing
ton, Miss Edgeworth, sheridan, Will
herfOrce, William Pitt, Sir Robert
Peel, Lord Nelson, the Duke of Well
ingtOn, and his great predecessor in
arms, the Duke of Marlborough. Nor
is the foreign list onfined to English
names. Here are the autographs OF the
first Napoleon and josephine, Vol
taire, Rousseau and D'Alembert, Mad
anne de Geulis and Madame Campan.
The great minister Colbert appears
with the military names of the Grand
Condo aud Marshal Turenue. OF
crowned heads there are large num-
her. Not only Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert, but all the royal Georges
except the first; and among the great
names that are removed from us by
centuries are William Cecil Lord Bur-
leigh, the minister of Queen Elizabeth
Robert Walpole, Samuel Pepys and
William Penn. 10 fact, some of them
are so very remarkable as to create a
suspicion of their authenticity, rs
when we are supposed to have before
us, not fac SMILES, but the very names
traced by the hands of Francis /. of
France, of Charles TX. and Henry w,
Catherine and Marie de Medicis, and
Louis de. Bourbon ; and of Charles /.
and Charles II. Of England, and also
of the royal Bluebeard, Henry VIII
With the authenticity of these auto
graphs fully established, the collection
would be invaluble in any public Ii
brary. There is reasonable assurance
that they are genuine, for the lady by
whom the collection was made, with
ltlt Vi n utNObtu
pursued her task for years, and
was in correspondence with all the
collectors in Europe, and paid for some
of these autographs very large SUMS of
mOney-so large, indeed, that she de-
stroyed the bills in order that her fam
lily might not know the full extent of
her extravaganza. 1t is to be regretted
that in the case of the rest of these the
vouchers had not been preserved, for an
autograph of Henry VIII, or of Cath
crime de Medicis is like picture by
one of the old masters; it is all heir
loom in a family, the history of which
is preserved for generations. Probably
their genuineness could be determined
by reference to the most experienced
autograph collectors in England. But
apart from any single names about
which a doubt might be raised, there
are hundreds of celebrated persons
about whose veritable signatures there
is no question, sufficient to make the
collection one of the most curious and
valuable in this country.-NetO YOrk
Evening Post.