Mom collectd everything from watering cans to ceramic chickens. but her most famous collection was autographs.
being the generous person she's always been Mom made a decision when I annouc'd my retirement as curator of special collections at Kent State University Libraries. she wantd her autograph collection to go to KSU as her own thank you to the university for employing her son. so abt a thousand autographs were boxd & sent to Kent. the gift was written abt by future novelist Thrity Umrigar in the Akron paper & was duly noted in Library Hotline.
in 1997 the library mountd a major exhibition of Mom's collection. this is the literary section where you may be able to see cards signd by Robert Creeley & Maya Angelou.
in other cases were signatures of Lucille Ball & Bette Davis Leonard Bernstein & Frank Zappa Muhammad Ali & Andre Agassi Gerald Ford & Bill Clinton Francis Bacon & Andy Warhol Robert Altman & Ingmar Bergman Rosa Parks & Wilma Mankiller.
here are my parents at the festive opening of the exhibition which was attend'd by director Bobby Lewis poet Maggie Anderson comics artist P. Craig Russell.
Mom's wearing her squash blossom necklace. in keeping with her lifelong spirit of giving she's willing it to Kent's fashion museum.
2 comments:
Your Mother's collections sound wonderful & fun. I have collections myself, so I understand. I have never been able to bring myself to ask for anyone's autograph, but I do have a letter, written by a scribe, with Louis XVI's signature & seal. It was a gift to me from Fay Wray, who collected autographs. It is one my most prized possesions.
how lovely. Mom only had contemporary autographs. & yes she had Fay Wray.
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