Exhibition has signature way of showing insights into history
Print Edition
JOSEPH Stalin’s signature was bold and forceful, Harry Truman’s was unaffected and readily legible, while Winston Churchill’s was formal and unflappable.
The autographs of World War II’s Big Three leaders — etched on a program to a string orchestra concert during a break from their conference in Potsdam — are on display at the US National Archives in a new exhibition that aims to look at history through penmanship.
The exhibition, which opened Friday and runs until January 2015, taps into the National Archives’ collections to show more than 100 signatures of figures as diverse as pop legend Michael Jackson and the first US president, George Washington.
In perhaps the most chilling section, the National Archives has put out the marriage license of Adolf Hitler signed on April 29, 1945, as the German dictator and Eva Braun wed one day before they committed suicide.
The license, seized by US troops, testifies that Hitler and his longtime girlfriend were “of pure Aryan descent” and asks Braun, “Are you willing to take Our Fuehrer Adolf Hitler as your husband?”
Hitler signs with a scrunched scribble and Braun begins to write “Eva B-” before crossing out the “B” of her maiden name and writing Eva Hitler. The dictator’s confidants Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann signed as witnesses.
The exhibition highlights the unexpected turns and what-ifs of history. A 1989 card signed by Saddam Hussein thanks new US president George HW Bush for his “kind greetings;” two years later, the United States would attack Iraq after Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. Another display shows the young Richard Nixon’s application to be an FBI agent.
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