About Us

I was a rare coin collector and dealer in the early 1990's and  would attend Rare Coin Conventions around the country. At one convention there was also a stamp collectors show in the auditorium next door: out  of curiosity I went to see what stamp collecting was all about. At one booth there were several famous autographs for sale, one of which was a Robert E. Lee signature. Having been a long time history buff I was immediately attracted to the idea of owning something handwritten by a  legend of the American Civil War. Of course, my first question was about authenticity. The dealer offered me a guarantee of authenticity, that satisfied my concern, and I purchased my first autograph.

I  then decided to prove to myself that the signature was genuine and went  to my local library and checked out all the books on autograph  collecting, went home, and eventually read all of them. I then started  contacting autograph dealers all over the country and began to learn  more and more about autograph collecting. In the next year I acquired  many more autograph reference books and became more confident in my own  abilities to decide if something was real or not. I bought more letters,  signed photos, and signatures of various historic personalities that  were of interest to me. I displayed them like art on the walls of my  rare coin gallery and would engage in conversations about them with my  coin clients. 

Many found them to be as fascinating as they were to me. One of the items I had on display was a Hoagy Carmichael signed music quote from Stardust, his most famous song.  During one of my transactions with a rare coin client he mentioned that it was his wedding anniversary and that he had  vivid memories of dancing, to the music of Stardust,  with his wife on their wedding day. I immediately pointed across the  room to the hanging display and said there is your perfect anniversary  gift for your wife. He immediately wanted to buy it, and with some reluctance, on my part we agreed on a price. On that day in 1991I sold  my first autograph. Since then I've built a huge reference library and  have had the good fortune to handle some of the most interesting and  rare autograph items available anywhere in the world. I have helped  build many wonderful individual collections and found the perfect  autograph for gifting at many special occasions

I  have clients from every walk of life and every collecting interest:individuals as well as public and private institutions, including the  United States Library of Congress.  History Makers Autographs is now one  of the nation's leading dealers of premium quality autographs,  maintaining the most diverse selection of original historic letters and  antique documents, representing all fields of human endeavor. Please  give us the opportunity to add your name to our client list too. We  carry thousands of items in our inventory, many still not added to this  web site. So if you don't see the item you desire please contact us so  that we can check our complete inventory. At  History Makers Autographs every autograph we sell is unconditionally  guaranteed authentic without time limit to the original purchaser. 

Steve H. Nowlin

History Makers Autographs