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Album, Autograph


Title Album, Autograph
Artist/Maker Donald J. Detwiler
Date 1918
Medium Paper
Dimensions h. 4.12 x w. 6.75 x d. .5 in. (h. 10.47 x w. 17.14 x d. 1.27 cm)
Credit Line U.S. Senate Collection
Accession Number 11.00010.000


  • Object Description
  • In 1917, at the age of 14, Kansas native Donald J. Detwiler began his appointment as a Senate page under the patronage of Senator William H. Thompson. Detwiler served as a page for one year and during that time managed to collect over 115 autographs in this leather bound album. Among the signers are Senators Charles Curtis, James Hamilton Lewis, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Vice President Thomas R. Marshall. Detwiler also encountered the famous orator William Jennings Bryan when the former secretary of state and presidential candidate came to the Senate Marble Room to speak with a senator. The remaining signatures are primarily from senators of the 65th Congress. In his recollections, Detwiler describes how Edwin Halsey, the supervisor of the Democratic pages and himself a former Senate page, generally "discouraged" autograph hunting as a distraction to the "usefulness" of the uniformed pages. Halsey's signature appears on page 99.

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