Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1884 and undated

Letters, fragments, and signatures, 1624-1970 (bulk 1800-1939) contains letters, manuscript fragments, autographs, bibliographic data, and other items related to noteworthy authors and politicians or associated with local and regional history. Materials have been organized into three series.

Items from notable authors and politicians, 1624-1952 and undated, contains materials removed from rare books purchased by Special Collections or transferred from the Augustana College Museum. Most folders contain only a single item created by a particular person, although some folders contain several items. Materials in this series largely consist of letters written by famous authors and politicians to various sources, although some folders may only contain autographs or bibliographic and biographical data about a person. Bookseller's descriptions, exhibition copy, or other identifying information often accompanies these items.

Of note in this series is a handwritten German memorandum from Hans Christian Andersen; several letters from the pioneering Swedish female author Fredrika Bremer; autographs of James Madison, James Morton, and Carl Sandburg; handwritten documents from several members of royal families, including King Charles XIV John of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, and Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse; an 1801 land grant issued to William McPheeterz by James Monroe during his tenure as governor of Virginia; and a Civil War letter from John A. Dahlgren reflecting on the death of his son, Ulric Dahlgren, as a result of Ulric's involvement in a botched Union Army raid and assassination attempt on Jefferson Davis, commonly known as the Dahlgren Affair.

Items of local and regional significance, 1825-1970, include orphan manuscripts and ephemera related to the American Midwest. Among other materials, this series includes an emigration permit for a farmer named Anders Mag Andersson, who was approved to settle in New Sweden, Iowa, in 1849; a Valentine's Day letter from a young girl named Hulda Haterius in Plattsmouth, Nebraska; a 1901 letter from a Davenport lawyer advising Mary Johannsen in a wrongful death lawsuit (somehow connected to alcohol consumption) against her late husband's employer; a letter from Private Harold Nelson to Augustana College student Dorothy Nelson describing the events of World War I; an 1825 immigration advertisement for Harmony, Indiana; and the original constution of the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America, drafted at its founding in 1860.

Fragments, 1788-1904 and undated, include sheets from several retail store ledgers, including a 1788 ledger for a tailor shop in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and a single page of an undated, unidentified letter discussing the aftermath of World War II in Europe, including German refugees fleeing from the Russian zone.