In a glass case tucked on the top floor of the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, a small, centuries-old document bears the hurried script of a young military aide authorizing rations for spies.
The aide would later become the ninth president of the United States.
For former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, that fragment of history — signed by William Henry Harrison while serving as an aide-de-camp under Revolutionary War Gen. Anthony Wayne — is more than ink on paper. “It’s a story” — and one he chased for years before finally adding it to a collection that took more than two decades to complete.
Now, that piece — alongside dozens of others spanning every U.S. presidency — is on public display as part of “Presidential Ink,” a new exhibit that opened last week at the presidential site in Indianapolis.
Drawing from Holcomb’s private holdings, the collection of longtime attorney Tom Charles Huston and the presidential site’s own archives, the exhibit brings together 45 presidential signatures to trace the sweep of American history through handwritten words.
“It’s been an interesting journey — decades, plural in length,” Holcomb said of his collecting. “For me, more than even acquiring a piece, it’s the hunt. It’s the learning of the history behind the document.”
A collector’s eye — and ‘an obsession’
Holcomb began collecting presidential material some 25 years ago, eventually assembling signatures from every U.S. president — with George Washington as the final addition.
“Patience, affordability, determination,” he said of acquiring that last piece through auction.
He hasn’t added a presidential signature in eight years, but he said his pursuit — and the stories behind each document — still draw him in.
“I don’t like collecting signatures. I like collecting documents,” Holcomb told the Indiana Capital Chronicle Thursday, at the new exhibit’s opening. “For me, I like to have the context.”
Holcomb said his “least favorite” item in his broader collection is a signature from Ulysses S. Grant that had been cut out of its original document. It was a once-common practice among dealers looking to sell autographs for profit.
“That’s the opposite of what you want,” he said, noting that he rather “prefers complete documents that preserve the full story.”
Among Holcomb’s favorites are a piece signed by John F. Kennedy before he reached the White House, when he was still a U.S. senator navigating questions about whether a Catholic could be elected president. The document ties to a visit to the University of Notre Dame, where Kennedy — in what Holcomb described as “true Kennedy form and fashion” — headlined a fundraiser for a congressman.
Another, from Franklin D. Roosevelt, is written on official ship stationery from the USS Indianapolis during his 1936 diplomatic “Good Neighbor” cruise to South America — a trip that marked the first time a sitting U.S. president visited multiple nations in the region and underscored Roosevelt’s efforts to strengthen ties across the Western Hemisphere ahead of World War II.
Holcomb said those connections help make the pieces compelling.
“You start here, and then you end up way over here,” he said. “You go down so many rabbit holes.”
Three collections, one narrative
The exhibit blends artifacts from Holcomb’s collection, Huston’s decades-long archive and items preserved by the presidential site itself.
Curator Jennifer Capps said that mix helped organizers fill in gaps and present a “broader picture” of presidential history.
“We have official documents, correspondence, autographs and souvenirs,” Capps said. “So you’ll kind of see a variety of things” that show presidents not just in office, but across different moments in their lives and careers.
Some of the most striking items aren’t formal proclamations or landmark laws, Capps said, but everyday artifacts of governance, like naval commissions, personal letters and even brief notes.
That includes a pair of signed baseballs from Holcomb’s collection — one from Bill Clinton and another from Barack Obama — displayed alongside letters from the Hoover family in the site’s collection that recall an early connection between Herbert Hoover and Harrison at a baseball game at Stanford University.
In one case, a document signed by Thomas Jefferson appears in four languages — a ship pass that also bears the signature of James Madison before his own presidency.
Elsewhere, visitors can see how signatures evolved with technology.
An autopen machine on display is actively demonstrated for visitors, showing how presidents since Harry S. Truman have used mechanical devices to reproduce their signatures for routine correspondence and souvenir items.
The exhibit launched as part of the nation’s lead-up to its 250th anniversary.
Charles Hyde, president and CEO of the presidential site, said the effort isn’t just to reflect on 1776, but on the centuries that followed.
“It’s a great reminder that America 250 is about the continuum of 250 years,” Hyde said. “As you look across 45 presidents and 47 administrations, they arrived at the presidency in different ways, they departed in different ways, but it’s all part of our shared history.”
Presidents, he added, serve as markers in time — reference points that help people situate their own lives within the nation’s story.
“We recognize too that it’s a great way to engage people in conversation in a moment when we all should be talking more,” Hyde said.
A call for curiosity — and civility
For Huston, who began collecting presidential artifacts in the 1950s and continues to attend auctions today, the exhibit is about more than history.
He hopes it sparks something in younger generations.
“I hope this gets young people interested in history — and talking to one another again,” Huston told the Capital Chronicle. “These presidents weren’t perfect. But they were there when they needed to be. We can learn from that.”
He pointed to the nation’s founding structure and democratic traditions as something worth revisiting, and discussing.
“Civility and democracy — that’s what sets us apart,” he said. “We need to be able to have conversations with one another, even if we disagree.”
Holcomb echoed a similar sentiment, framing the exhibit as both a reflection on the past and a prompt for the future.
“We have such a rich, unique history that has positioned us in such an exceptional place,” he said. “It’s up to us to continue to not just be the stewards of this great experiment, but to make it even more.”
These days, Holcomb said his collecting has shifted.
He still follows auctions and historical artifacts, but has “kind of gone away from signatures for a while,” turning instead to baseball cards and other items tied to specific moments in history — from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy — pieces that, like the documents in the exhibit, capture a moment in time.
“I hope what people take away is we have such a rich, unique history that has positioned us in such an exceptional place. And yet, throughout history, what you learn it’s up to us to continue to not just be the stewards of this great experiment, but to make it even more of a shining city on a hill,” Holcomb continued. “It really comes down to people at the street level to make sure that America sees the next greatest generation. … It’s up to us to author it. It’s up to us to be the signers of that.”
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.
