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Are there any forum members who can verify a signature of actress Laura Keene?

I'm interested in purchasing an autograph of the actress Laura Keene who was on stage when Lincoln was shot.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on April 12, 2024 at 6:46pm

Wow, that sounds tough. How many exemplars have you been able to gather?

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Permalink Reply by Garrett Meadows on April 12, 2024 at 7:14pm

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on April 12, 2024 at 6:54pm

This is from WorthPoint there may be others. I would suspect there might be some CDVs that were signed by her. There are ones of the Booths and other actors etc.

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Permalink Reply by Garrett Meadows on April 12, 2024 at 7:14pm

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on April 12, 2024 at 6:59pm

If you Google her name and include the word "signed" in the search, quite a bit will come up from RR, Christies, Heritage etc.. ... including material from dealers currently.

Interestingly, The Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago is currently offering a fragment of the dress she was wearing the night of the assassination. The listing makes for an interesting read and a look at the fascinating archive that's included with it. If you are a bit of a history nerd like myself, I highly recommend the Bookshop if even just for the online browsing alone. There is some amazing material there!

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Permalink Reply by Garrett Meadows on April 12, 2024 at 7:14pm

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on April 12, 2024 at 7:49pm

I would recommend passing on this (the signed play, that is).

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Permalink Reply by Garrett Meadows on April 12, 2024 at 7:16pm

One of the issues I have discovered is that most of the exemplars I've found of Keene vary.

The one I've included appears to be an in-person autograph.

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Permalink Reply by JK on April 12, 2024 at 8:37pm

"In person" autographs from this time period are problematic. She would have used a dip pen during that era, and those were not designed to be carried around.

I don't like the look of that signed script at all. The ink flow doesn't look right for the kind of pen that would have been used.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on April 13, 2024 at 1:27am

+1 On the other hand there were some newish "fountain" pens at that time...

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Permalink Reply by Garrett Meadows on April 12, 2024 at 7:18pm

Of all the exemplars I have been able to unearth vary slightly. The one I'm interested in appears to be an in-person signature on the script of a play. Whether she was appearing in the play I don't know.