Making Their Mark
Stories Through Signatures
Making Their Mark: Stories Through Signatures
A signature can be as routine as a mark on a form or as extraordinary as a stroke of the pen that changes the course of history. Well-known signatures are found throughout the records of the National Archives. Equally important are the multitude of marks by people unknown to history.
Whether one developed a signature style or signed groundbreaking policy into law, our primary sources illustrate the many ways people have “made their mark” on history. This page is inspired by the exhibit Making Their Mark: Stories Through Signatures.
COVER IMAGES
Left Column (Top to Bottom) Stainless Steel Sculpture of Gerald Ford’s Signature, Treaty between the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot, and Potawatomi Indians, Save Freedom of Worship.
Right Column (Top to Bottom) Print #3 of the Declaration of Independence, Senator Richard Russell and President Lyndon B. Johnson, John Wilkes Booth’s Calling Card, Letter from Katherine Hepburn to G. G. Killinger.
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Teaching Activities
Analyzing FDR’s First Inaugural Address
Comparing the Dawes Act and a Hopi Petition
Ernest Hemingway: Life and Works
Analyzing a Letter to Congress About Bloody Sunday
