Georg Heberlein autograph collection
Some signatures really are illegible! And this is certainly true of some of the 1,400 documents in the Georg Heberlein autograph collection, spanning the years 1471 to 1983. Written or at least signed by famous names such as Charles the Bold, Ronald Reagan and Neil Armstrong, the Library am Guisanplatz (BiG) has made these fascinating rarities available online.
The collector
Heberlein managed to acquire many important documents, not least thanks to his far-reaching international connections. His collection includes simple autograph cards, receipts, congratulations, notes and various official documents, all signed or written by a famous person. This was certainly the fascination that autographs exerted on the collector: a signature proves that the famous personage had held the document in his or her hand.
The bequest
Eleven years after his death in 1995, Heberlein's three daughters, Brigitte Cappis, Verena Hanck and Annette Brauen, paid tribute to their father's passion for collecting by presenting the 1,400 or so autographs to the then President of the Confederation, Kaspar Villiger, to be bequeathed to the Library am Guisanplatz.
Access and use
The bequest was made on the condition that the collection should be accessible to the public. The BiG meets this in a number of ways. Selected originals are displayed in tours and exhibitions, and the collection is described in detail in the library catalogue. All of the documents in Georg Heberlein’s autograph collection can be searched for and downloaded via the Alexandria research portal.