A Rare Signature of President John Adams Up For Auction

One of 2,500 historic items up for auction in Massachusetts includes a rare signature by President John Adams. Adams was known to speak out against British authority over the colonies and led them during the American Revolution.

Adams played a pivotal role in creating the Continental Congress and crafting its Declaration of Independence. Additionally, Adams advocated for building a navy to counter British sea power.

Early Life and Education

Adams struggled with school life because of his low self-esteem and sensitive nature, bullying, and frequent school changes. To escape his circumstances he sought refuge in nature by walking long distances through forests and dunes that bordered his family home.

In 1919 he joined the Sierra Club, an environmental conservation group founded by John Muir. They provided him with summer employment at LeConte Memorial Lodge – its Yosemite headquarters – which enabled him to develop into an accomplished photographer who began exhibiting his works early on in their careers.

He currently sits on the House Committees for Financial Services, Education and Labor, Agriculture, Black Caucus and Displaced Homemakers Bill as well as being an advocate of quality affordable health care as well as community revitalization.

Professional Career

Adams dedicated herself to social change throughout her professional career, starting on Greensboro City Council and later serving nine years in North Carolina General Assembly.

In 1930, Adams met Paul Strand – an American photographer and pioneer of Straight Photography – in Taos, New Mexico at a photographic gallery. Strand’s influence proved decisive: he encouraged Adams to renounce Pictorialism for modernist practices employing large format cameras that produced flat images with strong contrast levels.

Adams joined the Sierra Club the following year, and immediately started contributing photos he’d taken during mountain climbs to its publications and major art galleries in New York and San Francisco. In 1943 he traveled to Manzanar – an internment camp in California housing Japanese Americans – in order to document life there.

Achievement and Honors

Adams has dedicated herself to effecting positive social change as she serves on both the Greensboro City Council and Bennett College Board of Trustees. She has spearheaded legislation which fosters quality education for all students while raising funds for historically Black colleges and universities.

Adams served as a delegate at the First Continental Congress (1774-1776) and signed the Declaration of Independence. Additionally, he was part of Massachusetts assembly that created state constitution as well as being appointed minister plenipotentiary for France.

As one of the first composers-in-residence at Carnegie Hall and recipient of numerous honors and awards such as the Pulitzer Prize for music, he remains a prolific composer for orchestras worldwide as well as performing and conducting.

Personal Life

Adams served as a delegate to the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War, the government of 13 American colonies that eventually formed into the United States. He advocated that America form its own small navy to counterbalance British sea power.

He married Virginia Best, daughter of landscape painter Harry Best, in 1928. Afterward, he visited Taos in New Mexico and began photographing its landscape – his photographs eventually being featured in Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras (1927).

This book became a tremendous bestseller and was later turned into a 2008 television miniseries, starring Paul Giamatti as John Adams. The work won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and sold over two million copies.

Net Worth

Amy Adams is an award-winning actress known for her tenacious spirit and ability to portray deep emotions on screen. She has appeared in several blockbuster films as well as being an accomplished author; with an estimated net worth estimated at $75 Million dollars.

An extraordinary 16-page autograph letter written entirely in John Adams’ hand defending American sovereignty over international alliances is housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box and thus extremely rare.

An early autograph note twice signed by Adams as President. The original obligation signed on verso by Lemuel Sturtevant to Adams for $3.00 principal and interest is shown with some minor triangular paper loss which does not impact Adams’ signature, making this very good plus condition note.