About the Project
Percival Bryan was a leading autograph collector from Jamaica who settled in the northeast section of Washington, D.C. His interest in collecting autographs began while serving as chauffeur for U.S. Attorney General Homer S. Cummings. Help us to transcribe the signatures of known and unknown individuals in Bryan’s very first autograph book.
The 1940s were tumultuous years in America. On the home front FDR’s New Deal was still helping America recover from the Great Depression, and overseas the country was waging a fierce war in Europe and Asia. How did the good ol’ U.S. of A manage to contend with these challenges so successfully? Take a look at Percival Bryan’s Autograph Album Book #1 to find out. The worn and fragile book is a veritable Who’s Who of 1944 New Deal and WWII America. It has it covered from the leader of FDR’s “black cabinet” to the Secretary of State and foreign diplomats. For good measure, it even has the F.B.I.’s future “Head G-Man in Charge” and a sketchy First Lady. It is so great that words cannot describe it unless you transcribe it!
Read more