Unprecedented original autograph album containing over 45 signatures of the various figures involved in the 1881-1882 trial of murderer Charles Guiteau, who shot President James A. Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, July 2, 1881. The album, 7 x 4, is highlighted by two signatures of the assassin, “Charles Guiteau” and “Chares J. Guiteau, January 21, 1882,” which were penned on separate pages on different dates, with pencil and ink collector’s notations to the latter explaining that the signature was obtained “after concluding his argument in his own behalf.” The balance of the album boasts an incredible array of signatures affiliated with the proceedings, which opened in Washington, D.C., on November 14, 1881, in the Supreme Court for the District of Columbia. From jurors and guards to litigators from the defense and prosecution, the album offers a remarkably comprehensive grouping of autographs from one of the 19th century’s most important court cases. Notable signers include: Walter Smith Cox, the trial’s judge; John Wilson and Frances Guiteau, the assassin’s brother and sister; Patrick Kearney, the arresting officer; W. M. Williams, court clerk; William Whitney Godding, physician and leading authority on mental illness; Charles R. Vernon, the head of courtroom police; the defense counsel of George Scoville and Leigh Robinson; and prosecution team members George Corkhill, Walter Davidge, and John K. Porter. In fine condition, with wear to the covers and detachment of the pages, all of which remain clean and fine.
