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Posted By: brian

until the fountain pen was invented around 1900, all there was for ink was the dip pen and no one would have taken a dip pen and ink bottle around town with them asking for autographs, so the instrument of choice would have been the pencil when out in public. But for sure, autograph requests have been obtained by mail for hundreds of years. I even read a letter signed by Andrew Jackson shortly before his death where he mailed a lock of his hair at a collector's request. Back in the old days, people would ask for a lock of hair by mail more than they would an autograph and in most cases the celebrities would comply.