{"id":1663,"date":"2011-11-17T14:31:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T14:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.utc.edu\/archivist\/?p=1663"},"modified":"2013-09-13T19:58:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T19:58:02","slug":"sniffing-out-a-fake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/library\/2011\/11\/17\/sniffing-out-a-fake\/","title":{"rendered":"Sniffing out a Fake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/library\/files\/2013\/09\/special-collections-signature.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-1664\" title=\"McKinley signature\" alt=\"McKinley signature\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.lib.utc.edu\/archivist\/files\/2011\/11\/McKinley-signature-1024x237.jpg\" width=\"614\" height=\"142\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>by Noelle Boggs<\/em>, <em>Special Collections student worker<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Hi-Noelle here again!\u00a0 Recently, I have been processing a collection that consists of several <strong>Alabama land grants <\/strong>ranging from 1884 to 1914. When I first started to work through this collection, I was struck by the fact that all of the grants had the <strong>signature of the President<\/strong> during that time. For example, there are grants signed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/about\/presidents\/chesterarthur\">Chester A. Arthur<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/about\/presidents\/grovercleveland22\">Grover Cleveland<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/about\/presidents\/theodoreroosevelt\">Teddy Roosevelt<\/a>, and even a few signed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/about\/presidents\/theodoreroosevelt\">Woodrow Wilson<\/a>. I thought that it was pretty cool that I was holding documents that had the signature of so many former presidents of the United States, so I decided to do a little bit of research on why the president would need to sign land grants.<\/p>\n<p>I found, somewhat to my dismay, that the signatures on these land grants were most likely not authentic. In my research I found that <strong>Congress<\/strong> passed a bill on March 2, 1833 \u201cprescribing the mode by which patents for purchase of lands shall be signed and executed.\u201d\u00a0 Congress had concluded that the tremendous increase in the responsibilities and duties of the president gave him little time to personally sign every land grant.\u00a0 In recognition of this problem, the bill stated that the presidential Secretary would be authorized to sign all land grants. In effect, <strong>Andrew Jackson was the last president to personally sign a land grant<\/strong>, and all land grants after 1833, including the ones I had in my hands, were signed by a secretary.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n<p>I felt a bit disappointed about the fact that these signatures weren\u2019t legitimate, but it was really interesting to find out about this bill and land grant history.<\/p>\n<p><em>For more information on the bill and a subsequent appeal see: Signing patents &amp;: repeal laws for relating to public lands as requires the signature of president 526 <strong>CONGRESS-SESSION:<\/strong> 30-1 (1847-1848) <strong>SESSIONAL-VOLUME:<\/strong> 3<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Noelle Boggs, Special Collections student worker Hi-Noelle here again!\u00a0 Recently, I have been processing a collection that consists of several Alabama land grants ranging from 1884 to 1914. When I first started to work through this collection, I was struck by the fact that all of the grants had the signature of the President&hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><span><a class=\"more-link button text\" href=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/library\/2011\/11\/17\/sniffing-out-a-fake\/\"><span>Continue Reading <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4922],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-special-collections","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sniffing out a Fake - UTC Library Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sniffing out a Fake - UTC Library Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Noelle Boggs, Special Collections student worker Hi-Noelle here again!\u00a0 Recently, I have been processing a collection that consists of several Alabama land grants ranging from 1884 to 1914. When I first started to work through this collection, I was struck by the fact that all of the grants had the signature of the President&hellip; Continue Reading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/library\/2011\/11\/17\/sniffing-out-a-fake\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UTC Library Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-17T14:31:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-13T19:58:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.lib.utc.edu\/archivist\/files\/2011\/11\/McKinley-signature-1024x237.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chapel Cowden\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chapel Cowden\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/library\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/17\\\/sniffing-out-a-fake\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/library\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/17\\\/sniffing-out-a-fake\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chapel Cowden\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/library\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e2801f5426e52aa6a2ba99edb2409029\"},\"headline\":\"Sniffing out a Fake\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-17T14:31:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-13T19:58:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/library\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/17\\\/sniffing-out-a-fake\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":309,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/library\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/17\\\/sniffing-out-a-fake\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blog.lib.utc.edu\\\/archivist\\\/files\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/McKinley-signature-1024x237.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Special Collections\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/library\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/17\\\/sniffing-out-a-fake\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/library\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/17\\\/sniffing-out-a-fake\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/library\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/17\\\/sniffing-out-a-fake\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sniffing out a Fake - 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