LOS ANGELES — It all started in 1906 when City Librarian Charles Lummis sent out a blank piece of stationery with a request.

As Josh Kun, Director of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and author of The Autograph Book of LA, explained, “These are all people [Lummis] considered, as he put it, ‘people who count,’ and he asked them not necessarily for their signature, but he said to just improve upon this page.” 

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The results were everything from simple autographs to poems, letters, and even artwork.  

Now, the Los Angeles Central Library is sharing these historic documents with the public and has put together an exhibition drawing on decades of autographs from their special collections. The show features an amazing array of signatures from Charles Bukowski to Helen Keller and is the third of the library's projects to help activate interest in its special collections. 

City Librarian John Szabo was surprised at the depth of these collection.

“I pulled open a drawer and the first autograph I saw happened to be a handwritten poem called ‘Youth’ by Langston Hughes,” said Szabo. “My jaw dropped. It took my breath away and knew that we had to do something like this exhibit and also we had to take a 2019 look at this collection.”

To do this, the library held a public autograph day where all Angelenos were invited contribute their names and thoughts to the collection. Kun explained that there was concern people might not understand the idea of the project, but was pleasantly surprised at the response. 

“People just got it immediately,” said Kun. “From three-and-a-half-year-olds to LAPD officers to artists, because it is this universal desire to say, 'Oh, there's a blank page? I can be remembered? There's a chance that I can leave my name on something?'”

The exhibition presents a fascinating cross section of American culture over the past century, a playful conversation asking, Who gets to leave their mark on the city? 

But what does an autograph mean in today's digital age?

Kun said, “People actually look at the city itself as an autograph book when you're sitting in traffic or walking down the street, that you're noticing names, like a tag on the back of a billboard, that we're all participants. And this ongoing story of marking up the city that hopefully we love enough that we want to be remembered by.” 

From our sidewalks to our billboards, L.A. is filled with the marks of its citizens and, as Kun points out, all you have to do is take notice.