Chiefly assembled in mid to late 1945, this lot is the signature collection of one Robert Butt. Butt, a young lad of the wartime era, was a collector of signatures and militaria of the United States Armed Forces, who collected a massive assortment of signatures, letters, patches, calling cards, and other fine items. His method was as effective as it was straight forward; he wrote every single General and Admiral he could find a mailing address for and asked them nicely. Many of them followed through, some tucking in a patch from their unit or similar small artifacts (including occasional items worn by them personally out in the field), with an occasional sincere apology from an adjutant or staff officer that the person they wrote wasn't available. Just among his collection of responses from the Army Air Force, he got a signature from General Doolittle of Doolittle Raid fame, one from future Air Force Commander Curtis LeMay, and two from famed Flying Tigers commander General Chennault; young Butt had the bravado to write Chennault a second time when his first letter, asking if the General had any Japanese or Chinese war trophies he was willing to part with, was met with an apology. A number of Army generals are also represented, including Guy H. Drewry (the Ordnance officer whose initials grace so many 1911A1 pistols), Surgeon General Norman T. Kirk, LTG W.H. Simpson of the 9th Army (who enclosed a grouping of German cloth items, mostly Luftwaffe patches), China Theater commander A.C. Wedmeyer (who included a Nationalist Chinese/U.S. style shield patch), General George Patton Junior, Berlin District Commander F.L. Parks (who included a War Service Cross reportedly salvaged from Hitler's Reichschancellery), Major General William "Wild Bill" Donovan (chief of the Office of Strategic Services and godfather of the Central Intelligence Agency), Brigadier General H.S. Hansell Junior (who enclosed a German War Merit Medal Ribbon, "which I personally picked up on the floor of Hitler's office in the Reich Chancellery soon after it had been captured"), and then-Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and future President Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower. Navy personnel represented include Vice Admiral McMorris (sent a signature and a collection of Japanese Pesos from the Philippines), Chester Nimitz (who also included a fake Japanese 10-Yen bill designed for a psyops drop over Tokyo), John S. McCain Senior (grandfather of Vietnam veteran and U.S. Senator John McCain), Admiral Spruance, Vice Admiral H.W. Hill (enclosed a Japanese postcard reportedly taken from a Japanese-held cave on Iwo Jima), and a number of Marine generals. Also included is a signature from Manuel Roxas (then President of the Philippine Senate, former resistance fighter/POW during the Japanese occupation, later first President of the post-independence Philippines). Provenance: The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection

Very good overall. The paper items show signs of age, but generally were well kept over the years. The original scrapbooks have worn down with time, and the collection has been re-housed in modern storage media, in some cases with the original scrapbook covers included.