GREENWOOD, Ind. — Walking inside Mark Fields’ Greenwood home, you may think you are in a museum.
Every inch of his living room walls and shelves are covered with historical collections that span centuries.
“There are the Bonsai trees, the autographs, sports memorabilia and fossils,” Fields said. “Just lots of different things.”
However, there’s one passion that really stands out in his collections — Abraham Lincoln.
“It started, gosh, when I was a little kid,” Fields said.
He said his school, Abraham Lincoln Elementary in Perry Township, first sparked his interest in the country’s 16th president.
“It just kind of snowballed,” Fields said.
Ultimately, it led to his quest to collect every U.S. president’s autograph. The 46 historical signatures are now displayed in a binder.
“We have William Henry Harrison,” Fields said as he showed 13News the autographs. “That was a really tough one. That was the second to last one I got.”
His quest to find these signatures took decades and hours of searching and verifying in online auctions.
Mark Fields’ presidential signatures collection
Surprisingly, Honest Abe wasn't the first signature he got. It was Ulysses S. Grant.
“It’s taken me from the time I got Grant right about 30 years,” Fields said.
He said the most elusive autograph was the country’s first commander-in-chief, George Washington.
Now, he can say he has more than two centuries of history all in one book.
“I just think it’s cool that those pieces of paper, they actually touched those. That’s what gives me the satisfying feeling,” Fields said. “They actually touched those documents and wrote these things down in their hand.”
These are valuable pieces of history he hopes to one day pass down to his 16-year-old son, who is fittingly named Lincoln.
“I told him, someday, I am going to have to get rid of this, and I said, ‘Am I going to have to sell it?’ He said, ‘No, don’t sell it. You know I am a collector, and I’ll take them,’” Fields said.
Fields also has signatures from several first ladies and vice presidents. He said that might be his next passion.
In total, the presidential autograph collection is worth $150,000, Fields said.