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Signature of Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe's handwritten signature, a souvenir she often gave to admirers.

This is Stowe's own handwritten signature, a souvenir she gave to admirers as a sought-after celebrity author.

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Handwritten cursive signature in black ink on a white background, reading 'Harriet Beecher Stowe' with the first name abbreviated in flourished letters and the surname written in large looping script.
Signature of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

About this source

What it is

This image shows the handwritten signature of Harriet Beecher Stowe, written in flourished cursive script.

Why it matters

Autographs like this were often requested from famous authors by admirers in the 19th century. A signature can reveal something of a person's personality and status, and this one reflects Stowe's fame as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Look closer

  • What does the style of the handwriting suggest about the period it was written in?
  • Why might people have collected the signatures of famous authors?
  • What can a signature tell us, and what can it not tell us, about a historical figure?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Harriet Beecher Stowe on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Vol. I, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Boston, John P. Jewett & Company, 1852. Engraved vignette shows a log cabin with several figures in front, including a standing man and children.Book

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Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe · 1852

Handwritten manuscript on aged paper with cursive text and crossed-out words, showing the resolutions of the Compromise of 1850, including provisions on California statehood and slavery in the territories.Document

Primary source

Compromise of 1850

Henry Clay · 29 January 1850 (resolutions); statutes enacted September 1850

Sepia daguerreotype portrait of a seated woman with dark hair in center-parted ringlets, wearing a dark dress with a white lace collar. She rests one hand on her lap beside a table holding a potted plant with a patterned cloth.Photograph

Primary source

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Southworth and Hawes · c. 1850

Oval portrait painting of a woman with dark hair in ringlets, wearing a black dress with white lace collar, gold clasp, and lace cuffs, arms crossed, with a red drape at right against a gray background.Painting

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Harriet Beecher Stowe

Alanson Fisher · 1853

Handwritten manuscript page of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, headed 'Thirty-third Congress of the United States, First Session, begun and held at the city of Washington, December 1853,' with the title 'An Act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas' in ornate script.Document

Primary source

Kansas-Nebraska Act

United States Congress · 1854

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