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Trivia

What document bears the signatures of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison?

It’s Friday, time for some light trivia with which to impress your friends over the weekend. The manuscript pictured (from the archives of the American Philosophical Society) here is the only document known to contain the signatures of the first four presidents of the U.S. It is a subscription list for an expedition by André Michaux to explore “the interior of North America from the Mississippi along the Missouri, and Westwardly to the Pacific ocean.” Michaux, whose globetrotting life was full of excitements and disappointments, was a French botanist who came to United States to examine the North America flora. Read more