Rare Signed Photograph of Millard Fillmore, from the Famed Signed Photograph Collection of Jerome Shochet

A self-made man, Millard Fillmore grew up in near poverty and began his working career as a cloth maker’s apprentice. He taught himself reading, spelling, arithmetic, and geography, studied law and became a lawyer, then won election to the New York State Legislature and to the U.S. House of Representatives. He did not become known nationally, however, until the Whig Party chose him to be Zachary Taylor’s vice-presidential running mate in 1848; in 1850, he became the second Vice-President to become President upon the death of the chief executive.

Signed photographs of Fillmore are notably rare, among the rarest presidentially signed images in the signed photograph age. We are aware of only a handful having ever reached the market.

Vintage sepia 2.5 x 3.5 CDV portrait photo, signed in black ink, “Millard Fillmore 1867,” and signed again on the reverse, “Millard Fillmore, Buffalo, July 22, 1867.”

This was once part of the great signed photograph collection of Jerome Shochet.