“To My Much Esteemed Friend ….” The Autographed Portrait Collection of Charles M. Schwab opens to the public April 4, 2025, at Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor’s (DLNHC) National Canal Museum in Hugh Moore Park, Easton PA.  The autographed photographic portraits in this collection were presented to Schwab, the business genius who built and led Bethlehem Steel from 1905 until the mid-1920s, by the powerful, prominent, and famous people who filled his world. The exhibition will be the first public display of the collection since the 1980s.

During his extensive career in the American steel industry, Charles Schwab’s network of connections included American presidents and politicians, domestic and foreign military leaders, dozens of foreign heads of state, monarchs, millionaire magnates, and multiple famous celebrities. Business etiquette in that era included the exchange of inscribed formal photographic portraits, and Schwab amassed a large collection which he displayed in his offices.  The photographs were later hung in the Schwab Library in the corporate headquarters of Bethlehem Steel. The collection was acquired by the National Canal Museum following the Schwab Library’s reorganization in the 1980s.

The 2026 exhibition includes signed photographs of Presidents Teddy Roosevelt through Warren Harding, “Black Jack” General John Pershing, British Prime Ministers David Lloyd-George and Sir Winston Churchill, John D. Rockefeller, Jr, Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, yachtsman and tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton, and silent film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. The exhibit will also explore the history of autograph collecting, and the evolution of the writing instruments used to sign the photographs.