LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 Sept Grand Format Air & Space #669  / 

25147

Bill Clinton: Autographs Including Space Laptop

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:12,500.00 USD Estimated At:50,000.00 - 75,000.00 USD
Bill Clinton: Autographs Including Space Laptop
<B>Original Laptop Used to Send the First Presidential E-mail, a Message to John Glenn in Space, with Bill Clinton & John Glenn Autographs Included.</B></I> This fascinating collection is a one-of-a-kind assortment of material relating to Bill Clinton's e-mail communication with John Glenn when Glenn was aboard the space shuttle <I>Discovery</B></I> in 1998. On the afternoon of November 6, John Glenn sent an e-mail to President Clinton from <I>Discovery,</B></I> which was orbiting several hundred miles above the earth. President Clinton responded the next morning on the very same laptop offered here. The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite Pro with a power supply and an external floppy disk drive. The original e-mails can still be found on the computer under the AOL archives. Instructions for accessing the e-mails accompany the lot. A floppy disk inside the external drive contains the e-mail exchange between President Clinton and John Glenn. Glenn's e-mail reads in part: "<I>This is certainly a first for me, writing to a President from space, and it may be a first for you in receiving an E mail direct from an orbiting spacecraft...It is truly an awesome experience from a personal standpoint, and of even greater importance for all of the great research projects we have on Discovery...We have gone almost a third of the way around the world in the time it has taken me to write this letter.</B></I>" Clinton responded, in part: "<I>Thanks for your message...We are very proud of you and the entire crew, and a little jealous...At a camp rally in Queens, I asked an 83 year old lady what she thought of your trip. She replied that it seemed like a perfectly fine thing for a young man like you to do!</B></I>" <BR><BR>In addition to the actual computer used by President Clinton in the e-mail exchange, there is an inscribed 8" x 10" photo from Bill Clinton to Naval Commander Robert Darling, White House physician and owner of the laptop computer the president used to e-mail Glenn. The photograph depicts both Clinton and Darling at the laptop while Clinton was writing his historic e-mail to Glenn, a communication that almost didn't happen. At first, the White House Communications Agency could not find an Internet-ready computer to respond to John Glenn's email. NASA was getting ready to sever communications with <I>Discovery</B></I> in anticipation of the spacecraft's re-entry, when Darling saved the day by allowing President Clinton to use his computer. Darling set up his modem, received John Glenn's message in his AOL account, and President Clinton responded to Glenn using Darling's same AOL login. The photo from President Clinton reads, "<I>To Rob Darling - with thanks not only for keeping me healthy but for getting this message into outer space! - Bill Clinton</B></I>". Also included is a copy of the White House press release with the text of both Glenn's and Clinton's e-mails to each other. The press release has been signed by both, "<I>John Glenn 1-8-98</B></I>" in the middle of the page and "<I>Bill Clinton</B></I>" at the bottom. Glenn has almost certainly misdated the release, likely intending to write "1-8-99". There are also a number of supporting documents included in the white folder housing the signed photo and signed press release, namely: a two-page memorandum from Darling to Dan Goldin, a NASA administrator, relating the story of how Clinton came to use Darling's laptop to send his e-mail to John Glenn, a one-page handwritten request from Darling to Clinton, asking the president to sign the photo included in this lot, a memorandum from a naval ethics board giving Darling permission to sell the laptop, and an 8" x 10" color photograph of Darling sitting in front of the computer Clinton used to send John Glenn the historic e-mail. <BR><BR>Bill Clinton was notoriously hesitant to use e-mail as a form of communication because he didn't trust the technology. He only sent two e-mails the entire time he occupied the White House, and this e-mail was the FIRST! In Clinton's words on his e-mail usage: "I e-mailed John Glenn in space. And I e-mailed some Marines and sailors on a ship at Christmas. That was it." Skip Rutherford, president of the Clinton Presidential Foundation, later admitted in published reports that the second e-mail may not have actually even qualified for electronic communication because it was a test to see if the commander in chief knew how to push the button on an e-mail! <BR><BR>This is truly an 'out of this world' opportunity. Not only was this the first presidential e-mail ever sent into space, but also it was the first U.S. presidential e-mail ever! Plus, the recipient was one of our most beloved national heroes, John Glenn. It has to be one of the most unique presidential collectibles of all time, truly bringing this area of collecting into the 21st century. One can only speculate what it would be worth if someone had, with comparable documentation, the first letter written by George Washington as president, or the first telegram sent by a president and the device used, or the telephone used to make the first presidential call. Unfortunately those historic moments went undocumented and their artifacts lost to the ages; this one is not only very well documented, but also actually available for a private owner to possess. And it can be yours for the highest bid.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Miscellaneous Collectibles, Larg (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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