An Autograph Collection as a Window Into a Changing World

In a note in the Feb. 15, 1963, issue, then-TIME publisher Bernhard M. Auer introduced readers to a few particularly dedicated subscribers who had made a habit of sending away their copies of TIME to their respective cover subjects for their autographs. One of those collectors was a 17-year-old from Caracas named Randall Salas.

"Randall, who was born in Curaçao and speaks English, Spanish, Dutch and Papiamento (a Caribbean lingua franca), started his collection only in 1959.

In a note in the Feb. 15, 1963, issue, then-TIME publisher Bernhard M. Auer introduced readers to a few particularly dedicated subscribers who had made a habit of sending away their copies of TIME to their respective cover subjects for their autographs. One of those collectors was a 17-year-old from Caracas named Randall Salas. "Randall, who was born in Curaçao and speaks English, Spanish, Dutch and Papiamento (a Caribbean lingua franca), started his collection only in 1959.