President Abraham Lincoln wrote this check, dated Aug. 28, 1861, to "Mr. Johns (a sick man)."

By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a basement one block from the White House, an archivist working for PNC Financial Services Group removes a 172-year-old bank ledger from a shelf, sets the book on a table and delicately flips through page after page of old client signatures. One name among many captures Mary Beth Corrigan's attention.

"Fr . . .S . . .Key," she says, slowly, as if discovering it for the first time.

The autograph of "Star Spangled Banner" composer Francis Scott Key is one of countless U.S. historical treasures now owned by PNC as the result of its $652 million purchase last May of Washington, D.C.-based Riggs Bank -- the so-called "bank of presidents."

	When he opened a Riggs account in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt listed the "Executive Mansion" as his address. Click photo for larger image.

Inside an H Street office building here is the proof that 23 U.S. presidents parked their money at Riggs, from John Tyler to Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to Harry Truman to George H.W. Bush -- and many personal letters to bank officials are still on file. When Mr. Truman pulled his account in 1962, he sent an apologetic note to Riggs' president: "This had to be done on the advice of counsel -- not because I don't like your bank."

The Lincoln collection includes three checks written by the nation's 16th president, each providing insight into his personality. Mr. Lincoln opened an account after being elected in 1861 -- and not long after Confederate leader Jefferson Davis pulled his money from Riggs.

Mr. Lincoln signed his checks simply ("A. Lincoln") and "had a very personal style," says Ms. Corrigan. One from Aug. 28, 1861, is made out to "Mr. Johns (a sick man)." Mr. Johns received $3 from the president. Another Lincoln check is made out to "A colored man with one leg."

A third dated April 12, 1862, Mr. Lincoln signed to himself, but he could not help commenting on the money's ultimate destination -- his son. To: "Self -- for Robert," it reads. The amount: $25.

	Riggs Bank, once known as the "bank of presidents," also counted among its customers first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Click photo for larger image.

PNC, Pittsburgh's largest bank, is trying to make sense of the history it now owns in the nation's capital, beyond the 51 Riggs branches in some of D.C.'s best neighborhoods -- including a four-story, white granite temple just down the street from the White House and across from the U.S. Treasury.

A few months after buying Riggs, PNC hired Ms. Corrigan part time to cull through 1,200 ledger books, some weighing as much as 40 pounds and dating back to 1803 -- covering the history of Riggs, which was founded in 1836 by William Corcoran, and several predecessors. Many books had been neglected, relegated to a damp basement.

She also has tried to get a handle on more than 100 letters from U.S. presidents -- many of them former Riggs clients -- countless signature cards, stock certificates and currency that predates the establishment of the Federal Reserve.

"It was kind of exciting and daunting and somewhat horrifying at the same time," says Ms. Corrigan, referring to the hundreds of dilapidated ledger books. "You see this stuff and it is deteriorating rapidly. I could really see there was a very, very important collection of Washington business here."

PNC wants a full accounting of what it has by the end of the year so it can make a decision about what to do with the collection -- which also includes checks signed by non-Riggs clients George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Those documents were acquired by Riggs in the 20th century. All options are being considered -- from donating the artifacts to a museum to preserving the collection in a PNC building. But the bank promises something will be done.

"This bank and its management decided not to just throw this stuff into the corporate records file," says John Tydings, director of the PNC archival preservation project.

The collection serves as both a guide and a witness to two centuries of American life.

Beyond U.S. presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt, who opened an account in 1901 and listed the "Executive Mansion" as his address, Riggs counted military heroes (Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur), politicians (Henry Clay, Daniel Webster), social activists (Clara Barton, Susan B. Anthony), religious leaders (Brigham Young) and American icons (Davy Crockett) as customers, and their signatures are among those on file.

PNC is sensitive to the privacy of former clients -- it was unsure whether it could disclose amounts written by President Nixon to a local telephone company, for example. Some of the transactions it did share are quotidian in nature -- as would be true for any bank customer. A $2.56 check President William Howard Taft wrote in 1919 to a local department store. A $3 check Gen. Pershing made out in 1918 to the U.S. Infantry Association. A $39 check from Eleanor Roosevelt in 1921. A handmade check from Mr. Clay written by the U.S. senator on his own paper, days before he died; the handwriting appears small and weak.

But there is evidence of notable American achievements, too.

The records show how Riggs collected $7.2 billion in gold for the federal government's purchase of Alaska, that it financed the 1909 North Pole expedition led by Robert Peary, that it handled arrangements for Elizabeth II's first trip to the United States as queen of England and that it funded the renovation of the Capitol dome during the Civil War -- work that Mr. Lincoln insisted be done as a way of restoring national confidence.

Ms. Corrigan, the archivist, cannot help but admit her excitement at being so close to history. "It gives you sort of a tingle," she says.