Who We Are

Steven has been in the field since he was 11 years old, or half a century, when his small collection was featured in his hometown newspaper. Since then, and the founding of The Raab Collection in 1989 with his wife, Susan, he has built the firm from its founding in his living room to an international presence on the forefront of historical discovery. He has also written several books, including With the 3rd Wisconsin Badgers: The Living Experience of the Civil War Through the Journals of Van R. Willard and the definitive work on historical document authenticity, In the Presence of History. Steven graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, earned a law degree from Temple University, and began his career as a lawyer, which he pursued for 40 years. He was, during that time, the author of the book Blueprint for Franchising a Business, which was published worldwide in multiple languages.

Nathan Raab has been a principal at the firm since 2005. During that time, he has helped grow the firm into an international business and authored the bestselling book, The Hunt for History (Scribner, 2020). He has advised the relatives of famous historical figures (such as Dwight Eisenhower, Thomas Jefferson, and Ronald Reagan), as well as lifelong collectors and their families, as they sell their treasures. He has helped important historical discoveries find homes, permanent and temporary, in major institutions, including the Smithsonian, Harvard University, the National Constitution Center, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library, and the National Museum of American Jewish History. He was a longtime member of the Board of Trustees of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and served a decade on its Executive Committee. He appears frequently on most major media outlets. This includes the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, BBC, CNN, Fox News and many others.

Nathan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and began his career writing with the Associated Press in the Rome bureau, after which he worked for several members of Congress on policy and communications issues.

Karen joined The Raab Collection after a career as an attorney at Drexel University’s Law School where she developed the school’s Pro Bono Program and created innovative programming and partnerships for clinical legal education. She is a former member of the Director’s Council of the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the past chair of the Founders Award at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Karen is a primary strategic consultant on all matters.

Susan Raab co-founded The Raab Collection after a career in science. She bought the firm’s first autograph and was instrumental in the early years in guiding it toward quality rather than quantity. She was also integral to the creation of the firm’s first catalogs. These were pioneering, as the first fully illustrated catalogs in the field, in which every item was shown. She also took up the tasks of handling the firm’s financial matters, as well as inventory management.

Rebecca joined the firm in 2023. A graduate of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, she spent nearly two decades as a journalist. She also holds a master’s degree in book history from Drew University. Her articles about history and the culture of collecting have appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Smithsonian, Slate, and elsewhere. Her first book, Rare Books Uncovered (2015), developed from her longtime editorship of Fine Books & Collections magazine, and she is the author most recently of The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells: Investigations into a Forgotten Mystery Author (2024).