The E-Sylum:  Volume 4, Number 18, April 29, 2001, Article 10

DEACCESSIONING 

   Dave Bowers writes: "Nice 'edition' this week. Concerning 
   deaccessioning, are you aware that the Library of Congress 
   "junked" many if not most of its 19th century newspapers and 
   a huge amount of filed copyright material relating to books, 
   prints, etc.? 

   About 20 to 25 years ago I noticed that quite a few bird's-eye 
   view lithographs of towns and cities, mostly printed circa the 
   1870s and 1880s when such things were immensely popular, 
   were coming on the market.  All bore the stamp of the Library 
   of Congress. I went to Washington and met with the person in 
   charge of deaccessioning such things and learned that anything 
   that he or his staff thought significant (e.g., Norman Rockwell 
   prints filed for copyright) were moved to a new facility in 
   Crystal City, VA. 

   He realized that much of the trashed stuff was very valuable, 
   but he said that to auction or dispose of it otherwise would 
   have involved inventorying it and placing it out for bids, which 
   he had neither the time nor the staff to do. It was easier to 
   throw it away.  However, local dealers in ephemera, etc., 
   were aware of the dispositions (how, was not stated) and 
   were on hand when things were thrown out. 

   In this way, second-hand, I acquired most of my 19th century 
   Mint Reports, a huge number of newspapers that interested 
   me (California Gold Rush era, certain eastern cities during the 
   Civil War, etc.), and so on. 

   Similarly, circa 1980 I acquired a large number of periodicals 
   from the New York Public Library, in the latter instance by 
   paying to have them microfilmed -- which ran into quite a few 
   tens of thousands of dollars." 

   Remy Bourne confirms the story about the Library of 
   Congress.  He writes: "Not all newspapers were purchased 
   from the libraries by newspaper dealers. Twenty years ago 
   when I was avidly collecting all numismatic related stories in 
   United States newspapers from the 1700's foreword, most 
   of the newspapers were literally "acquired" from the dumpsters 
   of The Library of Congress where they were thrown away 
   after being microfilmed.  This was related to me at the time 
   from the newspaper dealers I was doing business with." 

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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