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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

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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