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V4 2001 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 44, October 28, 2001, Article 3
U.S. COLONIAL "BOOKS" AT NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Mark Rabinowitz has an interesting article in the November 2001
issue of The Numismatist, published by the American Numismatic
Association. "The Remarkable Collections of Emmet and Myers"
is the story of five bound volumes residing in the Rare Books
Division of the New York Public Library. The books contain
two of the finest collections of U.S. Colonial Currency ever
assembled.
Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet (1828-1919), visited Philadelphia
with his family at the age of eight where he first saw the original
Declaration of Independence and "discovered a lifelong interest
in America's history." It was on that trip, in the mid 1830's,
that he began his collection of colonial money, purchasing a
piece of Continental Currency for ten cents. His currency
collection became part of a much larger collection of Americana,
containing more than 30,000 drawing, engravings, autographs,
and maps.
Theodorus Bailey Myers (1821-1887) was a lawyer who
built a library of 3,000 volumes related to early American
history. His collection included documents bearing the
signatures of every signer of the Declaration of Independence.
How the collections came to rest in the New York Public
Library is a fascinating story.
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com
To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum
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