The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 19, May 8, 2005, Article 24

W. ELLIOT WOODWARD PHOTO SOUGHT

Fred Reed writes: "Woodward is a darling among numismatic
bibliophiles, and a great deal of information is already in print
about him and his numerous and splendid auction sales and
catalogs. His life has been voluptuously treated by several
writers.

Woodward was a collector first and foremost, who became
a premier numismatic auctioneer of the 19th Century, and yet
-- so far as I know -- no genuine, verifiable image of him exists.
(Now, I hope I am wrong on that and an E-Sylum reader will
set me straight and come up with one.)

If I'm way off base and Woodward pictures abound, mea culpa,
but please throw me a lifeline here. I'm sinking for the third time,
and I'd like to include such an illustration in my ongoing Bank
Note Reporter series on Confederate currency collecting before
I drown and too pass into oblivion.

You can contact me at freed3 at airmail.net. Thanks."

[Does a photo of Woodward exist? I checked with two
experts, and here's what they had to say. -Editor]

NBS Historian Joel Orosz writes: "To the best of my knowledge,
Fred is unfortunately correct. When John Adams wrote U.S.
Numismatic Literature, Vol. 1 in 1982, he illustrated the chapters
with line drawings of the numismatists he discussed--for everyone
except Woodward. I have searched for a verifiable image of
Woodward for years, but haven't found one. Heck, I haven't
even found a spurious image of him.

This is not to say that such an image doesn't exist. I remember
that a dozen or so years ago, a genuine image of Dr. Edward
Maris was unearthed for the first time (at least in numismatic
circles). However, it is to say that as far as I know, no one has
discovered such an image of Woodward yet."

Charlie Davis writes: "When I was doing Woodward research
a decade ago, I never found a photograph. I located his great
granddaughter and she did not have one My hope was always
that as WEW was on the Boston City Council for several years,
they might have lined them all up on the State House steps and
taken a group picture. But no go. He had either a lazy eye or
a bad eye, and might not have wanted to stare down the blast
of flash powder that would have exploded in his face during a
portrait. So it is possible he never had one done."

[Well, there's the challenge. Can any of the genealogical and
numismatic sleuths among our readership track down a photo
of W. Elliot Woodward? -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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