OTTO CURTIS LIGHTNER (1886-1950)

Otto C. Lightner is best known as the publisher of Hobbies, The Magazine for Collectors, the successor to Philatelic West. Through his magazine he did much in promoting various fields of collecting, autographs, antique furniture, china, silver, stamps, coins and paper money, buttons, dolls and just about anything collectible. His stamp and coin departments were important in the history of American numismatics which were run by various celebrities over the years and filled with a rich assortment of articles and advertisements.

Otto Curtis Lightner (1886-1950), was born on July 2, 1886, Norwich, Kingman County, Kansas, son of James Edwin Lightner (1854-1930), a merchant and native of Pennsylvania, and Maria Catherine Hoover (1861-1946), a native of Ohio.

The Lightner family were part of the American colonial period when German Lutheran immigrants who fled religious persecution went to London, Surrey, England, and many migrated to both Ulster County, New York, Canada, and into Pennsylvania.

Beginning with Nathaniel Ignatius Lightner (1709-1782), and his father Johann Adam Lightner (1678-1736), whom the latter was born in Germany, came to America first settling in Ulster County, New York before finding their way into Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Johann Adam Lightner fought during the American Revolutionary War. Otto C. Lightner was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

He grew up in Wichita City, Kansas with his four brothers...

On July 2, 1904, his eighteenth birthday, he delivered a speech titled : "How Christian Endeavor Will Influence the Future Destiny of Our Country," at the Christian Endeavor Rally held on the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt for President.

In September 1904 he was elected to the Young Men's Republican League.

In June 1905, he bought out a wholesale stock of millinery goods, running advertisements in the Wichita Daily Eagle, looking to hire two experienced street men and two traveling salesmen, selling hats, call third floor, National Bank Building.

In 1906, he began his career as a typesetter for a Kansas City newspaper, The Daily Journal.

In 1911, he was the president of the Associated Trade Press Company, Room 305, 123 East 6th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.

On February 12, 1920 he started his own company the Lightner Publishing Company, New Orleans, Louisiana. His first periodical was titled Strawberry Items, published for strawberry growers.

In April 1922 he published the Peanut Promoter, for the peanut growers, but was soon sued by Colonel John F. Penner, Secretary of the Suffolk Peanut Company, for libel. When Penner saw Lightner on the street he struck him several blows.

In 1930, about the time of the death of his father, he purchased Philatelic West, and began with Volume 36 but renamed the publication Hobbies, The Magazine for Collectors.

In 1930, Chicago held its first annual Antiques Exposition and Hobby Fair, which inspired Lightner to not only attend with an exhibit and booth for Hobbies not only to help launch it but also to include a strong antiques focus in the magazine.

The first numismatic editor of Hobbies was Clay Lewis Huntley (1881-1965), a salesman, who joined the ANA in 1932 in order to attend the annual convention held that year in Cincinnati, Ohio, and to write a detailed report for Hobbies.

On August 20, 1947, Lightner bought the old Hotel Alcazar in Saint Augustine, Florida to open as a Hobbies Museum.

Lightner tragically killed a 7 year old child hitting her with his car. The Times, Tuesday, March 7, 1950, page 5

He died on June 9, 1950, three months after that fatal and tragic car accident, at Presbyterian Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. He is buried at the Lightner Museum, Saint Augustine, St. John's County, Florida.

To read the complete article, see:
LIGHTNER, OTTO CURTIS (https://sites.google.com/a/numismaticmall.com/www
/numismaticmall-com/lightner-otto-curtis)

The Lightner Museum

The Lightner Museum is housed in the former Alcazar Hotel built in 1888 by Henry Flagler. Today it is home to one of the best collections of fine and decorative 19th century art in the country.

St. Augustine's "Lightner Museum of Hobbies" opened in 1948 with the collections of "Gilded Age" artwork, antiques and curios of Otto C. Lightner. As once-proud Chicago estates were put up for auction or sold for taxes during the Depression, Lightner quickly purchased the collections of millionaires that had been acquired over a lifetime.

The current mission of the Museum is to preserve, maintain, research and interpret the Museum’s collections for the educational benefit of the visiting public. The Museum is a non-profit cultural institution sustained by admissions and donations, and it is supported by a dedicated staff of volunteers.

From typewriters to Tiffany, Otto Lightner’s collection of fine and decorative art from the 19th century is impressive and extensive.

The Museum’s eclectic collection ranges from a mummy, shrunken heads, human hair art, cigar labels, buttons, salt and pepper shakers, to Tiffany glass, cut glass, porcelain, fine art paintings, furniture and sculpture all housed throughout the four floors of the original Alcazar Hotel.

For more information about the Lightner Museum, see:
http://lightnermuseum.org/

To read Hobbies on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/523056

The entire inventory of the Lupia Numismatic Library is for sale. Individual items will be available before the remaining archives are broken up into parcels sold at philatelic auctions in the U. S. and Hong Kong. Check NumismaticMall.com frequently as dozens of new items with estimates will be posted daily until everything is sold.

All inquiries will be given prompt and courteous attention. Write to: john@numismaticmall.com .

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