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Digest: February/March 2021
Manuscript Digest – February/March 2021 – This complimentary e-digest, now published bi-monthly, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more. […]
Recent Posts
Stolen Alexander Hamilton Letter Found
An Alexander Hamilton letter written in 1780 has come to light. This handwritten signed letter is from Hamilton to the Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette, a general fighting for the American cause during the American Revolution is receiving British trip locations from Hamilton. It is one of many documents written by [...]
Computer Analysis meets Beowulf
Beowulf! How many of us remember our school days reading, or at least trying to read, "classics" like Beowulf, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or Shakespeare's King Lear. Even today, research continues on authorship, writing styles, the meanings of words, syntax and so much more. Beowulf, believed to have been composed around [...]
500 Year Old Catalog and Vanishing Books
Books vanishing into the ether world. Unknown until now. All discovered from a lost volume now found! No, it is not from the world of Harry Potter. The 500 year old Libro de los Epítomes is the catalog for Hernando Colón’s 16th-century collection. His library was to be the biggest [...]
Randall Salas: Collecting Autographs with a Twist
He began collection in 1959. But not the usual letters. They were Time Magazines. He would send them off asking the person to autograph their cover image. His name is Randall Salas. He began at age 17 from Caracas. With over 1500 issues in his collection he has seen many [...]
The Search Continues: Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
In 1848 women gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to consider not only voting rights, but the conditions of women in society at large. The result was the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. The issues were not new. Abigail Adams in a now famous letter [...]
IRS Updates Requirements on Appraisals and Appraisers
In November, 2017, Manuscript Society Member, Stuart Lutz, wrote an article, Can I Deduct that? An Introduction to Appraisals for the society journal, Manuscripts. He included the proposed parameters issued by the IRS. Stuart noted new requirements for appraisers and outlined questions collectors needed to ask of appraisers and the [...]
Dave Smith, Society Member and Disney Archivist dies at 78
From 1958 through the remainder of his life, David R. Smith was an integral part in The Manuscript Society. As he told Kevin Segall in a recent interview, "I joined [The Manuscript Society] in 1958. When I was able to begin attending the annual meetings, I was thrilled to find [...]
