The E-Sylum:  Volume 11, Number 6, February 10, 2008, Article 22

QUERY: 1898 DENTIST PORTRAIT PLAQUE RESEARCH

Is there a dentist in the house?  Dick Johnson writes:
"In his monumental work, 'Medicina in Nummis,' [1,146
pages with 8343 numbered items, but with liberal use of
letter suffixes drive the total well over 9,000 items]
Horatio Robinson Storrer cataloged numismatic items of
medical interest. With that sheer volume, errors were
bound to creep in.

"But not all were factual errors. Some were just Horatio's
inability to read tiny letters of inscription or worse yet,
artist's initials. Most of these items were in his own
collection (but he did add others he found in numismatic
literature, so the entire blame may not rest with him.)

"I have a case in point. There is an artist who did seven
portrait plaques of dentists. Only one is dated 1898 (thank
goodness!). Horatio attributes these to an artist named
Hitchcock. But he uses three sets of initials among the
seven -- GS, JS or TS.  This artist was a dentist himself
and he lived in Oswego, New York.

"One of the seven had a Massachusetts connection, so
Horatio included it in his other book, 'Numismatics of
Massachusetts' [319 pages, 2317 items] -- William Thomas
Green Morton Plaque. It is Storer (Mass) #1986 and Storer
(Medical) #2543.

"I wished to resolve the gentleman's correct initials and
learn his full name (and possible dates). So I wrote to
the Oswego Historical Society. They could not help.
Apparently city directories did not exist for such a small
New York town at that time.  Since the locality lead came
up blank, let's try the dentist lead. Is anyone aware of
a directory of New York dentists of the 1898 period?  Or
does any reader have other suggestions on how to obtain
this vita?  Thanks."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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