RICHARD HOE LAWRENCE (1858-1936)

Lawrence, Richard Hoe (1858-1936), Lewisboro, Westchester, New York. 81 Park Avenue, New York. A superlative collector and savant. He was born the first child of Cyrus Jay Lawrence (1832-1908) and Emily Amelia Hoe (1834-1909), on March 18, 1858. His parents married in 1856.

His father was a wealthy banker and principal of Lawrence Brothers & Co., and member of the Stock Exchange, numismatist and art collector and about 1887 owner of Cyrus J. Lawrence & Sons.

Cyrus Jay Lawrence was also a numismatist and a member of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society in New York as well as a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the American Archaeological Society, the Bibliographical Society of Boston, the New York and Baltimore Municipal Art Societies, the Grolier Club and the Union League Club. He died January 9, 1908.

His mother was the granddaughter of Richard March Hoe (1812-1886) the inventor of the Hoe printing press, after whom she named her son.

His family lived in Paris from October 5, 1872 until September 30, 1876. He and his brother Henry Corbin Lawrence (1859-1919), were educated at Paris, France and upon returning home 1876 and 1877 respectively joined their father's firm, Cyrus J. Lawrence & Sons.

Among his passions were collecting of all kinds especially numismatics, books, art and journaling these activities through scrapbooking and photography. This passion for collecting was the result of his family's influence having avid collectors of books, art and coins on both his mother's and father's family. As an amateur photographer he was an assistant to Jacob Riis (1849-1914). His artistic flare was towards social realism of the 1880's sympathetic with Riis' muckraking by documenting through photographing raw scenes of the social derelicts and decadence of the City of New York foreshadowing the avant-garde that later came with the New York Ash Can School.

As a specialist in numismatics he focused on the coinages of the Roman Republic and Early Imperial periods. He was a patron of the ANS in 1906. As an aficionado of art he was a member of the Society of Iconophiles formed in 1895 for the purpose of issuing engraved views of New York City. During his tenure with the Society he served as its president and issued a publication of its History. As a bibliophile he was a member of the Grolier Club.

He traveled abroad and stayed in Paris, France during the summer of 1888. He married Jessie Cort (1868-1949), on April 19, 1897 at Manhattan, New York.

He was an active life member of the ANS since November 19, 1878. He was a member of the Executive Committee, ANS and served as a Vice-President. A donor, in 1878, to the ANS library he became the Librarian from 1880-1886. During his tenure as ANS Librarian he produced the "First Acquisition Ledger" giving an account of the collection with author names, titles of works, donors names, and so forth.

His collection of 581 lots was sold at auction by Ed Frossard on April 10, 1885 at George A. Leavitt & Co., New York. See Adams, Vol. 1 : 72, Sale 42, C+; Durst 874

The ANS owns two scrapbooks (1859-1907) relating to his coin and medal collecting and scrapbooking activities focusing on numismatics comprising newspaper and magazine clippings.

To read the complete article, see:
LAWRENCE, RICHARD HOE (https://sites.google.com/site/numismaticmallcom/encyclopedic-dictionary-of-numismatic-biographies/lawrence-richard-hoe)

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