The Numismatic Bibliomania Society

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V29 2026 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 29, Number 36, 2026, Article 12

ARCHIVEGRID

Andrew Pollock writes:

"I just learned about this recently. I note that there is a Walter Breen archive at Cornell. It also appears that there are thousands of collections pertaining to national banks under the search term "national banks".

https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/?q=Numismatics

Archivegrid logo

I was unfamiliar with this resource, which aggregates listings of archival materials in museums, universities and libraries. There do seem to be a number of archives useful for numismatic research. We're all familiar with the American Numismatic Society, National Numismatic Collection and Library of Congress, but there are many other archives that have numismatic content.

There are entries for individual items as well as complete archives. Seals are included as well as coins and medals. Numismatic researchers should bookmark this for future reference. It is also a finding guide for numismatic collections in museums, universities and libraries. Here are some entries that caught my eye, but all are worth reviewing for your personal interests. -Editor

Morris, Robert, 1818-1888
University of Chicago - Special Collections Research Center
Contains descriptions of coins, names of purchasers, and letter copies relating to numismatics

Edward Gans Collection of Materal about Numismatics, 1889-1963
University of California, Los Angeles - Charles E. Young Research Library
Collection consists of 112 items including pamphlets, a small group of mailings from Numismatics forum, a typescript Catalog of Gans' Numismatic Library, and a run of , September 1950-December 1958.

Hills, Jonas Coolidge, 1851-1913
Connecticut Historical Society
J. Coolidge Hills was a noted coin and military medal collector who lived in Hartford, Connecticut. His correspondence was primarily with dealers in numismatics from Japan, London, France, and across the United States. Also includes an Italian certificate that accompanied an award of a medal, handwritten notes, two pages from a diary written while on a trip to Europe (undated), and a notebook listing books on numismatics. Hills originally bequeathed his collection to the Wadsworth Atheneum but the restrictions he placed on the donation made it difficult to manage, so it was transferred to the American Numismatic Society

Albert A. Grinnell scrapbook (1861-1940)
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
The collection consists of about 80 items, including 6 philatelic Civil War covers; published pamphlets; color and black and white prints; color postcards; commercial and home photographs; and several facsimiles of the Bixby letter and other Lincoln writings. One ALS (4 pages) by Elliott Leviness of Detroit to Grinnell describing how his father, James F. Leviness, a fireman on U.S. Revenue Steamer Miami had burned cotton bales during a frantic 1862 battle in the James River while Lincoln and Stanton were on board; and a 1934 letter and blue ribbon for his 1934 numismatics display at Cleveland

Alberto Francisco Pradeau Collection 1551-1980 1910-1979
Arizona State University Libraries
The Alberto Francisco Pradeau Collection houses correspondence, typescripts, transcriptions, translations, photocopies, photostats, and printed matter documenting Pradeau's research on colonial and nineteenth century Mexican history and currency. Although the collection extends from 1551 to 1981, the bulk of the material constitutes the products of Pradeau's research from 1910 to 1979. The collection has been arranged into eight series.

Walter H. Breen papers, 1950-circa 1992
Cornell University - Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Correspondence, holograph notes and printed material from Walter H. Breen. The archive includes Breen's address book, approximately 90 pages, with extensive notations (referencing Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov, among others); approximately 47 typed manuscript pages with extensive hand-written notations on issues relating to homosexuality; approximately 60 typed pages, with extensive holograph notes, relating to the "Breen Developmental Inventory Questionnaire" and notes on the related "Project OJ"; a thirty-three page holograph manuscript by Breen entitled "Numbers are Fun!"; approximately seventy typed pages of poems and short works by Breen, many with holograph corrections; and an 18 page typed manuscript of a play entitled "Erokles", along with a 1958 letter from Burkhardt of Der Kreis/Le Cercle.

Numismatic Society (Hartford, Conn.).
Connecticut Historical Society
The Hartford Numismatic Society was founded in 1935 to encourage and promote the study of Numismatics through the acquisition of coins, paper money or medals and to spread their history. Their records consist of their constitution and by-laws, minutes of meetings, 1934-1970, annual reports, officer's reports, membership applications and lists, financial records, correspondence, a secretary's subject file, club history, and certificates

Gillingham, Harrold Edgar, 1864-1954
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Collection, 1730-1950, of materials gathered by Gillingham on early American crafts, instruments and numismatics. Included are photostats of documents on crafts and craft-makers, such as carriage building and on instruments and instrument-makers, particularly time-telling instruments, sich as sundials; a few original documents by individual vraft and instrument makers and scrapbooks and manuscript articles written by Gillingham and his wife on craftmaking and numismatics, including calico and linen printing in Philadelphia. Also included are miscellaneous records of the Port of Philadelphia, 1792-1829, with ship baggage entries and alien passenger lists for 1798; Gillingham family papers and a diary by Edith H. Gillingham from Paris during World War I, 1917-1919, detailing conditions during the last year of the war

Drowne, Henry Russell, 1860-1934
New-York Historical Society
Four Henry Russell Drowne letters, dated between April and June 1893, relating to numismatics and the American Numismatic and Archæological Society; correspondents include John Henry Buck, and William M.R. French, director of the Art Institute of Chicago. One letter, signed George William Curtis, dated 27 Washington Street, December 24, 1859, is an inquiry into whether any Robert Browning plays have been performed in the United States

Stickney, Matthew Adams, 1805-1894
Peabody Essex Museum - Phillips Library
This collection contains the papers of Matthew Adams Stickney along with papers of his father Dudley, his brother Dudley, his daughter Lucy, and other family members. The papers consist mainly of correspondence regarding genealogical research and numismatics. There are also financial and legal papers, copies of registry and church records, diaries, newspaper clippings, an autograph collection, a ciphering book, and a grocery store account book

Anthon, Charles Edward, 1822-1883
New-York Historical Society
Signed letter, dated City College of New York, June 5, 1872. Respecting General De Peyster's pamphlets on the War of the Rebellion. He would like Wood, the American Numismatic Society's librarian, to acknowledge the pamphlets "with some flattering remarks in the name of the Society" as he knows "how sensitive authors are.".

Lind, Eric, 1920-1983
Leo Baeck Institute - Center for Jewish History
The Eric Lind collection documents his involvement with numismatics and philately and his interests in the Holocaust and the fate of the Jews during World War II. Materials collected here cover topics such as Anti-Semitism, Holocaust, Nazis and Neo-Nazis, forgeries during WW II, stamps and currency, and the era of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The collection consists of printed materials, artifacts, paper money and coins, stamps, post cards, envelopes, correspondence, documents, and photographs

New England Numismatic and Archaeological Society Records, 1865-1878
New England Numismatic and Archaeological Society
Peabody Essex Museum - Phillips Library Constitution, bylaws, correspondence, and book of donations and gifts of this Boston-based organization

Henry Phillips Jr. papers
Johns Hopkins University - Milton S. Eisenhower Library
Henry Phillips, Jr. (1838-1895), was an author, philologist, and numismatist. The collection consists largely of the manuscript writings of the author dating from 1862-1892.

Todd, Richard Cecil, 1914-
South Carolina Historical Society
In this letter, Richard Todd responds to questions Wiley posed in previous correspondence pertaining to the manufacture and use of Confederate coins and the Confederate treasury

Pradeau, Alberto Francisco, 1894-1980
Arizona State University Libraries
Consists of correspondence, typescripts, transcriptions, translations, photocopies, and printed matter describing Dr. Pradeau's research in colonial and nineteenth century Mexican history and currency. Although the collection extends from 1551-1981, the bulk of the collection is comprised of the products of Pradeau's research from 1910-1979. The collection has been arranged into eight series: Fraternal organizations; History of Mexico; History of the mission system and Jesuits in Mexico; Numismatic history of Mexico; Manuscripts, drafts and research notes for publications; Personal correspondence; Miscellaneous files; Personal documents/records

Duke University - David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library
The Currency Collection contains 4896 pieces, 1746-1982, of which all except a small number of coins and tokens are paper currency. Most of this money is domestic, but there are a limited number of foreign items, some of them quite old and interesting. Approximately two-thirds of the collection dates from the Civil War and one-fourth from the antebellum period.

Gadoury E-Sylum ad Monaco Auction 2006



Wayne Homren, Editor

Google
 
NBS (coinbooks.org) Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

To subscribe go to: Subscribe

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V29 2026 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

Copyright © 1998 - 2025 The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS)
All Rights Reserved.

NBS Home Page
Contact the NBS webmaster
coin