Collect
Collaborative partnerships have long been the cornerstone upon which the American Antiquarian Society’s collections are built.
Collectors as Partners
The Society provides an institutional home for forward-thinking collectors who want the fruits of their labors to be widely accessible for generations to come. AAS curators welcome opportunities to partner with individual collectors who have amassed comprehensive collections. These collections are often tightly focused around one subject, format, genre, or time period, as was the case with the collection built by AAS member William C. Cook. Such gifts have provided the bedrock of the Society’s holdings, starting with the first donation by the Society’s founder, Isaiah Thomas, in 1812. Over two hundred years of these collecting relationships are celebrated in the Society’s bicentennial exhibition, In Pursuit of a Vision. The current generation of AAS members, librarians, and friends continue to keep alive this storied tradition of generous collecting.
An Individual Collector: William C. Cook
A recent example of one such collaborative partnership is with William C. Cook. Mr. Cook has been a member of the American Antiquarian Society since 1989. Over decades, he built a collection of hundreds of books, either from the Jacksonian Era or written about that time period. A self-described neophyte when the collecting bug bit him in the 1970s, Mr. Cook says he learned most of what he knows from book dealers who were generous with their time and expertise. The William C. Cook Jacksonian Era Collection originally was gifted by Mr. Cook to the University of Tennessee and then the gift was transferred to AAS. The generous donation was featured in an article in the AAS newsletter. In addition, Mr. Cook shared some of his collecting stories at the Collectors’ Roundtable at the Society’s Annual Meeting in October 2015.
Continuing Relationship with a Collection
In addition to initially building the Jacksonian Era collection, Mr. Cook has continued to support its use and growth since its incorporation into the AAS collections. He had the foresight to provide additional funding to help defray the costs of cataloging his collection, making the books more immediately accessible to scholars. Mr. Cook also continues to contribute funds toward future acquisitions that build on the strengths of AAS’s collections for studying the Jacksonian Era. Collaborations such as this one allow a collector to maintain a relationship to his or her collection even after it has been made publicly available to researchers at an institution such as the American Antiquarian Society.
Relationships with Booksellers
How do the Society’s curators continue to build upon the collections they inherit? Relationships with book dealers, built and maintained over generations, are absolutely essential. The goal is to be offered books by direct quote before they are made available publicly. In recent years, curators have added new tools to their repertoire, including the strategic searching of websites that specialize in selling rare books or scouring online auction houses. At the height of the online auction house boom in 2008, AAS curators were winning an average of one such auction every workday! Still, the best hunting of all for AAS curators may be the road trips—whether to book fairs, to the few remaining secondhand bookshops, or more likely nowadays, to the homes of bookdealers or to warehouses where they keep their stock. Nothing can supersede the experience of handling an actual physical book in the company of a knowledgeable companion who knows the trade.
The Society is privileged to partner with collectors, booksellers (who are often also collectors themselves), and also members of the general public who may call the Society when going through the books in grandma’s attic. (Learn more on the AAS Support webpage.) As books come into the Society, whether through long-established relationships or new channels, AAS curators must decide what to keep and what to pass on. The collecting phase described here is all about gathering material together, but the next section describes the curatorial decision-making process, one that is predicated on knowing what to leave behind.