The president of the grolier club and its my to welcome you to the Second AnnualKenneth Rendell lecture on importance of historical letters and documents. Ken rendell has been a dealer since 1959 in historical letters and documents dating from the renaissance to the present period. His business for many years included offices boston and the gallery in new york city encompassed politics. The law, art, literature, music, science, the military amongst, other areas. Ken has authored some of the standard reference volumes in this field, including his history comes to life. Ken has been a member of the grolier club since 1972 and is significant contributions to our club over course over 50 years. Reflect just a few of his many interests and areas of expertise. One of kens historical interests is the american frontier, the foundation of his 2004 book, the western of the American Dream. Its his own extensive collection of western american memorabilia here. And the club was fortunate to have a selection of this material on show in this very room in 2005. Ken is also the founder and director of the museum of World War Two, which has been described as without equal among museums in this historic. The museum loaned major exhibitions and important artifacts and documents to. Many distinguished institutions, including the National Archives the Imperial War Museum in london, the Morgan Library museum in new york, and in spring of 2014, the grolier club of new york for a hugely popular, wellreceived, received exhibition of posters, photographs and, ephemera, illustrating the power of words and images in world at war. Forgeries and journalistic hoaxes are among kens many interests. He debunks the infamous hitler diaries on behalf of Newsweek Magazine in 1983 and then headed investigation for stern magazine into how this hoax was perpetrated for time warner. He proved the diary of jack the ripper was a hoax, and hes been involved in every major forgery case in recent decades as an expert witness. Ken is offered his testimony in criminal trials, including that of the mormon white salamander. He received the justice departments distinguished Service Award for his work, leading to convictions for thefts from the National Archives and the library of congress. And is the author of forging history the standard reference document reference on the subject. In march of 2021, his his wife and fellow member, shirley mcnerney. Ken donated an and important trove of handwriting facsimiles, forgeries, Research Files and correspondence documenting his long investing battle with these hoaxes and perpetrators rose to form at the grolier club the comprehensive randall collection on the death detection of forged handwriting. The collection is the most important and comprehensive on the subject known to exist and is remarkable for its depth and wide range. Dating from early 17th century to the modern day, the combination of original forgeries alongside with genuine examples of handwriting and a reference library, gives this collection unparalleled value for study in this notorious difficult field to the club blasting clubs lasting benefit. Ken has built on this donation by establishing the Kenneth Randall lecture on the importance of historical letters and documents at todays lecture. Hidden themes and collecting. And what i discovered about my own collecting promises to offer a personal and introspective look into kens own experiences as a collector, and his experiences and working others. Many here in building and shaping their collections renowned for his significant contributions to the field, ken now invites us to explore the deeper and often unspoken aspects of collecting uncover hidden themes and personal revelation missions that come with a lifetime dedicated to preserving history. Please join me in welcoming ken to the podium. Thank you, nancy. The what . Give you that. Ill give you two just when, nancy and i mentioned to nancy i had the idea that a lot of people dont really know at the basis of their own collecting. And then i went through to two different now three iterations of this subject. And finally realized its really about me and my collecting and because im like the shoemaker with the holes in the soles of his shoes, i thought i knew exactly what was doing. And then i found out there was Something Else that really was it was covering governing. Before i start, i wanted to mention that this lecture series in the future well for people who are excited about what theyre collecting and particularly involving manuscripts. So this not something i intend to keep the this was im doing this nancy suggested it over lunch dinner that i take this idea of of hidden themes and make it the second one. But i feel a little selfconscious this here and so please i we really need suggestions volunteers and its not about expense of things at all its about passion and forming interesting collection as in what you get out of it. So im very im really looking i have somebody next year the Anne Marie Springer who lives outside of geneva, switzerland, collects love letters in all fields from all periods of history. And she is really excited it. And she was, too, when i met her and last year i knew she was the perfect person. Shes now a grolier member and so next year were all set with love letters. And he it so duke, help us out. So i dont do this again in a hurry. The i thought that this talk focus quite a bit on collecting those that i worked with because i was really good at understanding the collectors person ality and anticipating they would be interested in without their ever saying i built my business on. That genuine interest in the collector. And i started to write this i was writing about different collectors and and how one guy who wanted to collect president and make a set of president s. We built a great collection on the founding of america which a lot more interesting and he had i remember saying one time there was something really i said you have to wire me the money ive got to buy it today. And he i only wanted president s when met you and know. But now the mcneal collection at university of pennsylvania and he was he was really of it so so it but i go in that direction. I made it kind of more personal to me because they this this subject has really changed my own appreciation of my collection and in the past 50 years, i thought i understood the basic theme of my collection about exploration and settlement of the American West and i defined the American West as the europeans, putting their foot on american soil. So new york was the west when somebody stepped off the. But i discovered this a much deeper behind my collection, and it really has increased my in my enjoyment very significantly and i hope i can prompt people to deeper discoveries in their own people, whether historical personality is a living, people have always been the focus of my life to survive the intense neighborhood i up in almost a tenement type of situation. I studied individual personality so that i could appreciate something good in people. And ive never stopped being interested when i went into this field as a dealer, i realized that people who are interested collecting the manuals and books of the past are interested in people in worlds outside of themselves jobs, which for me them interesting for them selves. And i found they find they dont always know as well they might do what their interests are in the process. They process of getting to know them. I saw pathways to expand their collecting to new people and new content and it was profession really and personally very satisfying. I of course reacted what they said they wanted for their collection. But i was anticipating where it all might head as a reviewer of my memoir, commented that my business was based on a similar concept by steve jobs as apples mantra. Quote some say give the customer what they want, but thats not approach. Our job is to figure out what theyre going to want before they do. And i was so surprised because that was exactly what i was doing. I didnt know he had heard about it. I actually turned down building a library for steve jobs. I just i didnt need complicated science. Like what i was told about by his lawyer. It was even more curious that ive had a very clear ideas of what i want to do in philanthropy. Hopelessness with financial really Poor High School students and people are the major of my concern. And doing something about it in society. I created the Spark Foundation in boston to bring hope to students who are doing very well in school but dont feel confident outside their ethnic and financial ghettos. My passion in this area erupted at a western history conference when i listened to a piano of Museum Curators all agreeing that their museums had to promote white guilt. The davis haters had to realize they were guilty because of what wipe bill in the 19th century did. It went through my mind that i dont do any business in this area and i dont really care anymore if people really disagree. So i spoke up and i talked about what was important about the American West. Poor farmers packing up the farm wagon with their when the soil runs out because there was no Crop Rotation and beginning the long overland trail to oregon and better and free farmland need to be told to encourage people who felt they couldnt anything to affect their plight in life. I wanted there to be in separation from where America Western history and many in the audience with me actually i think it was overwhelming that people in the audience agreed and a statement i made about it inspired High School Students that they could act to take action to better their lives, attracted past and future president s of western history to want to it further. This led to meetings in boston of create doing in conjunction with western historys annual meetings. Teacher seminars for High School History teachers to highlight hope in the western movement. This program would be similar to what my partner shirley created with World War Two museums Educational Programs used for teachers, which is still very actively used on pbs learning unbelievably to all of us. The whole program, which we were financing, was rejected by the board. Western history. They determined that the west is all about guilt and victimization and its just no Wonder High School kids dont like history. I was getting close to the darndest, standing my own, collecting but i wasnt there yet. I had written two books based on my western collection,heirst telling their stories in their and letters and the guide books at brought them west. The stories with their stories in were in own words. The title the western pursuit of the American Dream and theme was people getting off in going west for new opportunities. The best and better lives. I had known for 50 years that was the theme of my western collection and my own view of life. If you wanted to do something in life, you had to do something to get it. It could be moving to where there was better work or contemporary times, getting a better education. But you had to take action if you sat on your. Nothing but change to accept your own deterioration. That was, to me, the American Dream. Im always amazed this works so easily. Earlier this year, my wife shirley wanted to do Something Special for our mutual 80th birthday. We decided to go to amsterdam for the vermeer exhibition, the largest in our lifetime. I ordered copies of the 315 page exhibit and catalog. It was unbelievable work of research and some subjectivity is subjective analysis. Different curators from the muumthat own the individual paintings wrote different chapters on. Every element that made rmeer so special. Shirley and i had seen almost all of the nearly 30 out of 34 veee exhibed i could discuss the paintings effect on me, my favorites, b i had never considered how vermeer created them. I never wanted to think about how of art were created. I to glow in the excitement, the work, not analyze the factors that made them special. I was always irritated by art students who preached about all the Technical Details but had no appreciation of the completed painting as a work of art. It was with trepidation that i started, in this 315 page, extraordinary catalog full of blown sections of paintings. It was a tremendous experience, but all through i kept reminding myself that i wasnt going to get lost in the details. And overwhelmed with the elements. Vermeers use of perspective was very detailed and i had never considered the color of the shadows were created. The optics of the use of light through the window, but never any open sky high light was reflected. The falls in draperies and so on, and the highly magnified wide chapters of his brushwork, his use of heavier paint to reflect back light in the future. Wherever the painting was hung. I never wanted to lose of the overall experience. We had bought tickets when the exhibition first was announced. We arrived at the reichs museum in amsterdam and everything functioned extremely well. And i had brought strong glasses and i was able to get up really close, like 12 inches from each painting. I could see all these details and after every i sat down with shirley and we went back to the overall experience appreciating the details enhance the effect of experience, the whole but i didnt lose it and i started thinking my to collection should be collect things should be more like that not just to what the initial reaction. And as i thought about my western collection, it wasnt like a light bulb going off. It was like an arena suddenly having a light on. I realized what . I what i was really collecting were letters, diaries and books about peoples hopes. Hope was at the base of what motivated people. If people didnt have hope, they couldnt get off their and do. Every who went west on the overland trail had to have hope them through all of those hardships. It was so obvious. My concerns about the hopelessness in society were reflected in the basic of my western collection. I looked through my collection with this new insight, and id like to share with the journey that i went through as i discovered what it was really all about. Th first manuscript is the ultimate expression of hope from the settlers of the mass who chooses a colony. In september 1664. It was. 112 years before the dlation independence and is declaration of the right of lfovernment under the roy. Of 19 iginal given to them to found the colony of massachusetts. With the restoration of king charles. The sond in 1660. The british monarchy renewed its in t arican colonies inhe spring of 1664, st a royal to conquer new netherlands and to supervise new england colonies in july. They arrived in massachusetts, visits bay with their arms. Soldiers causing the different factions in massachusetts to unite in opposition to this threat to selfgovernment. In this manuscript response, the colonists say that in accordance with their original quote, it shall be lawful by force of arms to defend ourselves against. All such persons as shall at time attempt to destroy such an invasion, detriment or annoyance of plantation and their inhabitants. If any man shall conspire against our commonwealth or attempt the subversion of our frame of politic, he shall be put to death. That took real nerve. The Royal Commission reported this to king charles, who sent them back to boston to demand that they send representatives to london to answer to the king. They again refused the kings demands and his revocation their right to reelect their own government, ignored. The Royal Commission was much more successful here in new york, where the dutch with peter stuyvesant, new netherland to the british, who renamed it new york and placed the head the Royal Commission, who had threatened massachusetts. Richard nicoll as the first governor of new york. In that capacity he signed document in 1668. It represented great hope the future and this instance, samuel edsel. Purchased 500 acres. Quote commonly called by the indians from nashik and the english bronx land. James originally purchased the 500 acres 29 years earlier from the indians. Mention what it took at that point. I mean, you look at that this whole area and have the confidence to buy 500 acres. Another person who had a great sense of the future and of hope and i dont think anybody seemed to have more than william penn, the quaker leader who obtained the original land grant that became pennsylvania. Inhis letter, 1692, three potential buyers. He writes, quote, i have begun to open my shop again and exposed to sale wares, which i sold long and injurious to myself and family, neglected and quote as, an inducement to be part of his, quote, infinite and growing colony. For 100 shillings, he will 3000 acres of land in said province. Nearly a thousand miles to the west. Andre dilettante had been deputy leader of lasalle expedition down the mississippi to its mouth, claiming louisa anna for france in 1682. This document is dated montreal for years later and taunton engaging to voyageurs to go to the illinois country. As for traders, the beginning of the fur trade in north america. The contract specifies the division of furs they hope to obtain and enlists in detail the goods for the indians. 100 years later. The Mississippi River was a major issue at the head of the at the end of the american revolution. John jay, one of americas most brilliant statesmen, was in paris for negotiation. Quote, the count asked me what were our southern boundaries . And i told him the mississippi. He denied. All right. To that extent and urged several arguments to show the propriety of a more eastern line between us and spain in exchange for free navigation of the mississippi. Jay was authorized to guarantee spanish sovereignty of florida