Collection context

Summary

Abstract:
Correspondence of T. Harrison Garrett and John Work Garrett, and John Work Garrett’s handwritten card file documenting the Garrett coin collection.
Extent:
5.3 cubic feet (20 boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

T. Harrison and John Work Garrett papers, circa 1875-1942, Archives, American Numismatic Society.

Background

Scope and Content:

Contains correspondence of T. Harrison Garrett and John Work Garrett, which includes a letter from Edward Maris to T. Harrison Garrett offering him his collection of New Jersey Coppers; correspondence with Lyman H. Low, including a letter indicating the transfer of Low’s collection of Hard Times Tokens; a letter from Anthony C. Paquet regarding a dollar he designed; letters informing John of his election the American Numismatic Society and his subsequent election as a fellow; and extensive correspondence with U.S. and foreign dealers, including Henry and Samuel Chapman, Edouard Frossard, B. Max Mehl, Leonard Forrer, Wayte Raymond, Edward and George Cogan, George Massamore, and Jacques and Hans Schulman. While most of the correspondence and documents relate to T. Harrison and John, a few items concern T. Harrison’s other son, Robert Work Garrett (1875-1961). Also included are T. Harrison's and John Work Garrett’s notebooks and a handwritten card file documenting the Garrett coin collection, including information on price paid and provenance; photographic negatives taken by the Johns Hopkins University Numismatic Curator, Sarah Elizabeth Freman; and a typed and annotated catalog of the collection prepared by the Chapman Brothers between 1905 and 1907. Some of the 19th century correspondence was lost in a Baltimore fire in 1904.

Biographical / Historical:

T. Harrison Garrett (1848-1888), whose family managed the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, began collecting coins as a student at Princeton in the 1860s. His son, John Work Garrett (1872-1942), greatly expanded the collection. John joined the American Numismatic Society (ANS) in 1920, and in 1921 was elected fellow. He served as member of the Council (now the Board of Trustees) of ANS from 1921 to 1929. John graduated from Princeton in 1895 and was a career diplomat, serving as secretary of the American Legation at the Hague beginning in 1901 and ambassador to Italy from 1929 to 1934. Following an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Senate nomination in 1922, he retired to Evergreen House, the family estate in Baltimore. Upon his death in 1942, the estate, along with the family’s numismatic and other collections, were left to Johns Hopkins University, where he served as a trustee from 1937 to 1942. The University auctioned off most of the numismatic collection in the 1970s and 1980s.

Arrangement:

Organized in four series: 1. Correspondence, 1875-1942, 2. Rome Correspondence, 1929-1932, 3. Catalogs and Inventories, 4. Card Indexes

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

Collection open to all researchers.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

Copyright restrictions may apply. Permission to publish or reproduce must be secured from the American Numismatic Society.

PREFERRED CITATION:

T. Harrison and John Work Garrett papers, circa 1875-1942, Archives, American Numismatic Society.

LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
75 Varick Street, 11th floor
New York, NY 10013, United States
CONTACT:
archives@numismatics.org