More information is being posted on the world wide web. There are times that I periodically check certain names, places, dates etc. on the web. Years ago, not much was listed for the Lewis j. Cist autograph collection, but my most recent Google search yielded much information.
A family story that has been passed down through the years was the fact the the world acclaimed autographed collection was dispersed. If a person saw a particular item from Lewis J. Cist collection was in a historical rare books department at a college, university, or other collection, it would not bring much attention to the audience, but if an audience looked at many different collections, and saw the same recurring name of Lewis J. Cist they would notice that the over all collection was of Americana significance.
After the autograph collection was auctioned off in New York in 1880's some of the later auctions in the 1890's and early 1900's came from the Lewis J. Cist collections. I have looked at my reference guide and compared it to other auction labels from their auction descriptions to that of the Lewis J. Cist collection. It was the same.
My goal is not to bring the Lewis J. Cist autograph collections together again ( cost prohibitive), but to show a side of Americana history that may have been overlooked. It would be exciting to find a different side of history and bring it to life.
I shall keep you posted.
