The 4th post was written because I wanted to know what happened to the 2,600 books that were going to be sold. Specifically, I wondered if they went to a library.
A BILL OF APPRAISEMENT
of the Estate of William F. Poole, late of the County of
Cook and State of Illinois, deceased.
One lot of Books (2,600 in number) at $1.00 per volume.
Total- $2,600
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| Portrait of W.F. Poole Newberry Library Photo by Diane Boumenot |
Ivy wrote, "I am a fellow at the Newberry library currently
doing some research on Poole's Index, which is how I happened to come across
your blog. I happened upon some biographical information in the Newberry Library
archives regarding the sale of William Frederick Poole's books after his death.
Yes, they were his personal collection, and it was quite extensive. The family
tried to sell them privately, but it seems as if that didn't work out and so a
public sale was held in 1900; there is a copy of the catalog of the sale in the
Newberry's collection (Catalogue of the valuable private library of the late
William F. Poole, LL.D., Librarian of the Newberry Library, Chicago, Ill.)" I was given the link and additional bits of information.
She wrote again saying, "If you ever find yourself in the
Chicago area, I would definitely suggest looking into those files, as his notes
have information about family trees and other information (they're not super organized,
though!). Williamson's (wrote biography of my ancestor) records do show that he tried to get in contact with
family/descendants in the 1950s to see if they had letters or other records,
but he did not turn up much."
Then, I read: "I did happen to find that the sales catalog from Poole's
book collection is also digitized on HathiTrust here, so you can see for
yourself what books he had." http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015020833938.
There were 76 pages of cataloged books! What were the topics? Well, the most surprising thing was seeing 27 books about witchcraft in his collection. If you would like to see the entire list, use the link above and scroll down to page 73. I'm sharing the description of two books on witchcraft, papers by Mr. Poole and his listing of the NEHGS Register (he was an early member to that society). The majority of his other books are about history.
