It is good to see good work being done by colleagues on a great collection. But let’s not be too solemn about the collector and the collected, no matter his degrees and trophies. After all, he wasn’t. “Billy” traveled in certain social circles and had a lot of fun in doing so. Edith Wharton, the…
William King Richardson, Part I: Diplomas and Certificates
William King Richardson (1859–1951) was a member of the Harvard College Class of 1880. Just two years later he earned a double first at Balliol College, Oxford University (purportedly the first American to obtain this distinction at Oxford). His library was begun at the Lord Amherst of Hackney sale in 1908. For more than forty…