Below are three society members who have committed to service on the Board of Trustees for the next three years. One is a brand new board member and two have taken on a second term. We thank them all for their commitment to the society.

New Member

Carrie Stanny

Carrie Stanny for the past ten years has been a freelance reference librarian and researcher. Her work is wide-ranging. Projects include researching the Susquehanna Land Deed of 1754; a biography of Canadian artist Paul Kane (1810-1871), which involved, among other things, tracing the lives of Nineteenth Century American, British, and European engravers; and a deep dive into the many Indian Portrait Galleries that were staged in the United States from 1833-1836.  As a researcher she is passionate about the accessibility and searchability of private and institutional digital collections. She is looking forward to working with fellow trustees to help shape the next seventy-five years of the Society.

Returning Members

Daniel Hamelberg

Dan Hamelberg of Champaign, Illinois, has collected autographs and manuscripts for some four decades. His collections include autograph letters signed by US presidents while in office as well as material from Declaration of Independence and Constitution signers. He also collects Revolutionary War maps, printed forms of the Declaration, and other notable early American documents and books. An aficionado of rare American coins, he is a trustee of the American Numismatic Society and a past president of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. His library of American numismatic literature is considered the best in private hands.  Apart from his collecting life, Dan is chairman of the University Group, an Illinois real estate holding company.

George Snook

George Snook comes to the board with some history: his father, of the same name, was a longtime member of the Manuscript Society. In fact, history is a running theme for Snook. He earned a BA in history from the University of New Hampshire and followed it with an MA in European history from Fordham. He went on to teach history, retiring from the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn last year. Snook collects rare books, antiques, and manuscripts—historical, of course.

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2022-2023

At the first in-person meeting since 2019, the May 2022 business meeting was held in Williamsburg, Virginia. The attending membership approved the new officers and the new members of the Board of Trustees. Here are the Officers and Board of Trustees of The Manuscript Society.

OFFICERS:

President: Ellen Howell Myers

Ellen has served on the board as Vice President from 2020-2022 and currently chairs the society’s Scholarship Committee.  Ellen is a Texas native. Before retirement, Ellen taught history, primarily at San Antonio College. Her publications include textbook guides for Harper & Row and articles on colonial Latin America. Ellen studied at Mount Vernon College in Washington, DC, as well as the National University in Madrid and Tulane University in New Orleans. She holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Virginia.

Vice President: James West

Jim is a collector who recently retired from a career in technology management and consulting. (He holds graduate degrees in computer science and philosophy from Indiana University.) Jim is a long-time collector. Some of his earliest memories are of working on his stamp collection with his grandmother in the late 1950s. More than 30 years ago, he began collecting antiquarian books connected to polar exploration and voyages. From there, his collection expanded into related manuscripts. Jim has contributed articles to Manuscripts including about a letter from Jane Franklin, wife of the Arctic explorer John Franklin and an article about a Fridtjof Nansen letter in his collection.

Treasurer: Anthony J. Loscalzo

Anthony continues as Treasurer.  While on a European holiday he met Bill Coleman, then President of the Society, who introduced him to the pleasures of collecting and gave him a gift membership. He joined the Manuscript Society in 1987. In his professional life Anthony is an attorney and his collecting tastes run to the eclectic.  Anthony has been Treasurer of the Society since 2004.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

(2023) indicates end of current term as Trustee

Stuart Embury (2023) is a family physician who retired in 2006 from a practice in Holdrege, Nebraska. Post-retirement, he has served as a temporary physician in Alaska and several East Coast states. For more than four decades, he also has led surgical teams in Haiti. As a newly minted MD, Stuart began collecting prints and art books. His collection grew to 11,000 arts books and catalogs. In 2010, he donated the collection to the University of Nebraska. Since then, he has branched into collecting American artist letters, documents, and archives. Stuart chairs the Manuscript Society’s Honors Committee.

Gerald “Jay” Gaidmore (2024) is the Marian and Alan McLeod Director of the Special Collections Research Center at William & Mary. He has more than 20 years’ experience as an archivist with the Library of Virginia, Brown University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously on the Virginia State Historical Records Advisory Board, he is now president of the Williamsburg Historic Records Association. Gaidmore holds an MA in history from Old Dominion University and a Master of Library and Information Sciences from the University of South Carolina.

Dan Hamelberg (2023) of Champaign, Illinois, has collected autographs and manuscripts for some four decades. Among his collections are autograph letters signed by US presidents while in office as well as material from Declaration of Independence and Constitution signers. He also collects Revolutionary War maps, printed forms of the Declaration, and other notable early American documents and books. An aficionado of rare American coins, he is a trustee of the American Numismatic Society and a past president of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. (His library of American numismatic literature is considered the best in private hands.) Apart from his collecting life, Dan is chairman of the University Group, an Illinois real estate holding company.

Peter Klarnet (2024) is a specialist in early Americana. He has brought many major collections to sale, among them the papers of Norman Cousins. In 2016, Klarnet joined Christie’s, New York as the senior specialist for manuscript Americana. There he has worked with the papers of the Marquis de Chastellux, the Findlay-Wright Papers, the Roger Judd Collection of American Historical Autographs, and the Louisiana Purchase Collection of A. J. Tullock. He also brought the Albert Einstein “God letter” to auction, achieving a record $2.89 million.

Vernon R. Morris Jr. (2023) is an orthopedic surgeon now retired to part-time medical-legal consulting. Like many children of the 1950s, he collected postage stamps. But Vern really put his stamp on the philatelic field. Twice, the United States Philatelic Classics Society gave him its Susan McDonald Award for his publications in the Chronicle. He also received several Editor’s Awards for best article of the year and has been asked to serve as the group’s membership chair. At last year’s Balpex Show, he won the Single Frame Grand Award. That enters him in the National Championship in November. Vern collects documents from many periods in American history and finds colonial and Revolutionary America of particular interest.

Scott Mubarak, MD, (2024) is surgeon in chief at Rady Children’s Hospital and professor of orthopedics at UC San Diego School of Medicine. He also is a past president of the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America. Last year he received the Nicolas Andry Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Mubarak has been interested in history throughout his career and has published papers about the lives of physicians. He served as a Manuscript Society trustee from 2012 to 2018. His collecting interests are poetry, science, space, and South Pacific history.

Dianne Garrett Powell (2025) has built a career in marketing and management for nonprofits and for-profit businesses. A longtime resident of San Antonio, Texas, she has volunteered with over 40 local and national organizations. Her collecting focuses on maps, with an emphasis on world maps by early cartographers. Besides the Manuscript Society, she serves on the board of the Phillip Lee Phillips Society of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

George Snook (2023) comes to the board with some history. His father, of the same name, was a longtime member of the Manuscript Society. In fact, history is a running theme for George. He earned a BA in history from the University of New Hampshire and followed it with an MA in European history from Fordham. He went on to teach history, retiring from the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn last year. George collects rare books, antiques, and manuscripts.

Bob Snyder (2025) is a dealer and auctioneer of historical documents, manuscripts, books, antiquarian materials, and collectibles. He learned from the best, including his parents, Phil and Elaine. Now Bob heads the family business, Cohasco Inc. in Yonkers, New York. Bob is one of the youngest writers ever published in Manuscripts. In 1970, at age 15, he penned an article on his discovery of a Pennsylvania diary recording the Johnstown Flood. Even before then, manuscripts were an all-consuming interest, and they still are today.

Carolyn Hoover Sung, PhD, (2024) has been a Manuscript Society member since about 1970. She is the chairperson of the Publications Committee. A historian, librarian, and archivist, she spent a half-century career at the Library of Congress. In her retirement, she volunteers in the Manuscript Preparation Section. She is a much-published expert in American book and manuscript collecting as well as in editing and preserving library materials. Her interests include 19th-century publisher and politician Peter Force. She holds a PhD in American studies from George Washington University.

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The 2024 Class of Trustees of the Manuscript Society:

New and Returning

Gerald “Jay” Gaidmore is the Marian and Alan McLeod Director of the Special Collections Research Center at William & Mary. He has more than 20 years’ experience as an archivist with the Library of Virginia, Brown University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously on the Virginia State Historical Records Advisory Board, he is now president of the Williamsburg Historic Records Association. Gaidmore holds an MA in history from Old Dominion University and a Master of Library and Information Sciences from the University of South Carolina.

Scott Mubarak, MD, is surgeon in chief at Rady Children’s Hospital and professor of orthopedics at UC San Diego School of Medicine. He also is a past president of the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America. Last year he received the Nicolas Andry Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Mubarak has been interested in history throughout his career and has published papers about the lives of physicians. He served as a Manuscript Society trustee from 2012 to 2018. His collecting interests are poetry, science, space, and South Pacific history.

Returning Members:

Brian G. Kathenes, ISA S-CAPP, is a 30-year Manuscript Society member, chair of the Membership Committee, and host of our webinar series. In 2010 he received the President’s Award for his leadership and service to the organization. He also is the author of the syndicated column “The Autograph Detective” and is the host of Hobby World, a weekly cable TV program relating to hobbies and collectibles. Kathenes holds the first and only Specialist Certification (S-CAPP) in Autographs, Manuscripts, and Historical Documents.

Peter Klarnet is a specialist in early Americana. He has brought many major collections to sale, among them the papers of Norman Cousins. In 2016 Klarnet joined Christie’s, New York as the senior specialist for manuscript Americana. There he has worked with the papers of the Marquis de Chastellux, the Findlay-Wright Papers, the Roger Judd Collection of American Historical Autographs, and the Louisiana Purchase Collection of A. J. Tullock. He also brought the Albert Einstein “God letter” to auction, achieving a record $2.89 million.

Carolyn Hoover Sung, PhD, has been a Manuscript Society member since about 1970 and now heads the Publications Committee. A historian, librarian, and archivist, she spent a half-century career at the Library of Congress. In her retirement, she volunteers in the Manuscript Preparation Section. She is a much-published expert in American book and manuscript collecting as well as in editing and preserving library materials. Her interests include 19th-century publisher and politician Peter Force. She holds a PhD in American studies from George Washington University.

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The 2023 Class of Trustees of the Manuscript Society:

New Members:

Dan Hamelberg of Champaign, Illinois, has collected autographs and manuscripts for some four decades. Among his collections are autograph letters signed by US presidents while in office as well as material from Declaration of Independence and Constitution signers. He also collects Revolutionary War maps, printed forms of the Declaration, and other notable early American documents and books. An aficionado of rare American coins, he is a trustee of the American Numismatic Society and a past president of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. (His library of American numismatic literature is considered the best in private hands.) Apart from his collecting life, Dan is chairman of the University Group, an Illinois real estate holding company.

Jim West is a collector who recently retired from a career in technology management and consulting. (He holds graduate degrees in computer science and philosophy from Indiana University.) Jim is a long-time collector; some of his earliest memories are of working on his stamp collection with his grandmother in the late 1950s. More than 30 years ago, he began collecting antiquarian books connected to polar exploration and voyages. From there, his collection expanded into related manuscripts. Jim contributed an article to Manuscripts about a letter from Jane Franklin, wife of the Arctic explorer John Franklin. Another article, about a Fridtjof Nansen letter in his collection, is in the works. Watch for it in a future issue.

Returning Members:

Elizabeth H. Dow created and directed the archives track at Louisiana State University. She is the Franklin Bayhi Professor Emeritus in its School of Library and Information Science. Much of her work there focused on the problems of archivists in small institutions, where the bulk of the country’s historical records and papers reside. Her involvement with the Manuscript Society goes back to 2001. She drew upon her experience with the society in her third book, Archivists, Collectors, Dealers, and Replevin. Her most recent book gives helpful tips on How to Weed Your Attic: Getting Rid of Junk without Destroying History.

Stuart Embury is a family physician who retired in 2006 from a practice in Holdrege, Nebraska. Post-retirement, he has served as a temporary physician in Alaska and several East Coast states. For more than four decades, he also has led surgical teams in Haiti. As a newly minted MD, Stuart began collecting prints and art books. His collection grew to 11,000 arts books and catalogs. In 2010, he donated the collection to the University of Nebraska. Since then, he has branched into collecting American artist letters, documents, and archives. Stuart chairs the Manuscript Society’s Honors Committee.

Vernon R. Morris Jr. is an orthopedic surgeon now retired to part-time medical-legal consulting. Like many children of the 1950s, he collected postage stamps. But Vern really put his stamp on the philatelic field. Twice, the United States Philatelic Classics Society gave him its Susan McDonald Award for his publications in the Chronicle. He also received several Editor’s Awards for best article of the year and has been asked to serve as the group’s membership chair. At last year’s Balpex Show, he won the Single Frame Grand Award. That enters him in the National Championship in November. Vern collects documents from many periods in American history and finds pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary America of particular interest.

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Douglass Rohrman will segue into the presidential seat after two years as the society’s vice president. Doug is a semi-retired environmental lawyer, formerly with the international law firm of DLAPiper US LLC. He collects American presidents and American and British historic personalities.  His special focus on the 18th and early 19th centuries. Doug has written several articles for Manuscripts. He served three years on the Manuscript Society board. A collector of stamps and coins as well as manuscripts, Doug has served as first vice president and trustee of the American Numismatic Society.

Ellen Howell Myers is now vice president. She has served on the board and chairs the society’s Scholarship Committee. News readers may remember her coverage of the Manuscript Society trip to Spain in 2016 and the Netherlands in 2018. Ellen is a Texas native. Before retirement, Ellen taught history, primarily at San Antonio College. Her publications include textbook guides for Harper & Row and articles on colonial Latin America. Ellen studied at Mount Vernon College in Washington, DC, as well as the National University in Madrid and Tulane University in New Orleans. She holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Virginia.

Anthony J. Loscalzo continues as Treasurer.  While on a European holiday he met Bill Coleman, then President of the Society, who introduced him to the pleasures of collecting and gave him a gift membership. He joined the Manuscript Society in 1987.   In his professional life Anthony is an attorney and his collecting tastes run to the eclectic.  Anthony has been Treasurer of the Society since 2004.

For information on the board.

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