At the end of September, I had the pleasure of visiting the Collectors Club in New York. It was a beautiful autumn day as I approached the Club’s five-story brownstone in midtown Manhattan. The building was beautifully redesigned by architect Stanford White in 1902 and has been the Club’s home since the 1930s. It was renovated in 2000 and provides an elegant setting for the Club’s extensive library.
The library is open to the public five days a week and is easily accessible, located within walking distance of both Grand Central and Penn Station. It is a member of the Philatelic Union Catalog, and you can search its holdings by selecting CCNY from the list of libraries.
Library Chair (and APRL Trustee) Bruce Marsden started our tour on the fifth floor, which houses catalogs, including extensive runs of Scott and Stanley Gibbons.
We continued to the fourth floor, where treasures of the collection are housed. These include rare books, an extensive collection of Universal Postal Union documents, and photographs of the Knapp collection. This area is also used to process incoming material.
The third floor houses auction catalogs. Many philatelic libraries struggle to find enough space for their continually growing, yet infrequently used, collections of these catalogs. The Collectors Club Library, with finite space and no way to expand, has made the decision to downsize its collection. After consulting with specialist societies, they selected auction houses to keep and offered the remainder to the APRL. While I was at the Collectors Club, my husband and I sorted through the German auction catalog collection and boxed up the catalogs the APRL needed. We ended up with 10 boxes of catalogs!
The Club’s meeting and reception space is on the second floor, separate from library collections. The front room has a table with comfortable chairs and a fireplace, all framed by the large window. The back room provides space for presentations and exhibits.
The main library collection of books, pamphlets, and current periodicals is in the first floor reading room. Like most philatelic libraries, the primary organization is geographical.
The rest of the periodical collection is housed in compact shelving in the basement.
While I was at the Collectors Club, I also met with executive secretary Irene Bromberger. Irene assists visitors ranging from philatelic researchers to people who are curious about the building’s architecture.