Hobby history: Walter Corson (1899-1966)

[trdcrdkid]

Walter Corson was one of the most prominent card collectors of the mid-20th century. In the 1950s he claimed to have over 300,000 cards, second only to Jefferson Burdick, and he published a lot of important research on tobacco card sets, and especially on postcards. I've posted some of his articles here on Net54, such as his 1955 article on Old Judges (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=225081) and his 1962 article on issue dates of T206s (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showpos...9&postcount=12). He eventually sold most of his collection to Frank Nagy, another legendary collector who was a mentor to a young Bill Mastro (as recounted by Mastro in 1976; see the second post of this thread: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218636). Corson was also good friends with James Lowe, a prominent postcard collector whose son Jeff is a member of this board (jeffrompa). Among the many articles he wrote for hobby publications in the 1950s are several about himself and his collection, and these make it possible to reconstruct at least the outlines of his life story, which was a full and interesting one.

Corson was born on June 15, 1899, as he himself stated in a mini-autobiography in the April-May 1957 issue of The Sport Hobbyist (see below). He was 10 years old when T206s and the myriad other tobacco issues came out in 1909, and he began collecting them avidly. He also played baseball, and became good enough to play professionally. In the September 1956 Sport Hobbyist, he wrote about being invited to spring training in 1926 by the Yankees as a first base prospect after tearing up the Arizona State League the previous year, and then training with the Yankees again in 1934 in St. Petersburg. That article is below. I wasn't able to find Corson on baseball-reference.com, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything, since their coverage of low minor leagues from that era does not appear to be exhaustive.



After leaving baseball, Corson held various jobs, including being a music teacher for 12 years, but at the peak of his hobby prominence in the 1950s he sold aluminum storm windows for a living, at which he claimed to do "very well". The earliest of his hobby writings that I've been able to find is an article in the April 1, 1945 issue of Card Collector's Bulletin called "Issue Dates of #521 Baseball Series", posted below. #521 was the pre-1946 classification of the set we know as T206, so this was an earlier version of the 1962 article from The Sport Hobbyist that I previously posted. In between, a version of the article also appeared in the July 1956 issue of The Sport Card Journal, a short-lived publication that merged with The Sport Hobbyist a month later.



In 1947-48, Corson corresponded frequently with Jefferson Burdick, who often mentioned him in Card Collector's Bulletin. In the April 1, 1947 issue, Burdick reported that the February 23 issue of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times had an article on Corson and his collection, which stated that he had over 41,000 cards and 237 complete sets, "systematically sorted and arranged". Corson was wintering in St. Petersburg, but was soon planning to head back north. In the June 1 issue, Burdick reported that Corson had figured out which leagues correspond to each series in T210 (1-So. Atlantic League, 2-Virginia League, 3-Texas League, 4-Virginia Valley League, 5-Carolina Assn., 6-Blue Grass League, 7-Eastern Carolina League, 8-Southern League). He had also noticed some misspelled names in Series 1: Beuse is BEUSSE, Doshmer is DASHNER, Pickels is PICKELL, Shulz is SCHULTZ.

In the October 1, 1947 CCB, Burdick reported that Corson had opened a hobby and antique shop called "Collector's Haven" at 1114 Pine Street in Philadelphia. However, in the August 1, 1948 issue, Corson ran an ad to sell his store, which had apparently moved to 37 S. 7th Street:



Burdick mentioned this ad in a letter he wrote to John Wagner on August 1, 1948, which Leon posted last year (here: http://net54baseball.com/showpost.ph...5&postcount=46). He wrote: "Corson ran an ad to sell his store. Says he is getting too fat from the inactivity. He doesn't expect to find a buyer but decided to put out a feeler and see what turns up. I think most of his 30,000 dups are gums and probably little that you or I would want. Bray gets in to see him every little while as Mrs. Bray's parents live there. I think Corson is a typical dealer if you know what I mean -- buys for little and tries to get more than top for what he sells. He is just about making a bare living in the store although he has a pretty good stock in a lot of hobby lines."

As Burdick predicted, Corson did not find a buyer, and in the December 1, 1948 CCB he had a half-page ad listing some of what he had available:



Finally, in the February 1, 1949 CCB, Burdick reported that "Walter E. Corson reports a greatly increased business in his new location and thinks it will be permanent. Address him now at Walt's Old Curiosity Shop, 211 So. 11 St., Philadelphia, Pa." However, in the October 1, 1949 issue, Burdick mentioned in passing that Corson now lived in New Jersey. I suppose he could have been living in a New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia, but my guess is that he had given up the store. Certainly by 1956 he was living in Glen Moore, PA and working as an aluminum storm window salesman, as noted above.

Corson continued to collect and write occasional articles for Card Collector's Bulletin, including an April 1953 one on T206s and the 1955 one on Old Judges, linked to above. But in 1956 he was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent surgery (seven hours and ten minutes) to remove it. This got him thinking about what would happen to his collection after he was gone, and he decided to try to sell it. He had started to write articles for a new publication, The Sport Hobbyist, including the "When I Was A Yankee" article above as well as articles on P2 Sweet Caporal pins, Leaf Gum cards, Exhibit cards, and strip cards. In 1957 he wrote a couple of rambling, confessional articles announcing that his collection was for sale and describing it in great detail. The first one below is from the February 1957 Sport Hobbyist, and the second one is from the April-May 1957 issue.




Despite the grim prognosis he had been given, Corson lived for another decade after his surgery, and remained active in hobby activities. He continued to write occasional articles for hobby publications, but his main focus in the late 50s was postcards, which had long been a particular passion of his. He typed up 760 pages worth of checklists and other postcard information, and in 1960 he launched a monthly publication, Better Postcard Collector. Here is the first page of the first issue:



Meanwhile, Corson had sold some of his cards, but still had the bulk of them and was still looking to sell them. In 1963, Frank Nagy took his life's savings of $4000 out of the bank and drove to Corson's home in Pennsylvania to try to buy his collection. Here is how Nagy told the story to a Wall Street Journal reporter in 1971:



(I posted the whole article in this thread: http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218371)

Walter Corson died on April 10, 1966 (less than two week after I was born, as it happens). Frank Nagy wrote a paragraph of reminiscence in the June 1966 issue of "Frank's Auction Place", his auction newsletter, and Charles Bray wrote a brief notice on the front page of the June 1966 Card Collector's Bulletin. Those tributes are below, to close out this overview of a hobby pioneer.

[Huysmans]

What a great read David.
Thanks for posting!

[toppcat]

What an awesome read David, quite enjoyable. You are putting a lot of time into these posts and I for one greatly appreciate them.

[Leon]

Thanks David, great reading. And a little bit close to home as I have had the great privilege of speaking with Dr. Lowe (Jeff's Dad) on a few occasions. Dr. Lowe was, from my understanding, just about the best friend of Walt Corson.

[Jason]

Great post and information as always David. There always seems to be a T210 tidbit in these. I think it was a more popular set back then amongst collectors than now. So thank you Mr Corson for figuring out the league/series and for all he did for the hobby.

[h2oya311]

excellent post. I read every article. Thanks for sharing!

[Leon]

Here is a Walt Corson checklist (shown before)

[GasHouseGang]

When the newer collector talks about having 300,000 cards, you don't really think much of it since buying in quantity has become so easy. But when you read his listing of the material he had, and especially the quantity of material before 1900, it's amazing. If he spent over $40K in 1957 money for the cards and postcards, he had one hell of a collection of rarities!

[Jeffrompa]

Finally got a chance to read through this . Thats really a nice piece about our collector " Fore Fathers " . Hard to believe I was even around when a lot of those things were going on . Thanks again .