I visted the collection Twice with my Dad. (And dozens of time with my Family). My most vivid memory is of Album 246 which according to the catalog held 2416 items. Included in that album was Sports T200-T212. This was 1975 and the T206 Wagner was mounted differently than most of the other Tobacco cards, it was on a hinge like a stamp hinge of the time. This was so you could flip it up and look at the back. And you could tell by looking at it that the lower right corner was where most who looked at the card handled it.
Our first visit we spent about 4 hours going through the collection Starting with album 201 A&G sets. We went through 11 Albums and 1 box of 19th Century Tobacco issues, 14 Albums of 20th century Tobacco, 18 Albums of D,F,E,R,V,M and U issues. I also remember things like N173's and Newsboys and talking with my dad about how few examples were in the collection compared to the group we saw at the Library of Congress the year before (in 1974 looking through large stacks (100's)of Old judge proof sheets I just thought every big collection had stuff like that..)
They gave us a copy of the catalog for us to use when requesting items. And I remember in 1977 going back and the requesting some of the same albums and noticing some items missing. Including the Wagner and when Docent bought the T206 album he said that the wagner was no longer in the album and was being "conserved". Next time I saw it was under glass on a wall. Below is a couple pages and you can see where we marked items. In 77 they no longer gave you a copy but they said they were for sale in gift shop...
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