Q.David Bowers
Henry Chapman's correspondence to Robert Garrett steadily maintains his good intentions towards the work waiting for him at Princeton and blames the postponements mostly on his ill health:
. . . have been longing for an opportunity to go to Princeton and work on your collection. You do not know how this matter worries me, but everything seems to retard my getting to Princeton. This month I have been on the Grand Jury, and just now I am confined to bed with a bad cold and bronchitis. Please be lenient with me. I wish to assure you that my not getting the work finished is not from a lack of desire to do so. All last summer I suffered from carbuncles... 1 took a cottage at Cape May hoping to be near Philadelphia so that I could run over to Princeton, but having the carbuncles which needed attention prevented my doing as I fully expected to do.
On March 27, 1916, a memo from Robert Garrett's secretary advised him that "I still feel strongly that S. H. Chapman should be secured to do this work. Frankly I am becoming suspicious that things are not as they should be." Acting on his secretary's suggestion, on May 12, 1916, Robert Garrett wrote to Henry Chapman: In anticipation of some changes I expect to make in relation to the coin collection belonging to my brother and myself I desire to recall my authorization to have access to this collection until further word from me.
The tedious correspondence concerning the catalogue continued, and on June 30, 1916, S. Hudson Chapman agreed to complete the work in Henry's behalf:
I have now most successfully held the sale of the great Gregory Collection and have it off my hands, and I should like to take up with you the question of finishing the catalogue of your collection this summer, which has been hanging fire so long because my late partner has not completed the sections alloted to him. It has been over five years since I completed my sections.
I will be in this vicinity this season as for a change I have taken a cottage at Cape May and have rented my camp at Lake Placid for $2000 for the season and I therefore, can work on your catalogue during the summer ...
Late in 1916, a compromise was reached whereby Henry Chapman and S. H. Chapman were allowed to jointly resume cataloguing the collection. In a letter addressed to both Chapmans, Garrett expresses himself:
I earnestly hope and urge you both, now that this arrangement has been completed, that you will let nothing interfere with the immediate prosecution of the work until it is finished.
On January 16, 1917, Henry Chapman wrote to say:
There were no Proof sets coined last year, the government having discontinued them, and none will be struck in the future. I have laid aside for you the 1916 coins as follows: quarter dollar, dime, nickel, and cent, old type; half dollar, quarter dollar, and dime, new type, also the half and quarter dollar of 1917, and as quickly as other coins come out will keep them together and will put them in the cabinet at Princeton on my next visit there, which I hope will be shortly.
There has been no gold struck at the Philadelphia Mint, and I have been unable to find out what has been struck at the other mints but intend on getting one of each denomination struck.
A new suggestion for the collection occurred to Henry Chapman, and two days later this letter followed:
Would you like to have a set of the Panama Pacific Exposition coins consisting of the $50 gold pieces, round and octagon, $2.50, $1 gold pieces, and the half dollar in silver? It is just occurred to me that I have not supplied you with the set. Price $235. I have the No. 25 struck and the statement to that effect from the director of the mint at San Francisco.
The same coins were the subject of the next letter from Henry Chapman dated February 19, 1917:
The coinage of the San Francisco Exposition coins has all been melted down with the exception of those which were sold. The set I offered to you at $235 is the same set sold by the Commission at $200 in 1915, and all those remaining unsold at the time were melted down, so that it has left only about 500 in existence of the $50 gold pieces. I myself paid $400 cash a few days ago for the two sets, one of which I have since sold to a New York gentleman, and having sold it I am willing to make a concession of $10 in the price to make a quick turnover of the money and give you the set for $225.
The set I am offering to you is either the 22nd or 24th set struck [actually it was the 25th set struck according to the documents which later arrived when the set was purchased], in the original envelopes as certified by the supervisor of the mint, and coming to me by a high official of the government. [If I did not have] these two sets I would not know how to duplicate them. As far as I know, no dealer stocked them. I myself have handled about 12 of the full sets, sending some of them to Europe,...I am trying to get to Princeton at the end of the week and proceed with work there...
Additional problems came up, as Henry Chapman's letter of February 21, 1917 indicated: I have been at Princeton since you granted the request and worked there.
My father-in-law died today, the funeral will be on Saturday, and while I had hoped to devote the last days of this week to Princeton, I will have to defer it until next week unless I go there tomorrow and put in the day. If I can do so I will do it. I am not unmindful of your kindness in this matter and had the coins been in Philadelphia where I had easy access to my library I would have had the work done long ago.
Possibly your secretary has told you of my terrible loss or mislaying or possibly of it being thrown out, a large part of the manuscript which I had prepared, by one of my secretaries. I bought the property in the northeast corner of 16th and Pine Streets, and after extensive alterations will move there by the first of June, and am hoping that as everything has to be removed from this house, of finding the manuscript. Of course, it is a serious matter to me if it is not found as I will have to do it all over again, but there are other coins to work on until that time so that the work is really not retarded on this account.