The Norweb Collection - An American Legacy

Bert's importance to Harvard's mineralogy collection had an unexpected result, and one which crowned his work in the collecting field. Among the minerals Bert collected from the famous Franklin Furnace, New Jersey site was one he thought was leucophoenicite. As Dr. Palache later related, he and Bert were going through the collection, which was kept in mahogany cabinets in Bert's Cleveland home, when Dr. Palache noticed the specimen from New Jersey. It occured to him that the piece was misattributed. Later, while studying it, Dr. Palache determined that the specimen was a previously unknown mineral. Dr. Palache named the new mineral holdenite; there are today just two specimens known, according to the curator of the Harvard mineral collection.

In November 1912, upon return from his trip to Alaska with Daniel Jackling to inspect potential mine sites, Bert began drawing up the instrument of donation that left his collection and a substantial sum for its maintenance to Harvard University. Because of the extremely complex nature of his business dealings, the final installment of the $500,000 bequest he made was not paid until the summer of 1923.

The Coin Collector

Albert Holden's application for membership in the American Numismatic Association was dated November 28, 1908. Approval was published in the January 1909 edition of The Numismatist. Bert listed his occupation as a newspaper publisher and references as "any of the old dealers" His application was sponsored by Farran Zerbe; Adam Kuechle; and E.M. Baker, who was probably the same Baker who ran the Plain Dealer, Bert's newspaper. When his application was approved, Bert received membership number 1123. Membership fees then were $1.50, but Bert made a handsome donation of $150.00.

Bert did not join any other numismatic organization, so far as is known. This is somewhat surprising, especially in one who lived so near the birthplace of the ANA. The Chicago Coin Club was very prominent at the time, listing among its membership Virgil M. Brand, and its monthly meetings were described in detail in The Numismatist, which Bert received as an ANA member.

A check of the membership records of the American Numismatic Society, the Boston Numismatic Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the British Numismatic Society does not reveal Bert as a member of any of these organizations. Interestingly, inside Bert's copy of the auction catalogue of Lyman Low's September 1908 sale (Bird, Wright, "Southern Banker" collections) is a penciled notation in his hand recording the application fee for joining the British Numismatic Society, which was $5.00.

Bert was not listed as attending any of the annual ANA conventions in issues of The Numismatist for 1909-1912. He was not a subscriber to the 1907 American Numismatic Society building fund, either. In fact, his application to the ANA was the only record of his name as a coin collector that the present authors have located in print prior to 1914.

Important auction sales of the time were regularly reviewed in numismatic periodicals, such as The American Journal of Numismatics and The Numismatist. Sometimes the reviews printed the names of buyers of noteworthy coins, usually if they were dealers, and occasionally if they were well-known collectors, such as Virgil Brand or H.O. Granberg. Bert's name never appeared in any sale review, however. The closest it came to publication was in The Numismatist's review of Elder's James B. Wilson Sale (October 1908).

We know from the inventory of his collection, prepared by his daughter Emery May Holden Norweb in the 1930s, that Bert purchased Wilson's 1838-O half dollar in that sale. In its review, The Numismatist reported, "The notable lot (346) of the first day's sale was the 0 under bust 1838 half dollar. Spirited bidding led the price to $570 at which Elder purchased it for an unannounced buyer. Mr. Y.M. Brand and Mr. E.S. Sears trailed in the bidding at $560 and $551, respectively "Bert was the "unannounced buyer."