Michael Hodder and Q. David Bowers
A dedication by Margo Russell, Coin World editor, emeritus
All passes. Art alone Enduring stays to us;
The bust outlasts the throne the coin, Tiberius
Henry Austin Dobson --Ars Victrix st. 8
Painstakingly assemble collections-everything from utilitarian, common metal tokens to the rarest of rare gold coins. Enjoy them.
Study them. Glean from them all they convey about man and his culture. Capture them in epic books and papers. Then as a matter of inherent family discipline and dedication to philanthropy, hand the objects on to others so they may have the same pleasure and privilege.
Such is the philosophy of the Holdens and the Norwebs, a world-famous numismatic family now in its fourth generation of active collectors with the promise of the fifth in the wings.
Although the distinguished Ohio family has touched countless lives in other ways through art, journalism, and world diplomacy, and as leaders of Cleveland's civic, cultural, and social accomplishments, it is the substance of its numismatic collections that may have the most meaning of all in centuries to come, thus exemplifying Henry Austin Dobson's lines.
Liberty: Emery Holden began the numismatic collection in the last century. His son, Albert Fairchild Holden, continued it. Emery May Holden Norweb and her husband, R. Henry Norweb, Sr., expanded it as they traveled the world diplomatic route. Their son, Henry Norweb, jr., and his wife, Elizabeth (Libby to her friends) continue to this day to build, to nurture, to disseminate numismatic materials and knowledge.
How fortunate for the numismatic world the family considers itself in the role of caretakers only. Systematically the family has given its collections including great rarities to numismatic institutions where exposure is the greatest for collectors in this country, and for visiting scholars from abroad, the recipients being the venerable American Numismatic Society in New York and the national coin collection housed in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
The numismatic sales after the death of the senior Norwebs represent another important and democratic way the family selected to disperse further the material, to give back to the numismatic world what the Holdens and the senior Norwebs enjoyed to the utmost.
This leaves the present generation of Norwebs to continue its own numismatic interests, to continue to build its own collections with commitment and a deep sense of the importance of sharing time and resources to further organized numismatics, especially in behalf of the American Numismatic Society.
This book then, so eloquently and so carefully prepared by Michael J. Hodder and Q David Bowers, is about remembrance of a great and generous numismatic family, to borrow a word without sacrilege from a Communion token Emery May Norweb designed. It is a book about a family which was given the power of perpetuating a numismatic legacy. This it has done-and continues to do by sharing it with others in creative ways.
This remarkable family, scholarly, generous and modest, has touched-and continues to touch thousands of lives in a numismatic way that may never be repeated in quantity-unless, of course, their frequentadmonishment to share with others is obeyed. To paraphrase Maclaren, the treasures kept in the Holden-Norwebcoffers are very real. But before they handed them to the rest of us, they kept them in their intellect and in their soul. ...
Thoughts about the Norwebs ....
"I have loved coins for decades, and was allowed by the good Lord to work on them longer than I had a right to expect;' Emery May Holden Norweb told me a short time before her death in 1984 at the age of 88.
Her frank use of past tense made me sad for a gallant lady. Her eyesight had dimmed, but she had mastered Braille. Her health was frail, but nothing could affect her marvelous intellectual powers that took her to the pinnacle of world numismatics.
Looking back, I see her knowing, her intuition caused her to acknowledge her collecting time was running out. She was facing up to it in a brave, forthright, realistic way-the way she lived her life.
When I entered the wide, wonderful world of numismatic journalism in 1960 I was called upon to make a quick study of Who's Who in Numismatics. Mr. and Mrs. R. Henry Norweb, Sr. were especially intriguing to me because they were Ohioans and because of their newspaper affiliation.
Mrs. Norweb's grandfather, Liberty Emery Holden, founded one of my favorite newspapers, The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Then my research turned up the fact that he, too, was a coin collector as well as his son,' Albert Fairchild Holden.
The Norwebs, Emery May and R. Henry, Sr., in turn, watched with interest the progress of Coin World, an upstart of specialized journalism started by another Ohio newspaper family, the Amoses-also in its fourth generation of publishing. Here was an unheardof concept, a weekly newspaper for coin collectors!
The Norwebs soon became Coin World's good friends and supporters. All the rest of their lives they wrote and telephoned news tips to us.
I met the Norwebs for the first time in 1964 during the American Numismatic Association Convention in Cleveland. No ordinary hosts, the Norwebs, famous for entertaining throughout world capitals, gave a small party for ANA officials and dignitaries, welcoming their guests with style and grace, traditional of the Norweb family to this very day.
It is doubtful many of the guests were aware at the time that numismatic history was being made. Miss Eva Adams, director of the Mint, honored guest at the Norweb party, had come from Washington for the Cleveland convention to see what this collecting fraternity was all about. . . at the invitation of ANA official Matt Rothert.
I found out later she was most impressed by the caliber of people in the hobby. In turn, collectors were excited to have the attention and the ear of the Mint after a long, unfortunate hiatus during which coin collectors were reported to be designated nuisances by Mint officials. This was a new beginning of a mutual respect that exists now between United States Mint directors and collectors. It has expanded to include top Treasury Department officials, to the mutual benefit of all factions. You can be sure the Norweb diplomacy was important in launching this new relationship.