A Modest Collection

[George Thomas Wilson]

A Modest Collection

One Step Closer to Displayable

 

As some of you know, I spent a good part of the last decade completing what I refer to as my “poor man’s” collection of National Geographic Magazines.  Acquiring them was one thing but being able to display them has proved quite another.  First of all, the Nat Geos were my second collection.  The first was another popular publication.  Second, my office was small; it could fit my other collection along one wall, and have my partial Nat Geo collect along another two, but when I started accumulating in earnest, the volume quickly got out of hand.  First, I added another bookcase, in the middle of the room, and then a card table with a pile of books and issues beneath it and a mountain of magazines on top.  That meant there were many issues to which I did not have immediate access.  I had had my partial Nat Geo collection for quite some time.  I was a “gatherer” in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and a subscriber in the ‘90s and ‘00s, but I didn’t catch the collecting bug until I retired.

The situation changed recently.  My wife decided it was time to replace all the windows in the house.  (March in Baltimore wouldn’t have been my choice.)  Moving furniture and clearing space around the windows has consumed much of my time the past few months.  Together with some other issues, it is the reason why I am two months behind on my 100-Years articles.  But the main work is now done, and I have an inkling of how I want to display my treasure.  Starting with where I originally had my Nat Geos:

This is the east wall.  It originally had about half of my gathered bounty. The collection, as it were, had hundreds of duplicates (and triplicates, etc.), but they were donated to a school to make room as my collection grew.  The wall currently houses my collection roughly covering the ‘20s, ‘30’s, 40’s, and ‘50s.  The wall’s capacity is limited by a closet to the left and a linen closet above where I have my shelves.  You’ll note that many issues are not in the greatest of shape, and several issues have been pulled for various reasons, and need to be returned to their proper spots.  I must also note, at this time, that, while a curtain is still up, the shades have been taken down in preparation for the window being replaced.  Normally, very little indirect sunlight gets in, let alone direct sunlight.  Moving on:

This is the south wall.  It originally had the rest of my horde, and my growing subscription collection.  The wall was housing my collection roughly covering the ‘60s through the ‘00s.  The top shelves have been cleared for the window work and moved to the recently cleared west wall.  The windows on the south wall again limit the height of the shelves; this is unfortunate because it is the only load-bearing wall in the room.  Space is also limited a bit on the right by my wireless printer and network router.  Continuing the tour:

This is the west wall.  It originally had a complete collect of another periodical.  These were moved to make room for my Nat Geos and most of my ancillary collections.  Along this wall are magazines from the two selves from the south wall, all the rest of my issues, my volume indexes, map indexes, article reprints, catalogs, books, cumulative indexes, collector guides, and such.  And on we go:

This is the north wall.  As you can see, there is an unrelated bookcase and several filing cabinets along this wall.  I have moved the last shelf and several boxes in front of them, again to make room for the window replacement.  I eventually want to move out the filing cabinets (I have no clue where) and move the shelf back against the north wall.  The shelf contains a few odds-and-ends, my Nat Geos from 1888 to the 1910s (a mixture of reprints and originals), and a complete map/pictorial supplement collection.  The boxes contain my addition map collection, and a few odds-and-ends.  But there is still a little more:

This is a regulation-size pool table.  On it are a complete collection (1953-2020) of another magazine in ten boxes.  They take up about two-thirds of the table.  There are two additional boxes in the corner of the table.  They contain my “Outside Looking In” collection.  Book, magazine, and newspaper articles about Nat Geo, and, more importantly, my parody collection.  Once I’ve gotten the room the way I want, I’ll be incorporating those items back into my display.  I have no clue what I am going to do with the other collection. Also, I am really not looking forward to the upcoming sorting of a magazine collection weighing about a ton, but I hope to have pictures again when I’m done.

 

Yours in Collecting,

Tom Wilson

[Scott T. Shier]

Tom, thanks for sharing this. Yes, I think it is the bane of every collector on how to best display and have accessible, their collection of National Geographic Magazine, and the ancillary items. It's a lot of moving around and arranging for sure....

Sadly for me, just about all of my NG collection is in storage (NGM, books, other sister magazines, all other ephemera and misc items). 

I see in your photo you have a few NG dvd's that you did not mention. I have a TON of Nat Geo VHS's + DVD's !

~ Scott 

[George Thomas Wilson]

[Melvin L. De Vilbiss]

Yes, collecting has its drawbacks.

You have observed first my collection Tom, though it has grown in size and quality since you and your wife last visited.