John
G. White/
Chess Collection
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John G. White signed his last will and testament
on May 11, 1905 and attached a codicil on February 9, 1928, the
year he died. Through his will he bequeathed his personal library
on chess and checkers to the Cleveland Public Library and established
the John G. White Trust Fund. The income from the Trust Fund was
to be used for the acquisition of materials in all three specified
subject areas. He stipulated that his chess and checkers collection
was to be kept together:
...keeping with it all articles and books belonging hereto, even
although the more important contents of such books might indicate
a place elsewhere. A list of this collection is formed by the entries
in my interleaved copy of v. d. Linde's Jahrtausend [note], which
are marked with a red star or dagger, also it is enumerated in his
Geschichte und Literature der Schachspiels ... Each edition
or separate state of a book or pamphlet is to be acquired ... I advise
that in all binding the original paper wrappers, all fugitive leaves
and advertisements be bound in...
He also charged the trustees "To complete
the [chess] collection by acquiring books, pamphlets, lithographs,
etching, engravings, likeness, etc. relating in whole or part to
chess and checkers, which I have not been able to obtain [note]."
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The List
of John G. White's Effects Transferred from his Home to the Main Library
by Authority of T. A. McCaslin, his Executor, included 11,
892 chess and checker books, pamphlets, and "...single no.'s of
periodicals [note]," 300 loose leaves of manuscripts, 428 chessmen,
86 chess pictures, and 11 boxes of newspapers [note]. The collection
was evaluted by Thomas J. Holmes, Librarian of the W.C. Mather Library,
who described the most outstanding items and appraised the collection
at $300,000. In time, the residue of White's estate was turned into an
endowment fund, and on May 2, 1932, the trustees of White's estate reported
[note] that the sum of $274,747.73 was invested in U. S. Government securities
and in stocks at various interest rates and maturity dates.
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