Cooper-Prichard, A. H.

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  • Born 1874: Kingston (Jamaica)
  • Worked at the University of Pennsylvania Museum 1897 - 1898 : Philadelphia (Pa.)
  • Worked at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1899 - 1900 : Boston (Mass.)
  • Worked at Provincial Museum, Nova Scotia 1900 - 1901 : Halifax (N.S.)
  • Worked at Brooklyn Museum 1902 - 1903 : Brooklyn (N.Y.)
  • Attended Kings College 1905 - 1906 : Windsor (N.S.)
The cataloger, Arthur H. Cooper-Prichard (1874-1947), was born in Kingston, Jamaica.

The cataloger, Arthur H. Cooper-Prichard (1874-1947), was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He was the Society’s first paid librarian, serving in this capacity from February 1911 until March 1912, when it appears he left over a controversial cataloging article he had written for the American Journal of Numismatics. He attended Kings College, Windsor, Nova Scotia (1905-1906), and, according to his own biographical description in a 1907 letter ANS president Archer M. Huntington, “occupied the position of Assistant Curator” of that institution during his time as a student. Cooper-Prichard had also worked previously at the University of Pennsylvania Museum (1897-1898), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1899-ca. 1900), the Provincial Museum, Nova Scotia (ca. 1900-1901), and the Brooklyn Museum (1902-1903). He was a corresponding member of the Nova Scotia Institute of Science in the early decades of the twentieth century. Cooper-Prichard stated that he invented a unique system of cataloging in which every characteristic of any type of coin “may be classified upon a single page.” However, owing to the “compactness of the Gookin Collection,” he says he did not apply this system to the notebooks, though a testimonial, presumably from Warren G. Waterman, Gookin’s grandson, reproduced for Huntington in Cooper-Prichard’s own hand, attests that the cataloger “has identified and cataloged [the coins] (according to his own invented system of minute description and full information).” Cooper-Prichard states that he advised Waterman not to donate the Gookin coin collection to the Brooklyn Museum because he felt that that institution “would not have had that attention and prominence which [he] felt the scientific value of its specimens merited.” The collection and other coins were subsequently donated to the ANS in 1906.

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referencedIn Century Company records New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division
creatorOf Arthur H. Cooper-Prichard catalog of the Warren Demman Gookin collection American Numismatic Society
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correspondedWith Century Company corporateBody
correspondedWith Dellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel, 1853-1935 person
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Birth 1874

Death 1947

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