Safeguarding History

Kenneth W. Rendell

Thursday, December 7, 2023, at 7:00 pm ET

Approximately 60 minutes. This hybrid program will be held in person at Antiquarian Hall and livestreamed to a virtual audience on YouTube. Advance registration is required for both. Doors open at 6:30pm.

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Kenneth W. Rendell―unrivaled forgery expert and trailblazing dealer of original source materials―has traveled the world to track down, buy, and sell the most significant, iconic historical letters and documents from the Renaissance to the present day. His new book Safeguarding History chronicles his adventures over the course of seventy years, which began with collecting and dealing in rare coins at age 11, searching for out-of-date coins in the Caribbean as a teenager, and then discovering the world of historical letters and documents, which he went on to revolutionize. Rendell’s passionate pursuit of original sources resulted in his evaluating collections as diverse as Nixon’s White House papers and Watergate tapes, the archives of Martin Luther King and Paramount Studios, and the World War II artifacts of General George S. Patton. In conversation with AAS President Scott Casper, Rendell will speak with candor about his life, adventures, and unconventional methods―all of which are revealed in his captivating memoir. Rendell was elected to AAS membership in 1995.

Kenneth W. Rendell is an internationally recognized bookseller specializing in American historical letters and documents. He is the author of nine books including Forging History, The Detection of Fake Letters & Documents published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1994. He was elected to AAS membership in April, 1995.