THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS DIVISION

ACCESSION SHEET

Accession #
54 M 20
54 M 106
54 M 73
54 M 72
54 M 81
62 M 14

Location Room 319
BAL.10

Title Pfeiffer, G.A.
Chess Collection

Approximate inclusive dates 1837-1922

Date of receipt Aug. 19, 1954 Feb. 7, 1962

Received from Gustavus A. Pfeiffer & A. Buschke

Volume on arrival

Number of boxes (after reboxing) 1 FB, 5 volumes

Condition fair

Restrictions none

Description

Gustavus Adolphus Pfeiffer (1872-1953) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was originally from Cedar Falls, Iowa where he was born and educated. His occupational field was pharmaceuticals. Pfeiffer was at the same time a serious collector of chessmen and chess related material. He donated his entire collection of chessmen to the Metropolitan Mesuem of Art in New York (1952/53). He also donated over a hundred chess books to the N.Y. Public Library which now make up the Frank J. Marshall Collection of Chess books. Among his donations to the N.Y.P.L. were 7 scrapbooks which contained manuscript material on chess and on famous chessmasters. Pfeiffer was also a member of the board of governors and a former vice-president of the Marshall Chess Club in New York. He died in New York City at the age of 81.

The material in this collection came from the scrapbooks that Pfeiffer donated. The collection contains letters (1837-1922) by notable chessmasters such as world champions A. Alekhine (1921), J.R. Capablanca (1922-24), Em. Lasker (1890-1910) and Wilhelm Steinitz (1879-1897). There are also letters from 19th century chessmasters including the legendary American chess genius Paul Morphy and the Englishman Howard Staunton. Present are photographs in the form of postcards (1910-1933). Other chess related articles such as auctions, book donations and photostatic facsimiles of autographs of chessmasters can be found. Manuscript material on the world championship match between Lasker and Steinitz (1896-97) and the quadrangle tournament between Lasker, Steinitz, Pillsbury and Russian champion M. Tschigorin (1895-1896) is included. There are 5 volumes of chess problems in the collection.

Special Formats - Photographs - Maps - Audio Tapes - Films - Graphics - Artifacts - Machine-readable records - Other (list)______________

Temporary catalog card added entries
Chess Problems

Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Chess Collection

Box Listing

Box 1 	Correspondence, postcards, facsimiles and other related articles.

Volume 1 	Alphonsine Chess manuscript. Copy of volume executed for Alfonso X.
 		King of Castile in the 13th century. 103 problems with their
		solution.

Volume 2 	Bonus Socius (Good Companion), Modern copy of 13th century
		manuscript. Contains chess problems, in Latin.

Volume 3 	36 Chess Problems. Manuscript by George E. Carpenter including some
 		of his correspondence. (1915-1917).

Volume 4 	Chess Problems by A. Ellerman and G. Guidelli.

Volume 5 	Twenty-six Alphabetical Problems by Frank J. Marshall (1943) 12 X 		15 cm.

* Manuscripts removed from:

PFEIFFER, Gustavus Adolphus. Collection of Materials Relating to Chess. 8-MZE***** Albums A-G. 7 folio vols. Material shelved in Stack 6, 49i

Items purchase on Pfeiffer Fund Feb. 15, 1962, 62 M 14, added to this list.
" 	" 	" 	" 	" Nov. 10, 1964 64 M 94 " 	" 	" 	"

Letters from Chess Players

ALEKHINE, Alexander. 1 postcard

ASTOR, E.E. 1

BLACKBURNE, J.H. 1

BLATHY, Otto H. 1

BURGESS, T. 1

CAPABLANCA, J.R. 2

CENTURINI, L. 1

CHARLES, S.W. 1

de JAENISH, C.F. 1

ELLERMAN, Arnold 1

FRANKLIN CHESS CLUB 3

GAGLIANO, Joseph 1

GUIDELLI, G. 3

HANSOT, Wm. H. 1

HART, J.G. 7

HAZELTINE, Miron J. (cut signature)

HODGES, A.B. 1

HOFFER, L. 1

KEEBLE, John 1

KENNEDY, H.A. 1

KUHNS, Dr. R.H. 1

LASKER, Emanuel 6

LICHTENHEIN, T. 1

LIDDELL, Donald 1

LOWENTHAL, J. 7

" J.J. 1

LOYD, Anna M. 2

" Samuel 2

LOYD, Samuel II 3

MAENNER, L.T. 1

MARI, Alberto 1

MARSHALL, Frank 10 (postcards), 2 letters

MAYER, Elisabeth 1

MORPHY, Paul 1

MURRAY, H. J.R. 1

NATL' CHESS FED. 1

PFEIFFER, G.A. 1

PILLSBURY, H.N. 1

PLATNER, Samuel B.1

SPENCER, Ella 2

STAUNTON, H.oward 3

STEINITZ, W. 7

TOMLINSON, C. 3

WALLIS, E. 1

WHITE, Alain C. 1

" John G. 2

ZUKERTORT, L.W. 1
pasted with above letter:
STEINITZ, W. 1
BLACKBURNE, J.H. 1

ADDENDA: MAHE DE LA BOURDONNAIS, Louis Charles 1