Conjuring Arts Research Center

“Collection items consist of art objects that are held for educational and curatorial purposes. Each of the items is cataloged, preserved, and cared for, and activities verifying their existence and assessing their condition are performed continuously. Collection items acquired either through purchase or donation are not capitalized. Purchases of collection items are recorded as decreases in unrestricted net assets if purchased with unrestricted assets and as decreases in temporarily restricted or permanently restricted net assets if purchased with donor-restricted assets. Contributions of collection items are not recognized in the statement of activities. Collection items are protected, kept unencumbered, cared for, and preserved. If collection items are sold, the proceeds from the sale are used to purchase additional collection items.”

“Housed in 2,600 square feet, the jewel of conjuring arts is its library, which consists of over 12,000 volumes devoted to magic and its allied arts. The library is open to the public by appointment. The collection is noted for its emphasis on early conjuring books, including more than a thousand volumes printed before the year 1900. Its 500 plus volume collection of conjuring books printed prior to 1700 is one of the better collections of early magic books. In addition to books published in english, the library holds rare russian, dutch, portuguese, spanish, italian, latin, french, german, swedish, and japanese language conjuring books. The library also maintains an extensive collection of manuscripts of magic methods, some dating back to the 15th century. Included in this collection is a rare, unpublished manuscript by marion spielmann, the only known student of the great card master charlier. Conjuring arts also has an interesting collection of letters including correspondence between hugard, braue, and fleming, as well as a great selection of ed marlo letters.”