When Two Great American Passport Collections Find Each Other

Tom Topol © Passport-collector.com Hours Hours Updated on

Rare American Passport Collection Finds a New Home: From 1796 to Now

The great thing is there are still fantastic and rare documents available for serious collectors from this fine collection! Do not hesitate and take a look into the list below. These are not finds you will stumble across on a general marketplace, and they will not wait indefinitely. Any sensible offer will be considered. Contact me if you have questions…

Two serious collectors are crossing paths right now, and the timing could not be better for anyone paying attention to what quality actually looks like in today’s market. Let me set the scene.

U.S. passport Livorno 1833
U.S. Passport, Livorno 1833

A long-standing collector and friend (I’ll call him Andy.) has made the decision to depart of his American passport collection. We are talking about a collection that begins in 1796, when American travel documents were handwritten instruments of diplomacy, signed by secretaries of state and witnessed as acts of government authority, not mass-produced security booklets. That starting date is not a typo. The federal government was barely seven years old. Washington was in his final year as president. These are documents from a republic still finding its footing, and they are extraordinary.

At the same time, a second collector (I’ll call him Peter), someone I have also known for more than a decade, is actively acquiring and doing so with real purpose and discernment. Documents from Andy’s collection are moving into a collection that will care for them and, just as importantly, contextualize them.

I had the pleasure of serving as mediator between these two outstanding collectors and their collections, a role I took on with genuine respect for both of them and for the material passing between their hands. It was, frankly, one of the more satisfying things I have done in this field.

The Market Has Quantity. It Does Not Have This

Here is the honest picture of where passport collecting stands right now: the general market is flooded. Online platforms, estate clearances, and a decade of casual accumulation have produced an enormous volume of available documents, and most of it is ordinary. Twentieth century tourist passports, partial visa records, routine renewals, documents with broken spines and water damage sold as “rare finds.” The supply of mediocre material has never been higher.

What is actually scarce, what collectors at the serious level genuinely compete for, is early American material with clear provenance, honest condition, and documented context. The kind of collection Andy built over years of focused, patient, knowledgeable acquisition.

U.S. passports from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were not standardized documents. There was no single issuing format. State Department letters of passage, executive signature pages, territorial travel authorizations, consular instruments drawn up abroad: each one was essentially a unique artifact of its moment. Finding them is hard enough. Finding them in coherent, traceable sequence, as part of a deliberately assembled collection, is something else entirely.

What Happens When Serious Collectors Transact

There is a particular kind of value that gets created when two knowledgeable parties transfer documents between each other, and it is not purely financial.

When Andy transfers his holdings to Peter, the documents carry forward not just their physical reality but their research history. Notes on acquisition, attribution, condition details, comparative context from decades of study: that institutional knowledge travels with the material, or it can, if the transaction is handled as more than a commercial exchange.

This is something I have watched happen, and also watched fail to happen, over many years in this field. The difference between a collection that arrives with its story intact and one that arrives stripped of context is often the difference between a document that teaches something and one that merely decorates a shelf.

What Andy and Peter are doing is, in the best sense, a transfer of stewardship. The collection moves. The knowledge, ideally, moves with it.

For Collectors Watching From the Sidelines

If you are building a serious American passport collection, or if you have simply been waiting for the right moment to acquire depth rather than volume, the current moment is worth paying attention to.

Early U.S. passport material of the kind Andy assembled does not come to market frequently, and when it does, it rarely arrives with this kind of coherence. The 1796 baseline alone should tell you something about the scope of what is being dispersed. That predates the first formal State Department passport regulations by several decades. It is colonial memory in document form.

The broader collector market will continue to generate noise. Flooded categories, inflated estimates on routine material, the eternal optimism of the underprepared seller: all of that continues. But transactions like this one, between collectors who know exactly what they have and exactly what they want, are where the real catalog of American documentary history gets written and preserved.

ℹ️ For many documents you will find a link to my article or to pictures. For details on other documents – please contact me.

US PP 1796-2011
DateNamePPNTypeDetailsLink
15/10/1812Brig JuliaSheetIss. Baltimore. Four language ships passport signed by James Monroe.
01/02/1825Ship Mary of Bath18Sheetiss. New York. Mediterranean passport signed by John Quincy Adams.
3/11/1833Benjamin FieldSheetIss. Livorno, Tuscany.Picture
16/07/1841Benjamin Field2449SheetIss. London. (2 pages).
13/12/1849???SheetIss. Cadiz. Ship passport for journey to New Orleans
24/12/1852Iss. to Four U.S. Citizens!SheetIss. Malta. (2 pages).Article
17/07/1856John Fetter13943SheetIss. Washington. (2 pages).
31/08/1858Henry Hilser10257SheetIss. Washington. (2 pages).
23/07/1861John Mitchell237SheetIss. London signed by Charles Francis Adams. Issued during the American Civil War.Picture
16/09/1861George Bethune3011SheetIss. Washington. . Issued during the American Civil War.
20/11/1861James Boaler3894SheetIss. Washington. . Issued during the American Civil War.
29/09?/1862William McDowell26SheetIss. Spanish consulate Portland for travel to Cuba during American Civil war
18/05/1864William King1092SheetIss. Washington. . Issued during the American Civil War.
01/09/1864George Comfort15397SheetIss. Washington for US Consul at Ancona, issued during the American Civil War.Picture
1865BlankSheetBlank soldier’s passport – Confederate States of America, War Dep’t RichmondPicture
16/12/1871Elisabeth Vinton16668SheetIss. Washington.
20/08/1873Susan Sloan34647SheetIss. Washington. (2 pages).
18/9/1874Mary Sickels189SheetUS Legation in Vienna.Picture
01/12/1878Alice Blaney111SheetIss.Berne.Article
11/05/1886G Lund329SheetSpecial passport. Iss. Washington for the Superindentent Railway MailPicture
02/06/1886Leopold Morse344SheetSpecial passport. Iss. Washington.Article
19/04/1892Francois Sacchi37209SheetIss. Washington.
24/4/1896Charles Hart9957SheetIss. Washington. . Plus letter of introduction.
7/19/1909Leo Keena11648SheetSpecial passport. US Consul in Chihuahua, Mexico.Iss. Washington.Article
8/23/1915Marietta Ford Russell6093SheetIss. Washington. Travelling to UK and France with her husband to sell planes..Article
?/?/1916William Slaars32333SheetIss. Washington. . Date omitted other than year.
7/3/1916Virginia Hopper28495SheetIss. Washington. .
11/2/1916Maude Kern Dale4920SheetIss. Manila, Philippines.Article
6/3/1918Maude & Andray Kern Dale7853SheetIss. Manila, Philippines.
6/4/1921James Pierce15403SheetIss. Manila, Philippine Islands.Picture
6/25/1921Richard Bush58440SheetIss. Washington, in folder.
12/23/1922Florence & Ethel Dickson238919SheetIss. Washington, in folder. Incl. Ethel’s scrapbook. Pittsfield based.
5/10/1923Gladys Liberman284530SheetIss. Washington, in folder.
12/10/1924Hanna von Schleinitz497502SheetIss. Washington.
3/25/1925William Shipman9119SheetIss. Washington, in folder. Incl. Certificate Naturalization. Wife’s passport below.Picture
3/25/1925Laura Shipman9120SheetIss. Washington, in folder.Picture
6/13/1925Mattie Northam81208SheetIss. Washington, in folder.
4/21/1926Mario de Yuzuarregui8871SheetIss. Puerto Rico, for Mario Brau, brother of PR historian. Signed by PR Governor Horace Mann TownerArticle
9/21/1927Clarence Ranck1037BookIss. Washington. Prominent missionary.
9/30/1929William Herndon26352BookIss. Manila, Philippine Islands. Travelling on official business. US Army.Article
12/27/1929Frances Lovering Adams280BookDiplomatic passport. Iss. Washington. . Wife of Charles F Adams lll.Article
3/14/1930Laura Shipman176021BookIss. Washington.
7/7/1931Louis Ballif2889BookSpecial passport. Iss. Washington.Gallery
9/5/1931Myrtle Fisher1014BookDiplomatic passport. Iss. Washington.Article
7/13/1933Harold Patterson + wife Marjorie48130BookIss. Washington.
7/27/1934Frank O’Neill138555BookIss. Washington.
12/18/1935Edith Shelton15738BookIss. Washington (San Francisco series).
4/27/1936Harry & Bertha Rockman273455BookIss. Washington.
11/15/1938Ethel Dienes589BookIss. Budapest.
6/19/1942Horace Griffin9415BookSeaman passport. Iss. Washington.
7/23/1942Anna Tonn79810SheetCertificate of Naturalization for a German lady.
4/20/1943Benjamin Roe99396BookSeaman passport. Iss. Washington. . Inc. Papers.
7/14/1944Clarence Marley217666BookSeaman passport. Iss. Washington. . Inc. Papers.
1/17/1947Mary Shannon23846BookWife of military pasport holder. Iss. Washington.
1/27/1947Charles Hughart1106BookIss. Vienna, military personell.
3/10/1947Louis Ballif710BookSpecial passport. Iss. Washington.Gallery
3/18/1947Margaret Adams30195BookIss. Washington. See joint passport from 3/5/1959
3/30/1949Sue Voss, Dancer210BookIss. Havana, Cuba. . Valid for three months only.Article
8/22/1949A. Willis Robertson
US Senator (!)		6886BookSpecial passport. Iss. Washington. Senator in the Congress of the USA.Article
8/9/1950Arturo Duran28177  PR13470BookIss. San Juan, Puerto Rico.Gallery
12/4/1951Florence Gill & two children46970BookSpecial passport issued to wife of sergeant USAF. Iss. Washington.
4/29/1952Harold NeuendorffSP-50087BookSpecial passport. Iss. Washington.
10/16/1952Janet HarpD14571BookDiplomatic passport. Iss. Washington. in leather cover.Article
10/16/1952Orland HarpD14568BookDiplomatic passport. Iss. Washington. in green leather cover.Article
3/31/1954William Bush27050BookSpecial passport. Iss. Washington.
8/30/1954Hazel Medeiros30633BookIss. Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.Gallery
5/31/1955Betty Barber116053 Dp 115930BookPassport for black dependent of military personnel. Iss. Washington.Gallery
6/6/1955Stanley Bialea5251BookAffidavit in lieu of passport. Iss. Philadelphia.
12/10/1956Jerome Jarnick8835BookIss. GUAM, USAF NavigatorArticle
8/7/1958Jack Pease168346BookSpecial passport. Iss. Washington.
3/5/1959George & Margaret Adams1375674BookIss. Washington. . See passport from 3/18/1947.
12/7/1959Stanley Stewart222118BookSpecial passport. Iss. Washington.
6/24/1960Adelina Pacheco280238BookIss. San Juan, Puerto Rico.Pictures
10/30/1961Neely TurnerX004573BookDiplomatic passport. Iss. Washington.
3/14/1962Hazel DowlingC196145BookIss. Washington.
4/12/1962Leo DowlingC276009BookIss. Washington.
2/14/1966Dolores LukacG086765BookIss. Chicago.
9/1/1966Helene O’ShaughnessyX035977BookDiplomatic passport. Iss. Washington.
8/28/1969Richard PuckeyY816275BookOfficial passport. Iss. Honolulu.
1/6/1971Vincent BejtmanB003891BookIss. Washington.
8/9/1971Iris LibaiZ1359452BookIss. Tel Aviv.
10/13/1971Daphne DavissonZ1473033BookIss. London.
4/20/1972Vinson MooreZ1568407BookIss. Saigon. Black American (Soldier?).Gallery
5/17/1972Krzysztof and Katarzyna KozikC1220572BookIss. Washington.
6/20/1972Athena KitsopoulosC1686087BookIss. Washington.
7/20/1972Ruby SolitskyZ1630311BookIss. Lisbon. . TWA staff.Gallery
3/9/1973Anne KraemerZ1750041BookIss. Stuttgart.
6/29/1973William FroedeD1787339BookIss. Washington.
1/2/1976Vincent BejtmanG113064BookBicentennial passport. Iss. Washington.
1/20/1976Steven NelsonG049900BookBicentennial passport. Iss. Los Angeles.
3/26/1976Keith KrugG266186BookBicentennial passport. Iss. Los Angeles.
5/14/1976William HoltY1376829BookOfficial passport. Iss. Washington.
8/15/1979Esther AlvaradoK2654345BookIss. Puerto Rico (?)
9/7/1979Francisco RiveraZ3564618BookIss. Puerto Rico.
5/28/1980Helene O’ShaughnessyX149838BookDiplomatic passport. Iss. Washington.
5/29/1980Sarah O’ShaughnessyX149891BookDiplomatic passport. Iss. Washington.
5/21/1982Tomas CalderonZ4304014BookIss. Puerto Rico.Gallery
7/8/1982Athena KitsopoulosC1619584BookIss. Washington.
7/8/1983Leo GenslerD1447079BookIss. Boston.
2/27/1985Mel ProlicZ5195102BookIss. Munich.
6/14/1991Nikolay RudenkoA24 474 890BookRefugee Travel Document. Iss. New YorkPicture
12/11/1991Rosemary Bedoya De La TorreP034165931BookIss. Los Angeles for four month old baby.
11/6/1992Bradley Luton Jr.800666637BookOfficial passport. Iss. Washington.
8/16/1993Juanita Montoya24692199BookIss. Chicago.
3/28/1994Bi LuA42008449BookRe-entry Permit. Iss. Dept. Of Justice Washington
1990sNo NameNo numberBookUnissued and cancelled blank Diplomatic passport.Pictures
5/2/1995Lonnie Davey900270731BookDiplomatic passport. Iss.Washington.Pictures
14/10/1996Kiara MarchandA058647832BookRefugee Travel Document.Picture
7/15/2004Joan Allman710934790BookIss. London
9/6/2005Ayula HilarioA56112485BookRefugee Travel Document
2/14/2007Jeanne Pinos420989553BookIss. Washington. Biometric.
8/30/2011Richard Oakley 11820841738BookOfficial passport. Iss. Washington.Pictures

Further reading: Origins of the United States Passport (Six parts)

 

Tom Topol, passport history expert

Tom Topol | Passport Historian & Author
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