An Introduction to The Collector, Norm Bolotin
This auction features one of the finest known collections of tickets and passes from Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the most complete collection offered at auction in some twenty-five years.
The collection was assembled by collector, historian, and author Norman Bolotin who has written histories of the Klondike Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the World's Columbian Exposition. He has just finished his second book on the fair, The World's First and Grandest Midway (University of Illinois Press, 2009), with his business partner and spouse, Christine Laing. Norm and Christine formed The History Bank, well-known throughout the museum and Americana communities, almost thirty years ago after working together for several years at Seattle publishing companies.
Bolotin and Laing's first WCE book, The World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 was published for the fair's centennial in 1993 and is now in its fifth soft cover edition from the U of I Press. Bolotin's forthcoming book is the first comprehensive history of the concessions, exhibitors, and people of the WCE's Midway. It will be a "must read" for both history buffs and collectors of these tickets.
Earlier, Bolotin and Laing developed, wrote, and edited the seven-book Young Reader's History Of The Civil War for Penguin Books and Scholastic. The series has sold nearly a half million copies. Bolotin developed and was Director of the Business of Publishing TM program at the University of Chicago and chaired the literature program for the thirteen-state Western States Arts Federation in Santa Fe.
Along the way, Bolotin has been the consummate collector. He began as an eleven-year-old at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair Century 21 Exposition, which he attended often. His father, who still follows Norm's preoccupation with tickets and world's fairs at age 94, worked nights as a machinist at the fair. He used to take Norm around the empty grounds in his repair vehicle as he undertook electrical and mechanical repairs on the monorail, sky ride, and other attractions during the night. While he worked, Norm searched for ticket stubs!
As a historian and author Bolotin has been most enamored of the World's Columbian Expo since he first discovered it nearly thirty years ago. That was, ironically, at a coin show at the former site of the Seattle World's Fair where he acquired a beautiful prooflike high relief WCE medal (HK222) --- this at one of the same monthly shows where Heritage President Greg Rohan, according to Bolotin, "worked the floor as a teenager and already knew light years more than most of us have learned since about U.S. coins."
Norm works every day in what his family lovingly refers to as his "cave," an office with floor-to-ceiling shelves of an eclectic mix of Americana surrounding him: a library of Columbiana, Civil War, and other vintage books; game-used 1960s Pacific Coast League baseball bats; Native American baskets; 1950s and 60s toys; 1893 and 1962 fair memorabilia; dinosaur fossils; Roman pottery; and even a very small number of sports trophies that he swears he won as a player and coach and didn't purchase at a local swap meet. They are, he said, nearly old enough to be considered collectible, however.