From time-to-time some of our readers may recognize David Hamilton’s by-line. He’s been contributing articles to the Collector on a regular basis over the years. That is, I suppose, the price to pay when you are the son of the publisher and also a collector.
He’s been a railroader for many years, chasing trains, working summers for railroads, earning his college degree from Syracuse University in transportation studies and working for various railroads from college summers on. He’s collected railroad antiques for many years and researches and writes on the topic for his railroad collector’s group.
Many of us tend to start collecting in a specific area of interest. For some of us, one thing leads to another. My first interest was old and rare books, but working as a runner at an auction I was introduced to many interesting things. Later, Roger Henshaw began educating me in antique furniture characteristics. That led to redware, pewter, early lighting, and other early household implements.
David started collecting railroad lanterns. Then practically all things railroad, including stock certificates, tickets, timetables and some of the more obscure items related to the industry. Then the Erie Canal and other regional attempted canals. The list goes on, and on, as one item sends him off on a hunt for information or a companion antique.
My point is not about what I collect or David’s interests. It is that antiques can spark a type of curiosity that goes beyond buying an “example” of something or assembling a “complete” collection of something. You never know what you will find out that you don’t know!
In a recent conversation with David, he said he took a ride to see part of the Erie Canal. I suspect he would remind me it was the “Barge Canal” he was visiting. The point was that at this time of the year it is possible to see World War I surplus barges that were filled with cement to become part of the structure of the canal. Now that might only win you a prize in a trivia contest, but I can add it to my list of “I didn’t know they did that.”
You never know where collecting will take you on planes, trains, automobiles and canal boats!
