Guide to the John G. White Archive

Biography of Biography or History

John Griswold White (1845-1928) was a prominent Cleveland attorney, civic leader, bibliophile, who had amassed the world's largest chess library. John G. White (JGW) actively collected books about the game of chess from 1870 until the year of his death, 1928. His hobby of collecting chess material started when he inherited his father's chess library. From there JGW purchased the entire libraries of other chess collectors in Europe and in the United States until he built up a substantial collection. After that he scoured chess sales catalogs and auction notifications and worked with book dealers all around the world identifying and purchasing books he did not yet own. JGW did not purchase duplicates but he did try to purchase one of everything. He is quoted as saying"it is not up to me to determine what future researchers will need to research," justifying his purchase of each edition of a chess book that has been published because they may vary, even a little. JGW was not selfish or private with his collection, rather he liked to share and assist chess researchers in their work with his collection. The best example of this is the collaboration between JGW and Harold J.R. Murray who wrote the History of the Game of Chess (1913) published by Oxford University Press. Murray and JGW began working together in 1903 and JGW would generously loan any item Murray wanted to use and would purchase manuscripts or books that came up for sale that would be useful for Murray. In exchange, Murray would write up descriptions of the chess manuscripts that were purchased and JGW would then write those descriptions in the books' endpapers. Murray thanks JGW in the introduction by saying "it was my good fortune, at an early stage of my work, to enlist the interest of Mr. John G. White, of Cleveland, Ohio, USA, the owner of the largest chess library in the world. Mr. White's generous and unfailing courtesy in placing his library freely at the service of any student of chess has been acknowledged over and over again. To me he has given not only this, but far greater help. He has repeatedly obtained copies of manuscripts which it was important that I should see, but which were inaccessible to me, and has placed these copies unreservedly at my service. Whatever in the way of completeness I have been able to achieve is entirely due to Mr. White's help. Without that help, the book would never have been written." John G. White collected more than just chess books and manuscripts. He also collected photographs of chess players, autographs, notebooks, scrapbooks, score cards, chess pieces, and sales catalogs. If a manuscript was unattainable, JGW would pay large sums of money to have a facsimile copy created. During this period in history, a facsimile was either hand written, retyped, or in some cases, photographed and bound as a book. JGW's desire to obtain a copy of everything stretched to include books and manuscripts that just mention that game of chess. For this reason, the collection also possesses copies of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, Castiglione's Il Libro del Cortegiano, Cessolis's Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilum super ludo scacchorum. Besides chess, JGW also had a checkers collection. John G. White served on the Cleveland Public Library's Board of Trustees from 1884-1886 and then again as President from 1813 until his death in 1928. JGW had a lot of influence in the development of the Cleveland Public Library from a small library system operating out of rented spaces to the large, multi-branch system with a distinguished Main Library. JGW felt that the Cleveland Public Library should have research collections to support the international academic community and personally purchased these research collections for the library. Those collections are the Folklore and Orientalia Collections. The very first donation he made, in 1899 was a copy of the A Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Very soon after that JGW personally selected and inspected thousands of items for these collections. By the time he died, he had purchased almost 60,000 books and manuscripts. John G. White died in 1928 on one of his annual summer fishing trips to Wyoming. He was 82 years old. In his will, JGW had left a few personal items to friends, and small sums of money to others but everything else he left to the Cleveland Public Library, including his prized chess collection. The estate was sold and the money was put into an endowment that still to this day supports his three collections - Folklore, Orientalia, and of course, Chess. These three collections make up the John G. White Collection.

Scope and Content

The John G. White Archive contains John G. White's (1845-1928) personal correspondences with librarians from the Cleveland Public Library, other chess researchers, lawyers, and friends. The photographs in the collection mainly come from his annual summer fishing trips but also include a summer trip to Europe. There are professional notes and awards from his legal work and personal records from his schooling at Western Reserve University, family genealogy, and military records.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

This collection is open for research but contains materials that cannot circulate. Please contact the John G. White Special Collections Department for details at Special.Collections@cpl.org.

Cleveland Public Library Special Collections 325 Superior Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114-1271 (216) 623-2818

Restrictions on Access

Copyright restrictions may apply. Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder. The copyright law of the United States (title 17, UNITED STATES CODE) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

Genealogical charts of the American ancestors of Bushnell White and Elizabeth Brainerd Clarke : and of some kindred families - q 091.91 G286 - CPL-MAIN John G. White files of the Cleveland Public Library Archives White, John Griswold. "Diary and Views of fishing trips, 1926 a souvenir of Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, and Newfoundland." (1900-1924) http://cpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1752213048_diary_and_views_of_fishing_trips_taken_in_wyoming,_yellowstone_national_park,_and_newfoundland

Separated from John G. White's archive are collections of correspondence between John G. White and Harold J. R. Murray, Eugene B. Cook, George Fraser, Charles A. Gilberg, W. H. Thompson. Each collection has been individually cataloged.

John G. White's "Diary and views of fishing trips taken in Wyoming, Yellowstone National park, and Newfoundland," of which there are 22 volumes, have been individually cataloged and ten of them have been digitized for the
Cleveland Public Library's Digital Gallery.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Persons:

Preferred Citation

The John G. White Archive of the John G. White Collection at the Cleveland Public Library.

Bibliography

Detailed Description of The Collection