The George Peabody Library at Johns Hopkins University is the new home of a 6,000-item collection of materials relating to writer H.L. Mencken, the Baltimore Sun reports. Accumulated over decades by George Thompson, an Ohio accountant, the "books, letters, photographs, even T-shirts," together are believed to be the "largest private collection of Mencken literary memorabilia."
Thompson's collection, partially donated and partially purchased, supplements the Peabody's existing Mencken holdings, known as the Robert A. Wilson Collection - these were donated by an alumnus in 2005. "Set up like bookends, the Thompson and Wilson collections are separated only by a walnut library table. Together they make up the Mencken Alcove at the Peabody - the six-floor, Victorian research library open to the public."
