Kenneth W. Rendell

In 1953 a customer in his father's drug store paid with an 1806 Liberty half-dollar, and this launched Rendell into the rare coin business. In 1955 the Somerville Journal recounted how he sold the coin for $3.50, used the money to begin his business, and later bought the coin back for $4.50. "The Liberty piece now sits in a position of honor in his office and 'showroom' on the back porch of his parents' house."[2]

Rendell later elaborated on his early success. "In those days you could get an old penny and sell it for 10 cents; you could actually make money doing that. Then I got much more sophisticated—I got the guy who did the gumball machines at the drugstore to sell me all the coins. Now we started to get this thing organized! I could sort through large quantities. I was 12."[3] Soon, he was sending out monthly price lists to 500 prospective clients. As a teen he expanded into several numismatic specialties that required knowledge and patience in searching them out, but only limited capital. He became one of just two specialists in early American coinage in the colonies, political campaign memorabilia, and alternative currencies created during difficult financial times. In 1959 he was appointed to the committee of 35 leading rare coin dealers who set the values in A Guide Book of United States Coins, the standard reference, and was a founding member of the Rittenhouse Society, a group that published original research in the field.[4]

As a teen, Rendell's interests and growing expertise led him into the world of historical documents. "Coins are nice, but they're cold compared to a letter, where you get the sense of the person," he said later.[5] In 1988 Architectural Digest noted: "Ideally, the autograph not only records a known person's participation in a historical event, but as Kenneth Rendell says, is a 'time capsule.' It opens up the historical moment to a sense of the personal feelings involved and brings the contemporary reader right into that long-ago event."[6] Rendell recently elaborated on this in his forthcoming memoir, stating "the world of historical letters and documents is a virtual time machine that takes us into the lives of individuals in culture and history whose genius has touched us, whose accomplishments have inspired us, and whose efforts have influenced our present-day lives. History and the people who made it are the keys to who we are today and who we may be tomorrow."[7]

Rendell methodically developed his business over 50 years into the most prominent in the world, establishing galleries in New York City, Beverly Hills, and Tokyo.[8] He served as an expert witness for the Internal Revenue Service in the 1973 tax court trial of former Illinois governor Otto Kerner, Jr. "The judge quoted Rendell's opinion extensively in ruling for the Internal Revenue Service."[9]

Rendell's pioneering study Forging History, The Detection of Fake Letters & Documents [University of Oklahoma Press, 1994] was the first reference book to document, with systematic descriptions and exhaustive illustrations, the forensic examination of questioned historical documents. Robert S. Gordon, the National Archivist of Canada, stated in his review of the book: "Rendell is eminently qualified to deal with this subject. He has researched the field, written many articles, and presented numerous papers and lectures at meetings of professional groups. He developed sophisticated methodology and scientific techniques, and put them to practical use."[13]

By 1987 Rendell had founded a course on forgery detection at Columbia University. "For a long time, dealers said things were based on 'gut instincts,' backed by a lot of intellect," he told the Miami Herald. "Now, you can prove or disprove a lot by scientific means."[14] That included the use of ultraviolet light and microscopes in the analysis of ink, paper, and minute details of handwriting. "I've made a point of explaining my findings in a way that people can understand, so it's not just the expert 'proclaiming,'" he said. "It just isn't a guessing game."[15]

Another of Rendell's interests is the American West. In 2004-5 the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, Massachusetts, mounted an exhibition called "The Western Pursuit of the American Dream: Selections From the Collection of Kenneth W. Rendell," comprising letters, diaries, artifacts, and art that he had acquired over decades. The Grolier Club in New York City subsequently hosted an abridged version of the exhibit, 150 objects, which, the club noted, "document this national adventure through the actual words and artifacts of explorers, travelers, warriors, gold seekers, merchants, outlaws—dreamers all—who shaped the American frontier."[28] According to The New York Times the exhibit offered "a sense of the struggle to tame the gorgeous wilderness that stretched beyond the tidy civilizations of the East," and called it "worth spending time with."[29]

In 2004 the University of Oklahoma Press published The Western Pursuit of the American Dream: Selections From the Collection of Kenneth W. Rendell, a book of some 500 illustrations that built upon the original exhibition. In 2013 Whitman Publishing released Rendell's second book devoted to Western Americana, The Great American West: Pursuing the American Dream. Centered on additional artifacts from the author's collections, the book traced the migration of settlers spurred west by "the hope that a better life awaits your initiative, your perseverance, your cleverness, your hard work."[30]

In 1959 Rendell began collecting documents about World War II. Over the next 50 years this informal effort grew into an organized and serious endeavor to represent the human story of the causes and consequences of World War II. During the 1960s and 1970s, when there was often little interest in such material at auctions, even from government libraries and archives, he readily (and inexpensively) bought entire collections. He eventually established The International Museum of World War II in a 10,000-square-foot building near Boston, a place, declared Architectural Digest, where "More than 6,000 Artifacts Put History into Unforgettable Perspective."[31]

In September 2009 The Boston Globe described the museum as "an evocative and jaw-dropping collection of more than 6,000 wartime artifacts Rendell has gathered over four decades," and "very much an extension of its creator and his passion for the subject, which he calls 'the biggest psychological drama of the 20th century.'" Rendell told the paper, "History is not how you wish it had been, it's the way it actually was."[32] A subsequent Town & Country article noted, "Unlike at most museums, visitors here are allowed to touch the items, if ever so gently."[33]

In 2009 Rendell showcased his World War II document collection with the first of two books, World War II: Saving the Reality. In her foreword Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote: "Through this unparalleled collection of original letters and artifacts, we follow the story of the war, not as historians after the fact, but by the side of the leaders and the people who lived and died during those dramatic years."[34] In his foreword to 2013's Politics, War and Personality: Fifty Iconic World War II Documents That Changed the World, John S.D. Eisenhower wrote: "Virtual reality dominates our lives. This museum is doubly refreshing … authenticity is not only the norm, it is demanded … every item is authentic, original and real."[35]

The museum was regularly acknowledged for its original approach and world-class content. In 2014 The New York Times reviewed an exhibit drawn from its collections, The Power of Words & Images in a World at War. Nowadays, it stated, "it is the ephemera that ends up reviving the past, jolting us into more vivid understanding. And much of what we see in this exhibition does just that. Objects of everyday life during World War II—the posters, the signs, the letters—land on contemporary senses like sparks still smoldering." The Times concluded that the exhibit "manages to give a powerful compact survey, while suggesting how much of that epochal conflict yet remains beyond easy understanding."[36]

On April 12, 2016, The Power of Anti-Semitism: The March to the Holocaust, 1919-1939, an exhibition developed by Rendell from the museum's collections, debuted at the New-York Historical Society and ran through July 31. An 80-page companion book of the same name, written by Rendell, was published simultaneously. The Wall Street Journal described the exhibit as "powerful,"[37] while the director of the New-York Historical Society deemed it "a new—and path-breaking—understanding of the trajectory of anti-Semitism in Europe."[38]

The museum's special exhibitions, based wholly on its own artifacts and documents, included Most Secret: Rudolph Hess's Own Archive, The Reality of the Resistance, Enigma Code Machines and the Imitation Game, and Hitler Attacks, Churchill Rises From the Ashes of Appeasement. The most recent, The 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor: Why We Remember, ran from October 8, 2016, through January 7, 2017. According to a Wall Street Journal review dubbed "Making Pearl Harbor Personal," the exhibit "humanizes a larger-than-life historic event."[39]

On October 25, 2016, National Geographic Books released The Secret History of World War II: Spies, Code Breakers, and Covert Operations, by Neil Kagan and Stephen G. Hyslop. Featuring a foreword by Kenneth Rendell, it is illustrated almost exclusively with images of artifacts that were in the museum's collections.

In 2016 the museum, which was originally known as the Museum of World War II, was renamed The International Museum of World War II to better reflect the global perspective of its exhibitions, which, the Imperial War Museum has asserted, boast "the most comprehensive display of original World War II artifacts on exhibit anywhere in the world."[40] The museum contained some 12,500 artifacts, 500,000 photographs and documents, 3,500 posters, and 7,500 reference books. Items from its collections were frequently loaned to other museums, including the Imperial War Museum, in London, the International Spy Museum, in Washington, D.C., and the CIA Museum, in Langley, VA.

In 2018 National Geographic Books published Atlas of World War II: History's Greatest Conflict Revealed Through Rare Wartime Maps and New Cartography, again by Neil Kagan and Stephen Hyslop in conjunction with Kenneth Rendell, who wrote the foreword. The 254-page, large format work drew exclusively from maps in Rendell's collection.

In 2019 it was decided that the museum's future was in Washington, D.C. Efforts to raise funds for a new, greatly expanded museum in the Boston area had been unsuccessful, and billionaire Ronald Lauder took over responsibility for the museum. Rendell and Lauder completed most of the design for the new facility with a London firm, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed construction.

In 2000 Rendell created an endowment with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) to provide for trail maintenance in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where he and his sons frequently had hiked. The Jason J. Rendell Endowment also funds AMC activities.

Since the 1990s Rendell has been a very active supporter of Youth Enrichment Services (YES), in Boston's inner-city neighborhoods, and serves on an advisory board. In Hawaii, where Rendell maintains a home, he has likewise supported the Paia Youth Cultural Center in helping young people develop in a positive way, and two organizations that offer care and hope to the homeless.

Rendell was a founding supporter and on the board of the Rare Book School at Columbia University and continued his support after its move to the University of Virginia. In 2021 he and his wife Shirley McNerney endowed a lecture and publication series on the importance of original manuscripts and rare books to human understanding.

In 2021 the Grolier Club of New York, the premier organization of manuscript and rare book collectors, announced the major gift of Rendell's collection on the detection of forged handwriting, numbering over 10,000 pieces, including hundreds of original forgeries from the sixteenth century to the present day and thousands of facsimiles of genuine handwriting, reference books, and tools. It is the most comprehensive collection on the subject in the world. In the same year, Rendell and McNerney established an endowed annual lecture at the Grolier Club—the Rendell Lecture on the importance of original manuscripts in understanding the thoughts and intentions of historical persons.

In September 2023 Whitman Publishing will release Rendell's memoir Safeguarding History: Trailblazing Adventures in the Worlds of Collecting and Forging History. With a foreword by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, the book is more than an exploit-filled tell-all. Its purpose, Rendell writes, is to “share how I had pioneered and accomplished so much in my life.” Writing it, he says, was spurred not by the urging of publishing houses but by a meeting with the first participants in his Spark Foundation scholarship program. That meeting left him “emotionally floored by the similarities in their hopes and perceived limitations with how I felt 60 years earlier.” [41]

In Safeguarding History, Rendell explores his perhaps unparalleled career as a collector of historic documents and artifacts, providing a behind-the-scenes look at his role in debunking some of the publishing world’s most notorious frauds. In these cases he employed hard-won lessons he believes will be useful to both serious artifact collectors and business people. “Understanding what you want to believe in a situation,” Rendell writes, “what you are predisposed to believe, warns you that this is where your thinking is the most vulnerable.” [42]

Rendell also makes clear why he built world-class collections of Western Americana and World War II artifacts, the latter of which enlightened and inspired the innumerable school groups that visited his International Museum of World War II. His book, then, is as much for young people still finding their way as for adults interested in collecting history. To that end, he details his difficult childhood and how he overcame tragedy and disappointment as an adult—and how he developed the outlook and life skills necessary to forging a one-of-a-kind career.

"I have been told,” Rendell notes in his preface, "that the story of my life will be an adventure saga in many different venues. I hope it is an adventure story in exploring yourself and in understanding the importance of looking at situations in unconventional ways, the importance of creativity in everything, and, most importantly, the importance of people.” [43]

The dust jacket for Safeguarding History features comments from Doris Kearns Goodwin, Tom Hanks, and Stephen Ambrose, the latter of whom called Rendell "the greatest collector in the world." Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns contributed the following: "We are drawn to historical documents, artifacts and autographs because they represent a portal into worlds and people no longer with us. We feel a secret connection. How fortunate it is then to gain intimate access to the complicated life of one of our greatest collectors of historical artifacts. Ken Rendell courageously shares the triumphs and tragedies of his life. Bravo." Douglas Brinkley added: "Safeguarding History is a dazzling memoir by the world’s most venerated rare manuscript dealer and document collector. Whether Rendell is appraising Martin Luther King, Jr.’s papers, declaring the Hitler Diaries a hoax, or building a world-class library for Bill Gates, he is always the consummate professional. Every page of this adventure book sparkles with wisdom. A must read!" [44]

• Safeguarding History: Trailblazing Adventures Inside the Worlds of Collecting and Forging History, with a foreword by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Whitman Publishing, 2023.
• The Power of Anti-Semitism: The March to the Holocaust, 1919-1939, companion book to the 2016 New-York Historical Society exhibition, with a foreword by New-York Historical Society President and CEO Louise Mirrer. Boston, 2016.
• Politics, War, and Personality: 50 Iconic Documents of World War II, with a foreword by John Eisenhower. Whitman Publishing, 2013.
• The Great American West: Pursuing the American Dream, with a foreword by Senator Al Simpson. Whitman Publishing, 2013.
• World War II: Saving the Reality, with a foreword by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Whitman Publishing, 2009.
• The Western Pursuit of the American Dream: Selections from the Collection of Kenneth W. Rendell, University of Oklahoma Press, 2004.
• History Comes to Life: Collecting Historical Letters and Documents, University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
• Forging History: The Detection of Fake Letters and Documents, University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.
• With Weapons and Wits: Propaganda and Psychological Warfare in World War II, Overlord Press, 1992.

Rendell is also co-editor of two books:

• Autographs and Manuscripts: A Collector's Manual, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
• Manuscripts: The First Twenty Years, Greenwood Press, 1984.

Rendell wrote the foreword, consulted, and provided virtually all of the illustrated artifacts for:

• The Secret History of World War II: Spies, Code Breakers, and Covert Operations, National Geographic Books, 2016.
• Atlas of World War II: History's Greatest Conflict Revealed Through Rare Wartime Maps and New Cartography, National Geographic Books, 2018.
• Ronald Reagan: An American Legend, Q. David Powers, Whitman Publishing, 2011.

• "The Power and Importance of Handwriting," inaugural Kenneth W. Rendell Lecture on the Importance of Historical Letters and Documents, Grolier Club, October 20, 2022 .
• "The Future of the Manuscript and Rare Book Business," RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2001): Spring .
• "Future Shock—25 Visions of What's Next," Business 2.0, September 2000.
• "The World of Rare Books and Manuscripts: Changing Concepts of Value and Rarity," address to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Chicago, 1985.
• "Ownership of Papers of Public Officials," AB Bookman's Weekly, February 4, 1985.
• "Cracking the Case," Newsweek, May 16, 1983.
• "Tax Appraisals of Manuscript Collections," The American Archivist, (1983) 46 (3): 306–316.
• "The Effects of Investors and Inflation upon the Autograph and Manuscript Field," a paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Manuscript Society, May 1980.
• "Archival Security," a lecture at the annual meeting of the Manuscript Society, published in Manuscripts, Winter 1977.

• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN