Edward Forbes Smiley, Map Dealer, Collector, and Thief
By Silas FinchIn June 8, 2005 a Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University employee noticed a hobby knife blade laying on the floor near where someone had been recently examining a book of antique maps. The remarkably diligent Yale employee soon knew the name of the most recent visitor but also discovered his occupation, rare maps dealer. Before long, before he left the building in fact, the campus police had arrested Edward Forbes Smiley.
Smiley soon confessed to have stolen a map of New England from Captain John Smith's "Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or Anywhere". What authorities found when they search his person and briefcase was stunning. Smiley was carry seven antique maps worth close to $800,000.
Three of the maps, including the one from John Smith's book were quickly established having been among those books seen by Smiley that day and were missing the maps in question. It was also later discovered that wormholes in the book matched holes in the maps found on Smiley. When it was all said and done the 50 years old Smiley admitted to stealing 97 maps from as many as six museums and libraries over the last seven and a half years.
Libraries that have reportedly confirmed losses include the Boston Public Library, as well as libraries reportedly in Chicago, New York City and The British Library in London. Ruth Kowal, chief operating officer of Boston Public Library, confirmed that the police were conducting and investigation involving stolen maps from the library's archives.
The catalog of stolen maps is both impressive and heart breaking. Boston Public Library lost the largest number of maps. It is likely that Smiley stole 34 maps from the library. Yale's Sterling Memorial Library lost 11 maps; Beinecke lost 9; the Houghton Library at Harvard University lost 8; Chicago's Newberry Library lost 2, and The British Library in London lost one. The oldest map was a wildly inaccurate 1524 map of the New World by Hernán Cortés belonging to The Houghton Library.
On July 8 Smiley appeared in Superior Court to face three larceny charges. A judge set his bail at $175,000. He pled guilty at his trial and a date was set for September 2006 for final sentencing. Smiley faces a federal prison sentence of up to 71 months as well 5 years from the state of Connecticut.
Smiley sold most of his ill-gotten maps to private collectors or other dealers. In June federal agents had 86 of the maps in hand; six maps had been located but not returned, and five were said to be unrecoverable.
Smiley, a resident of Martha's Vineyard, studied church history and classics at Hampshire College and spent a year at Princeton Theological Seminary before he became a map dealer. He has said he will establish a restitution fund and will sell his interest in his Vineyard home and the property in Maine he and his wife own.
By way of explanation for his misdeeds, Smiley apparently offered confused feelings of entitlement. "He explained that his initial thefts were acting out of resentment towards persons at certain institutions that he believed had wronged him, individuals who he believed had slighted him or used certain of his research without accreditation," prosecutors wrote.
"Other thefts he explained resulted from some misguided sense of entitlement to the maps because he had, through collectors, provided better versions of the same map to the institution." A more realistic explanation came later, “He also acknowledged that stealing and selling the maps was profitable and he had mounting debts."
Posted on September 28th, 2006
Silas Finch is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Collectible Antiques Etc. He can be reached at Content and Solutions or by email at silas@collectibleantiquesetc.com.