" If the Good Lord and My Creditors
Spare Me"

BERNARD R. CRYSTAL

kN November 17, 1925, Edward Epstean sent a copy of
Edward J. Wall's The History of Three-Color Pho¬
tography (Boston, 1925) to Professor Ellwood Hen-
drick. Curator of Columbia's Chandler Science Museum.

Dear Doctor Hendrick:

Here is the first volume which 1 am able to contribute to
your library. If the good Lord and mv creditors spare me
I hope it will be only the beginning of a long line of the
printed word on the photo-meehanieal processes, \\ hich I
sincerely hope will prove to be a nucleus of complete infor¬
mation to students on this subject.
With best wishes, believe me.

Faithfully yours,
Epstean

This book, indeed, was the first of many Epstean gifts which
nine years later were to become the core of the Epstean Collection
on the History of Photography.

Edward Epstean, the son of Samuel and Clara (Pfeifer) Epstean,
was born in Petschau, Bohemia, on September 19, 1868. His father
was a brewery supply dealer. Expecting his son to choose the life
of a merchant, Epstean's father insisted that young Edward study
modern foreign languages while attending the local Gymnasium.
A knowledge of these languages would be indispensable for Ed¬
ward's future career as a merchant. His grounding in German
and French was, in fact, invaluable to Epstean's future profession,
not as a merchant, but as a translator of German and French works
on photography.

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