Wren Culkin was a stamp collector and stamp dealer with little involvement in numismaticsbefore he was chosen to sell an important collection at auction.

Culkin may have been born in Omaha on March 10, 1907. His World War II draft registrationform gave his date of birth as March 10, 1905. His parents were Patrick J. (1873-1960) and Jane(1870-). Patrick managed a clothing store. In about 1927, he took a job at a Los Angeles clothingstore and left his wife in Omaha without financial support.

If census records could be found, they might confirm Wren's year of birth. Finding those recordsis not easy. For the 1910 Census, he is listed as Leo Culkin at three years old. In 1920, the familyname is indexed as Culkim and Wren is twelve. In 1930, he was listed as Leo W. Culkin andtwenty-three years old. In 1940 he was incorrectly indexed as Wren L. Culpin and thirty-fiveyears old. In 1950, he is indexed as Wien L. Culkin and forty-five years old.

Culkin began collecting stamps with a bulk lot at age seven He was soon selling and tradingwith schoolmates. He was a stamp dealer much of his life with the Culkin Stamp Co. Also as achild, in 1921 he was a boy scout.

In 1927 he was treasurer for the Omaha chapter of Alpha Sigma Lambda fraternity. This suggestshe was attending the University of Nebraska. In 1929 he was an officer in Alpha Sigma Lambdanational fraternity.

He was married in 1934 to Ina Elizabeth Hirsch (1902-2000). His wife collected airmail stampsand was an award-winning exhibitor. In 1949 he had a stamp house on the family property.

In 1937, he joined the Omaha Coin Club.

During World War II he worked at an Omaha bomber plant.

He was assistant curator at the Boys Town Philamatic Center in 1954, under curator Dwight O.Barrett. Later in 1957 he took over from Barrett as curator. He served until his death in 1972 andwas succeeded by Melvin D. Stark. The Philamatic center claimed to have the most completecollection of confederate currency and most complete collection of broken bank notes.

In 1964, the PhilaMatic Center joined the American Numismatic Association as club memberC52202 with Wren L. Culkin as Curator.

In 1968 he served as librarian for the International Bank Note Society.

Culkin died in Omaha on November 13, 1972, and is buried at Calvary Cemetery. His cemeteryrecords give his date of birth as 1907.

Culkin had no experience conducting an auction before taking on the sale of the massivecollection of Nelson T. Thorson. Thorson was founding president of the Omaha Coin Club in1934 and president of the American Numismatic Association 1933 to 1935.

If these sales had been conducted by a major auction company fifty years later, The Thorsoncollection might be better known. The Culkin sales are not available on the NewmanNumismatic Portal. Dan Hamelberg provided a description of the contents of these sales.

The 1964 sale was advertised and promoted in The Numismatist. Thorson's name was notmentioned in the ad. There were also articles about the sales in Coin World.

The (Omaha) Evening World-Herald for November 9, 1964, had a report on the October 31auction held with the Omaha Coin Club show. The article reported that in addition to floorbidders, there were 310 mail bids. There were eighteen bidders from eight foreign countries.

According to the newspaper, the highest price paid was $340 for "a 1799 Indian Head penny."Newspapers sometimes had a problem with coin descriptions. The auction catalog identified it asa 1799 cent: "Lot 54. 1799 Normal Date Readable Rev. Weak G-VG Est. 325.00."

The Thorson collections were massive and included jewelry, autographed photos, signeddocuments, firearms, Indian relics and rare smoking pipes. The Culkin sales do not account forthese collections. Can any E-Sylum reader offer insight into the disposition of the rest of hiscollections?