Peters, Harry Twyford (1881 -1948)

Born in Greenwich, Conn., the son of Samuel Twyford Peters, and Adeline Mapes Elder, Harry Twyford Peters graduated from Columbia College in 1903, and then entered his father's wholesale coal firm, Williams & Peters. He continued in the coal business, was president of Willliams & Peters, Inc., at his death. During the first World War he served as chairman of the New York State Coal Conservation Committee. In 1905 he married Natalie Wells, and had one son and one daughter. From 1925 he was Master or Co-Master of the Meadow Brook Hunt Club. A lifelong student and collector of Americana, who made himself an expert on prints, Mr. Peters became an enthusiast of the Currier & Ives lithographs, and was largely responsible for bringing them to the attention of the American public. He published a two-volume Currier & Ives: Printmakers to the American people, in 1931. The following year America on stone: the other printmakers to the American people appeared, while Just hunting told of his years with the hounds. He was a long-time member of the Westminster Kennel Club, and was an exhibitor or judge at the dog shows in Madison Square Garden. He was the youngest past president of the Grolier Club. The second part of his library was auctioned in London by Sotheby’s in 1961: Catalogue of the valuable library the property of the estate of the late Harry T. Peters, Esq. of New York City [sold by order of the executors] : the second portion: American and British sporting books … 30-31 January, 1961. [London] : Sotheby & Co., 1961.