International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts

The International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts is the worlds largest collection of the history of the art of magic.

It was founded by David Copperfield in 1991 after he purchased the Mulholland Library of the Conjuring and the Allied Arts. The collection expanded with his acquisition of the Cole Collection, totaling 5,000 cubic feet of magic-related documents and artifacts.

The collection contains over 300,000 pieces, including thousands of magic books, graphic images, prints, poster, playbills, photographs, manuscripts, letters, and scrapbooks of leading magicians throughout the years.

Access to the collection is available to scholars interested in the history of conjuring upon written application to the Archivist.

Among the treasures of the Museum are:

• Automata built by Robert Houdin.
• Professor Hoffmann's props for the cup and balls.
• The coins that Wyman the Wizard caused to pass through President Abraham Lincoln's hands.
• Houdini's instructions to himself on performing the Metamorphosis illusion, including the actual trunk.
• Houdini's Vanishing Lamps, in working order.
• Okito's Floating Ball.
• Channing Pollock props used in his Ed Sullivan Show act.
• Houdini and Kellar letters
• The turban owned by Alexander.
• Cardini's tuxedo, monocle and props.
• Chung Ling Soo's rifle.
• Dante's Spirit Cabinet.
• Maskelyne's Decapitated Princess Chair
• Orson Welles' Buzz Saw Illusion designed for Rita Hayworth, and performed with Marlene Dietrich.
• The first edition of Scott's The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584.
• Hocus Pocus Jr., 1654
• Dean's Whole Art of Legerdemain, or Hocus Pocus in Perfection, 1st ed.
• Professor Hoffmann's annotated copies of Modern Magic, More Magic and Later Magic.

References

• ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST - MARCH 1995 DAVID COPPERFIELD