Regarding saving the old and rare books, I may be biased, but I think print on demand reproductions (or at least online scans) are a good way of both preserving the information and making it available to people. Their web site says you can contact them for access. It would be great to get all of it together before it ends up in a landfill.Ĭlick to expand.Thurston's in the UK (Liverpool) have a billiard heritage museum. I did show the pictures to Dennis Glenn in the late 90s early 2000s and he thought the oriental lady from California had taken them, so there may be some similar ones out there she took, I can't remember her name, Bob probably knows her, Sunny maybe ? I know Bill Porter and his friend made all their photos available and I have to believe that there were others who did something similar in their areas. There were many pictures of all the greats when they were very young ,so without this man, most of that would have never existed. 30 years ago I went to Dayton and copied Joe Burns collection of pictures from the Dayton tournaments in the 1970s, there was also a young man who was taking photographs for many years at the tournaments who also had a huge collection. The physical items would not necessarily even need to leave our possession.

If anyone else is interested in something like this, and willing to try to make it happen, even if slowly at first. But, I would help in any way I could with a group truly motivated to make a not for profit, site that cost a minimum amount for visitors to be able to enjoy and study all the wonderful things this game has produced. I am not interested in trying to make money from any of the billiard stuff, I just don't have the time or energy, that will be for someone much younger. Scanners were a brand new technology and they did not work well on the old books, Having spent my working life in the printing industry, I have had an easy solution, that would solve 80 to 90 % of that for 30 years, but no one I have spoken to was interested , This was in the late 1980s early 1990s so I hadn't really focused on the internet ideas as much. I intended to one day make it available but I became too sick to continue.

I understand it is a daunting task, I spent several years taking pictures on my days off and garnering all the information I could about the players of the past. You could even make it possible to print copies to sell, to help offset some of the cost. An online museum, where every piece is at first shown, and as time goes by, exhibited in it's entirety. How many people can even afford a trip to Europe. A physical place is great but not necessary or cost efficient in todays world.

Chris billiards chicago hours