From the New York Times (registration required):
Slightly more than 70 years ago, Archer M. Huntington may have made a dreadful mistake . . .
The decision Mr. Huntington made, around 1930, was to have the Bronx library founded by his stepfather take in an extensive collection of books and manuscripts amassed by George Gustav Heye, the founder of the Museum of the American Indian. Mr. Heye\’s collection of rare materials about Indians had piled up in the basement of the museum at 155th and Broadway, and Mr. Huntington was one of the museum\’s major benefactors.
Whether Mr. Huntington\’s decision truly turned out to be an awful mistake depends on your point of view. But nobody can deny that in recent years it has led to a series of legal disputes of Dickensian proportions, involving the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, the State attorney general and rafts of private lawyers.
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