Frank Knox Morton Pennypacker (1872–1956) was a collector of

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...

historical material and author of several books on Long Island history, including ''George Washington's Spies'', the story of the

Culper Ring The Culper Ring was a network of spies active during the American Revolutionary War, organized by Major Benjamin Tallmadge and General George Washington in 1778 during the British occupation of New York City. The name "Culper" was suggested by ...

. Born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, Pennypacker moved to New York City a little after the turn of the 20th century before moving to

Southampton, New York Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stret ...

on Long Island. A writer and publicist by trade, he made a private hobby of collecting historical materials related to Long Island which eventually amounted to what is today called the Long Island Collection (formerly known as the Morton Pennypacker Long Island Collection), which contains some 20,000 odd books, papers, manuscripts, pictures, and other documents pertaining to the history of Long Island. He discovered that "Samuel Culper, Junior," the head spy of the Culper Ring, was Robert Townsend, a member of the renowned New York Townsend family. Pennypacker did so by identifying an exact match in penmanship between the Culper letters attributed to Culper Junior and letters written by Robert Townsend. Pennypacker's findings were confirmed by forensic handwriting expert,

Albert S. Osborn Albert Sherman Osborn is considered the father of the science of questioned document examination in North America. His seminal book ''Questioned Documents'' was first published in 1910 and later heavily revised as a second edition in 1929. Oth ...

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The Collection is housed in the East Hampton Library. Pennypacker died at the age of 84.

References

1872 births 1956 deaths American historians {{US-historian-stub