NY College Houses Endangered Thomas Paine Writings

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (AP) – A once-endangered collection of a Founding Father’s writings and effects has found a safe new home.

Iona College in the New York City suburbs is about to open the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies.

Its cornerstone is a collection that includes first editions of “Common Sense,” the pamphlet that helped inspire the American Revolution.

It also includes Paine’s eyeglasses, locks of his hair and anti-Paine cartoons and other evidence of how his popularity plummeted after independence.

The collection was amassed since 1884 by the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, which fell on hard times and could no longer care for the materials in its deteriorating building.

The Iona archive that will house the collection is barely a mile from what once was Paine’s farm.