Historical Society of Pennsylvania probing possible theft after Baltimore arrest

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is sorting through its massive collection after a frequent visitor to its archives was charged with stealing dozens of valuable documents in Baltimore.

Barry H. Landau, 63, an author and television commentator on presidential history, visited the society, at 13th and Locust Streets, 17 times between December and June.

On July 9, Baltimore police arrested Landau and an accomplice, charging them in the theft of 60 rare documents from the Maryland Historical Society.

Landau and Jason Savedoff, 24, were charged after police were called by a suspicious archivist. The documents, many signed out of the archives by Landau, were found in Savedoff's bag. Among the documents recovered was one signed by President Abraham Lincoln and valued at $300,000, according to a Baltimore police report.

Alarms went up in the tightly knit world of historical archivists.

"Our staff recognized their photos when the notice went out on the Maryland case," said Kim Sajet, president and chief executive of the Pennsylvania society.

"My staff has been working around the clock to look at the material they requested to review, to see if anything is missing."

This year, the society found out that a letter by George Washington had been removed from its collection, but only after a dealer in rare documents contacted archivists. The dealer had become suspicious about a letter offered her for sale.

"She said, 'I have a feeling that this had come from your collection,' and it indeed was," said Sajet. The FBI has asked the society not to discuss the details of the letter, she said.

The Associated Press reported that society records show that Savedoff had accessed a box that contained the letter shortly before it was offered for sale.

Landau is held on $1.5 million bail. His attorney, Steven D. Silverman, did not immediately return a call seeking comment, but in an earlier news release said Landau had no documents "in his possession, concealed on his person or in his belongings."

Landau and Savedoff are New York City residents.

Baltimore FBI spokesman Richard Wolf said the agency had asked a variety of historical societies visited by Landau to review their collections.

Wolf would not comment on a Baltimore Sun report that the FBI had searched Landau's New York City apartment.

Wolf said many institutions cannot tell if a document is missing "unless they have a specific notice, or don't find something they are looking for."

Historical societies typically require researchers to sign for material they want to inspect. That was how the Pennsylvania Historical Society was able to identify the material Landau and his assistant had handled.

The society has one of the oldest archives in the nation. Its collection includes millions of printed, manuscript, and graphic materials dating from the 17th century. It is a major resource for historians.

"What's kind of disturbing to us is that we think we have pretty rigorous security in place," said Sajet. That includes photographing researchers, issuing each an identification card, and tracking who looks at what material.

"And then we also make sure that people can't take bags" into secure areas, Sajet said. "They can take a computer and a pad and a pencil."

Those security systems are under review, she said.