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

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

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 Espionage, spies active during the American Revolutionary War, organized by Major Benjamin Tallmadge and General George Washington in 1778 during the British New York and New Jersey campaign, occupation of New Yo ...

. Born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, 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 stre ...

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. He married Ettie Hedges (1879-1970), a librarian from East Hampton, in 1936. They had no children. Pennypacker's Collection is housed in the East Hampton Library. Pennypacker died at the age of 84 in Southampton Hospital.

References

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