Lund, Robert (1925-1995) and Elaine (1926-2006)

Lund, Robert (1925-1995) and Elaine (1926-2006) who owned and operated the American Museum of Magic; Marshall, Michigan. Realizing he lacked the flair for performing, Lund decided to become a student of magic history. His accumulation was called the "largest such collection in private hands." Sec 7; Row 29; # 5

ROBERT LUND PHOTO GALLERY
Robert was the editor of Conjurer's Magazine for a time

1970 ARTICLE ON BOB LUND On a Monday evening, after a service, we spent a profitable time in the home of Robert Lund, former editor for the Conjurer's Magazine. Man, does he have the stuff! His several file cabinets are filled from A to Z on magicians. His library is out of this world! He has twelve (count them) copies of the Scott's Discoveries of Witchcraft and a copy of every magic book in all of its editions! They fill one wall of his family room (from A to half of H) and continue on upstairs for the rest of the alphabet. His magazine collection (all in bound volumes) line the walls of his basement.

Mr. Lund has much in the way of memorabilia (thousands of pieces) and it was a real joy going through his Thurston materials, several pieces of which were used in "The Master Magicians" book by Walter B. Gibson. And best of all, he is going to let us use several pictures and programs in the TOPS Thurston series! It is Mr. Lund's feeling that such collections should be shared with the magic fraternity in the writings of serious students of the art.

We will be the better for it, and the Thurston series most certainly will be augmented in an outstanding way because of Robert Lund's generosity.

BOB LUND & THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF MAGIC The American Museum of Magic (AMM) was founded in 1978 by Detroit-area journalist Robert Lund and his wife, Elaine. The 1860s downtown building housed Mr. Lund's private collection of magician archives and artifacts, a collection that ultimately grew to be one of the world's largest and greatest in the field, including apparatus and illusions, more than 12,000 books on conjuring, letters, diaries, memorabilia, photographs, 3,000 posters, scrapbooks and periodicals, costumes and approximately 350,000 pieces of ephemera. After surveying the collections, renowned magic historian, author and illusionist Jim Steinmeyer marveled at these archival holdings and called AMM the "Smithsonian of American Magic."

The collections were intermittently accessible, with Mr. Lund giving tours to the magic community and the lucky few who happened upon it. In 1995, Mr. Lund passed away and the museum came under the ownership of his wife, Elaine. Committed to Robert Lund's desire to ensure these collections remained publicly accessible beyond their lifetimes, Elaine Lund incorporated the private collection and received 501(c)3 status.

In 1998, she purchased the city's former Public Library building, a 1915 craftsman structure, located one block behind the museum building in order to accommodate researchers and to better house vast archival and library collections. Upon her death in 2006, both properties and the collections were transferred to the new non-profit museum.