There was a time when no one knew what Dr. David Karpeles was up to.
After making a fortune in real estate, the Santa Barbara resident was quietly buying the most significant historical manuscripts put on the market.
From the late 1970s and for four decades to follow, he often bid against the deep pockets of collectors such as Forbes and Rockefeller at auctions, coming away with original documents and collections relating to science, religion, history, political history, exploration, literature, music and art. His successful strategy was to outbid by $1.
Eventually, his collection became the largest of important original documents in private hands. More than 1 million items were stored in a vault beneath his home on Hot Springs Road, available for scholars conducting research.
In 1984, he opened his flagship Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Santa Barbara. At one time, there were 14 museums around the country, and many had a geographic focus. All were free of charge.
When Karpeles passed away in January 2022 at Cottage Hospital (where he was born in 1936), his children and grandchildren took over.
Recent rumors suggested that the museum’s building at 21 W. Anapumu St. was up for sale. That is untrue, according to museum Director Norman Cohan, who clarified that Karpeles’ home was sold and his collection moved to Florida, where his widow and children live. Other Karpeles museums were consolidated, but new ones have opened, including one in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Santa Barbara’s is still the flagship museum, and admission is still free.
“Karpeles was a brilliant man. He knew the backstory for every item, not only the history surrounding it, but its provenance,” added Cohan, whose museum tour was packed with connections, insights and entertaining stories. It’s no wonder, as he’s been with the museum for 31 years.
“People say we offer ‘a window into history,’ but some items are the history, like Joseph Stalin’s 1912 arrest record,” he said. “There are many copies of the Declaration of Independence, but there is only one ‘justification letter’ to King George III, signed by John Hancock, which accompanied the Declaration. We have it.”
The permanent collection reflects Karpeles’ diverse interests: handwritten scores from the great composers; manuscripts by scientific luminaries; a 350-year-old Torah written on deer skin; Egyptian items from the 18th dynasty reign of Akhenaten, wife Nefertiti and son Tutankhamun (King Tut); and much more.
Some pieces on view are reproductions, as many originals are fragile — and priceless. As with the vault under Karpeles’ home, they are now kept in a controlled environment, with just the right mix of temperature, humidity, exposure to light, and other factors.
New exhibits open quarterly and are curated by Karpeles’ daughter, Alexis. Next are “Stamp Act: Documents of the American Revolution” and an annual display coinciding with the April 15 anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein displays are set for 2026.
“Man’s Inhumanity Towards Man,” on view through April 15, reflects injustices from religion, race, gender, political views, economic status and more.
“We are eclectic, with no political agenda or point of view. We present the documents and provide context, but it is up for people to decide for themselves,” Cohan said.
A 1788 letter signed by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin may address prescription medicine, but his name evokes something much different. He advocated for a new method of execution after the French Revolution, one more egalitarian who called for a quick and painless death for nobility and criminals alike. It became associated with the “Reign of Terror,” in which thousands were beheaded.
“We’re not telling anyone what to think about the guillotine,” Cohan said, “but to consider capital punishment in general, and if this was a more humane way to execute than by hanging, as Guillotin believed.”
The exhibit is not chronological but organized by theme and proximity. A letter by India’s Mahatma Gandhi about “Ahimsa” (nonviolence) is near a multipage rant encouraging racism and violence written by American mass murderer Charles Manson.
Religious intolerance is explored, including a chilling letter written by Mormon leader Joseph Smith while under arrest in Vauvoo, Illinois. On June 20, 1844, he wrote President John Tyler claiming that his arrest was a rebellion against Mormons and that mobs threatened the “utter extermination” of his religion. One week later, Smith was murdered by an armed mob that attacked the jail.
In a 1956 letter, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, wrote about his hope for the Jewish people following the Holocaust. Antisemitism appeared to be on the decline after Adolf Hitler’s defeat, Ben-Gurion noted. Six million Jews were killed in the genocide.
Other documents relate to the mistreatment of America’s Indigenous peoples, specifically the Seminole and Penobscot tribes. There’s also a letter from Prince Georgy Lvov begging the king of Belgium for economic aid following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and an 1898 letter by suffragette Susan B. Anthony about gender inequality in the military.
When asked what he felt was the most egregious of the “inhumanities” on view, he stood before a handwritten draft of a Counter-Emancipation Proclamation written by Confederate President Jefferson Davis in response to Abraham Lincoln’s speech.
“Slavery is among the best examples of the worst cases, in my view, but there’s also the atomic bomb, the Holocaust and so many others. That’s the point of this exhibit,” Cohan said, then paused. “The question is, what have we learned from history?”
Around a corner, documents from Russian leader Vladimir Lenin and German “der Fuhrer” Hitler are hung side by side. Lenin’s addresses the formation of the Communist Party in 1915.
Hitler’s 1933 announcement proclaims that all musical performances in Germany must be approved by the state, and is signed by Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party.