Robert Lund

Robert Lund (May 4, 1925 - October 20, 1995) was born Robert "Bob" J. Lund in Saginaw, Michigan, and resided in the Detroit area for most of his life. He worked as a reporter and editor on the newspapers in Detroit, Chicago and New York. He was auto editor for Motor Magazine, and was auto editor for Popular Mechanics Magazine. Lund served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Lund, a noted magic historian and author, was also one of the world's foremost magic collectors. Realizing that he lacked the flair for performing, Lund decided to make his mark on the magic world by becoming a student of magic history and collecting anything and everything related to the art. His accumulation was called the "largest such collection in private hands."

Lund contributed articles to more than 20 magic journals and indexed numerous books on magic and magic history, including the Magico reprint of The Annals of Conjuring. He was the last editor of The Conjurors' Magazine (1948-1949), and edited the newsletter of the Magic Collectors Association (1962-1963).

He was awarded the Academy of Magical Arts Award of Merit in 1983, and the Literary Fellowship in 1988. He has also been honored by the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians.

With his wife, Elaine, Lund co-founded the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan. The museum was built around his collection of posters, playbills, books, photos, apparatus, scrapbooks, letters and thousands of other pieces of magic memorabilia and ephemera. The first building opened to the public April 1, 1978. A second building, the vacated former Marshall Public Library, was purchased in 1999 as the collection continued to expand.

Since Elaine Lund's passing in 2006, the museum has been governed by a board of directors and has become a non-profit corporation.

References

• http://www.americanmuseumofmagic.org/index.html