Thomas Worthington

Picture from Sphinx cover, May 1916

Thomas Chew Worthington III (1879 - January 2, 1953) was one of the founders of the Demons Club and Society of Osiris Magicians. By profession, he a salesman for distributors of X-ray and photographic equipment.

Worthington became interested in magic when his grandfather introduced him to his friend Alexander Herrmann. He later became friends with Thurston and was known by Houdini and of the magicians of his day.

Worthington had one of the largest, and most valuable collection of rare magical apparatus at his home in Baltimore. He was a fighter against the exposers of magic, and the magic organization that fails to penalize members who did.

He wrote a column for The Sphinx and was also the editor of Society of Osiris Magicians' magazine Tablets of Osiris.

He gave his collection to the Ringling Brothers' Museum in Sarasota, Florida just prior to his death. Other collections including antiques, stamps, autographs, photographs, and natural history specimens, he left to Loyola College at his death. The magic collection eventually was obtained by magic collector Ken Klosterman and David Price of the Egyptian Hall Museum (later obtained by Mike Caveney and George Daily).

Awards and Honors

• Cover Sphinx April 1916
• Cover of Genii Vol 2. No. 1 September 1937

Books

• Recollections of Howard Thurston Conjuror, Illusionist and Author (1938)

References

• WORTHINGTON PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION
• The Society of Osiris by Mark Walker, Genii February 2000
• The Society of Osiris by Mark Walker, Genii February 2000.