Iowa – home of more pigs than humans and that glorious black dirt – could soon also be the home of a world-record number of pencils.
Aaron Bartholmey has been collecting wooden advertising pencils since he was a child, amassing a collection he claims to total upwards of 70,000. As Bartholmey says, collecting these pencils really is a neat way to preserve history, because so many of them feature long-gone local businesses with no other record of their existence.
The process of evaluating the collection has begun, as counters from the American Pencil Collectors Society have already seen the collection (Bartholmey is currently the secretary for the organization). The next move is for Guinness to validate the collection, which would ultimately give Bartholmey – who lives in Colfax in Jasper County – the record he has spent his life working towards.
Currently, the world-record pencil collection sits at just 24,000 – held by Emilio Arenas from Uruguay since 2000 – so this could be huge news in the pencil-collecting community.
Yes, the American Pencil Collectors Society Is a Real Thing
Now, you might be asking about the American Pencil Collectors Society. Not only is it real, but the organization traces its roots back to 1955, when Lester C. Taylor, a professor at Sterling College in Kansas, began writing a newsletter called “The Pencil Collector” and distributing to like-minded pencil enthusiasts.
The APCS is still going strong today with ongoing conventions held in odd-numbered years, where members gather to show off their collections (how exactly do you transport 70,000 pencils?), buy/sell/trade writing instruments, and enjoy any and all pencil-related entertainment.
Even The Pencil Collector is still in publication, going out to APCS members monthly. Membership to the APCS and a subscription to The Pencil Collector can all be yours too, so long as you pay your dues.
