page_title: Moses Polock
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Moses Polock / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: Moses Polock's headstone in Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia. Taken by Eric Schucht on May 11, 2019.
context_page_description: Moses Polock was a Jewish-American publisher and the first bookseller in the United States who dealt exclusively in rare books. At the time of his death, he was the oldest bibliophile in the country.
context_section_description: Polock died on August 16, 1903, after four weeks’ of illness at the residence of his sister, Isabella Rosenbach, 1409 North Eighteenth Street, Philadelphia. At the time of his death, he was the oldest publisher and bookseller in the United States. He was buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery alongside his mother and father. 
  Polock left behind no will,so much of his collections was auctioned off on March 9 and 10, 1904 by Stanislaus Vincent Henkels at the book auction rooms of Davis & Harvey at 112 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Notable items included were:
  A printing of The Aitken Bible, the first English Bible printed the United States.
  An original manuscript from John Heckewelder.
  Seven volumes of books from the library of George Washington, purchased at a sale in 1876.
  A batch of letters from eminent English and American Statesman connected with the American Revolution and addressed to John Hancock.
  The Washington Letter, in reference to the exchange of Lord Cornwallis, and the survey of a part of Mount Vernon.
  Ivory miniatures of the author Charles Brockden Brown and his wife.
  Rosenbach and his brother Philip borrowed enough money from their mother to buy most of Polock's inventory at the auction, including some important Americana and early children's books. Starting at a level that would take other collectors years to reach, the brothers used the items as the base inventory of their business venture, The Rosenbach Company.  Rosenbach would go on to sell a number of George Washington rarities from Polock's archive to J. P. Morgan.
caption: Headstone in Mount Sinai Cemetery.
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