Local Man Emancipates Civil War Documents

It’s tough being a career academic. (I mean, I assume.) Even if you get a master’s degree, you still might be stuck interning somewhere. This is what happened to Denning McTague, who has master’s degrees in history and information systems but was working as an unpaid intern at the National Archives at 9th and Market last summer.

And, so, the 40-year-old allegedly did what anyone in that situation would do: Namely, he stole 165 Civil War documents and sold them on eBay. McTague was charged with the crimes yesterday, and his lawyer said he has been cooperating with the prosecution and plans to plead guilty.

The key items he stole, according to the Daily News, were an order from the War Department announcing the death of President Lincoln and a letter from Confederate Gen. James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart. Okay, so he stole one important item.

Although he was working on cataloging items for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War — 2011-2015 — he was going through documents from 1816 to 1907. The Justice Department listed the value of the items at over $1,000 and said he was “an avid and educated cultural- and historical-artifacts collector.”

Naturally, Denning has a website, Denning House Antiquarian Books, where he lists one of his specialties as beekeeping. But of course.

Charges in Archives theft [Daily News]
Denning House Antiquarian Books