Rescued from Recycling was born when Katherine Huntoon, a retired museum curator and archivist, read an Orange County Register article by Jordan Graham published on April 2, 2015 titled “How an obsessive photo collector unwittingly accumulated three storage lockers full of ‘priceless’ O.C. history.” She immediately contacted Art Goddard at the Costa Mesa Historical Society to find out more. Richard Bagley and Huntoon met soon afterwards and began the process of sorting through Bagley’s accumulation of treasure.
Huntoon quickly realized the volume of Bagley’s collection was going to require help and a careful combing as she unpacked box after box of contemporary magazines randomly stuffed with historic photographs, packed together with popular biographies, books on Hollywood, photo albums from the 1890’s, vintage detective magazines, travel ephemera, stories and memorabilia from families and histories from around the world and across the last 150+ years.
Reminded of documentaries of other collector/hoarders and eccentric artists such as Finding Vivian Maier, Searching for Sugar Man, Herb and Dorothy and Grey Gardens, Huntoon began to feel the story here was Richard Bagley himself.
Rescued from Recycling is a project making its way through Richard’s enormous collection, at times reuniting items and artifacts with original owners, and at others selling items from the collection to new owners. Since Richard’s passing on February 16th of this year, all proceeds will be directed towards causes and non-profit organizations that mattered most to him and will honor his legacy. Check our upcoming sales section to find out when and where you can make part of Richard’s collection your own.
Rescued from Recycling 