Biographical / Historical

William Dickman (1900-1987), born Wilhelm Dickmann, a former judge and attorney in Berlin, fled Germany to Copenhagen and then made his way to the US in 1938. He received his American law degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1943 and taught at Princeton and Pennsylvania Military College. He later worked for the OSS, and from 1950 till his retirement he served as supervisory intelligence research specialist for the Department of the Army. A resident of Alexandria, Dickman was involved in civic preservation associations serving as a member of the Alexandria Association, and heading the restoration of the Gadsby portraits by John Gadsby Chapman. Dickman was also an author and wrote "Battery Rodgers," a history of one of the defense fortifications in Alexandria during the Civil War, and "Around the Potomac," a collection of verse illustrated by Lily Spandorf (1914-2000).

Content Description

The collection consists of books, correspondence related to the restoration of the Gadsby portraits painted by John Gadsby Chapman, and material related to Dickman's works.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Gadsby's Tavern Museum
• Gadsby, John, 1766-1844
• Historic buildings -- Virginia -- Alexandria -- Conservation and restoration.