Sharing Pen History Knowledge

[azkid]

I may be mistaken but it seems to me that source material for fountain pen history is rather closely guarded.

Having read a number of threads and various websites on pen history, company memos, letters, advertisements, sales catalogs or whatever else are cited but I don't often see the originals and have yet to find many internet repositories of such source material.

Perhaps I just haven't found those repositories? If so I would love to have URLs shared here.

I recognize that books have been written to provide us with historical information. Often the books are unusually expensive and sometimes they are difficult to track down.

Worse, some fountain pen books, like Hoban's "Fountain Pens of Esterbrook," are out of print and obtaining a copy is both difficult and expensive.

A few sites exist to provide history on major pen makers like Parker, Sheaffer, Montblanc, and so on.

But mostly it is down to a few historians to keep the knowledge alive, to curate a collection of valuable source information.

Not to be morbid but, when they are departed from us, what becomes of fountain pen historical knowledge? Do their surviving family members know how best to preserve and pass along that pile of musty documents and ads?

Is there is a fountain pen historical society that helps with such matters? Museums?

If not, it seems to me that to prevent this knowledge being lost to future generations, and encourage the rise of other experts, the collector community needs to work to make all of this material freely available online.

Or maybe most of it is already out there and I just haven't found it yet?