Homer Lusk Collyer (November 6, 1881 – March 1947) and Langley Wakeman Collyer (October 3, 1885 – March 1947), known as the Collyer brothers, were two American brothers who became famous because of their bizarre natures and compulsive hoarding. For decades, neighborhood rumors swirled around the rarely seen men and their home at 2078 Fifth Avenue (at the corner of 128th Street), in Manhattan, where they obsessively collected books, furniture, musical instruments, and many other items, with booby traps set up in corridors and doorways to ensnare intruders.
Both were eventually found dead in the Harlem brownstone where they had lived, surrounded by over 140 tons of collected items that they had amassed over several decades.
Read more about Collyer Brothers: Family, Recluses, Public Scrutiny, Homer Collyer's Death, Manhunt, Langley Collyer's Death, House Contents, Legacy
Famous quotes related to collyer brothers:
“There is a distinction to be drawn between true collectors and accumulators. Collectors are discriminating; accumulators act at random. The Collyer brothers, who died among the tons of newspapers and trash with which they filled every cubic foot of their house so that they could scarcely move, were a classic example of accumulators, but there are many of us whose houses are filled with all manner of things that we ‘can’t bear to throw away.’”
—Russell Lynes (1910–1991)