Yes, the Thesaurus of Classic Jazz was a series produced by Columbia Records during that era. Discogs has a (quite incomplete but nonetheless illustrative) list of records released on that list here. Perusing this list suggests that one Frank Driggs was responsible for the series, which was focused on reissuing jazz sides from the 1920s-1940s, as he's often listed as 'producer' or 'compiler' or 'editor' of the albums.

Looking at the albums Driggs is credited on on Discogs shows several other records not on that list where (if you look at the images of the records) the legend 'Thesaurus Of Classic Jazz' is present. I would guess that the series came into existence after a relatively successful 1959 4LP compilation called (and this will shock you) Thesaurus Of Classic Jazz (which Driggs also helped put together with John Hammond). Other titles in the series not on that Discogs list which feature the logo 'Thesaurus of Classic Jazz' include a compilation of Mildred Bailey performances and a compilation of Billie Holiday performances.

Driggs, at the time, was apparently the assistant to John Hammond, who is famous (amongst many other things) for having put on the 1938 From Spirituals To Swing Carnegie Hall concerts. At this concert, Hammond was hoping to feature a performance by Johnson, before discovering, sadly, that Johnson, had passed away mere months before. In 1961, Hammond was working for Columbia Records, and had just signed Bob Dylan to Columbia; Dylan in his memoir Chronicles recalls getting an early copy of King Of The Delta Blues Singers from Hammond).

A New York Times obituary of Driggs from 2011 shows that Driggs was later well-known as a jazz archivist, with an immense jazz photography collection that was prominently zoomed in on in the Ken Burns series Jazz. Additionally, his oral history recordings now reside in a university library.

One could look through the early 1960s pages of Downbeat magazine for a sense of how these collections did critically, but I would guess they would do well with Downbeat critics; carefully compiled archival releases of important artists rarely go down poorly with critics. As to their commercial performance, I doubt any of the Thesaurus Of Classic Jazz series would be bestsellers, as such things were marketed towards collectors and aficionados - the kind of person who'd read the reviews in Downbeat - rather than the general population. However, they likely made a profit, especially considering that Columbia would usually already simply own the recording and would just have to compile and master them for the release rather than have to conduct recording sessions to make new material.