Seminar in American Bookbinding History

Friday, March 9, 2007
9:00 am 4:30 pm
Music Room, Goodhart Hall
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

The Bryn Mawr College Library is sponsoring a one-day seminar to stimulate research in the history of bookbinding in America by reporting on current studies, identifying gaps in our knowledge of the field, and proposing promising areas of research

The seminar will be moderated by Jim Green, Librarian of The Library Company of Philadelphia, and will feature presentations by 10 scholars on aspects of the nineteenth-century American and Canadian bookbinding trades. Presentations will be followed by discussion and sharing of ideas among all attendees.

The Presenters:

Steve Beare, "Discovery of the Remarkable 19th-Century Pattern Book of Samuel Dodd, New Jersey Engraver of Binding Stamps"

Gary Frost, Conservator of the Libraries, University of Iowa, "The Advent of Production Case Binding in the United States"

Vincent Golden, Curator of Newspapers and Periodicals, American Antiquarian Society, "The Golden Gift: What 50 Copies Reveals about Batch Binding"

Greta Golick, Doctoral Candidate, Collaborative Program in Book History and Print Culture,
University of Toronto, "The Daily Bind: Transactions of the Guelph [Canada West] Bookbindery, 1864-65"

Mary-Parke Johnson, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, "The Rise of Independent Bookbinderies in Philadelphia, 1830-1860"

Thomas E. Kinsella, Associate Professor of British Literature, Stockton College, "What 300+ Signed American Bindings Do Not Tell Us"

Andrea Krupp, Conservator, The Library Company of Philadelphia "Nineteenth-Century Bookcloth"

Robert J. Milevski, Preservation Librarian, Princeton University Library, "Bookbinding Brass Dies, in particular those of The Riverside Press"

Todd Pattison, Associate Book Conservator, Northeast Document Conservation Center, "Benjamin Bradley, Boston Bookbinder"

Jennifer Woods-Rosner, Chief of Conservation, The Library Company of Philadelphia, "Philadelphia Bookbinders and Bookbinding Suppliers

The seminar will be Friday, March 9, 2007, from 9:30 to 4:30, at Bryn Mawr College, located in the suburbs of Philadelphia. It is being held in connection with the Library's exhibition, "Bound and Determined: Identifying American Bookbindings," on display from January 30 to June 3, 2007. The curators of the exhibition are Willman Spawn, Honorary Curator of Bookbinding at Bryn Mawr College, and Thomas Kinsella, Associate Professor of British Literature at Richard Stockton College.

Registration fee: $40; Student registration: $10. Registration fees include lunch.

Deadline for registration: March 5, 2007.

More info here