A Look Back // Lectures from 2010 – 2019

In most recent years, the Chapter has seen a steady membership and lasting commitment to sharing knowledge and experience. The following list shows the lectures that took place from 2010 – 2019, sourced from old Guild newsletters.

2010
– to help celebrate the North Bennet Street School’s 125th Anniversary, NEGBW co-sponsored a variety of lectures to be held at the school

2012:
– Julia Miller gave a presentation on “Scaleboard Bindings” about NBSS
– Gretchen and Garrett Dixon from The Marbler’s Apprentice gave a presentation on “Historic Paper Marbling” in a co-sponsored event with NBSS

2013
– Aimee Lee gave a presentation on “Korean Papermaking” at NBSS

2014
– during a weekend excursion to Northern Maine, members heard lectures from Walter Tisdale, book artist, on “Exploring the Creative Process” and a lecture with Gray Parrot, Bookbinder, titled “43 Years in the Trade: My Career as a Decorative Bookbinder”, where members got to handle many of Parrot’s work

2015
– Stuart Bennet gave a lecture from his publication “Trade Bookbinding in the British Isles 1660 – 1800” at NBSS
– at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, Bill Hanscom, Rare Book Conservator at Widener Library, gave a talk on “Traditional Ethiopian Bookbinding”

2016
– during the Beyond Words exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, members were treated to a gallery talk

2017
– members visited Rabelais Books for a talk from proprietor, Don Lindgren
– during a visit to the Providence Public Library, members were given a presentation on the Nicholson Whaling Log Book Collection
– Katherine Beaty, Rare Book Conservator at Widener Library, discussed “Tackets, Overboards, Lacings and Buckles: a lecture on early Italian stationery bindings of Harvard’s Baker Library” at the Widener Library in Harvard University

2018
– guest lecturer, Nicky Oliver, a private practice binder from London, spoke on “The Serendipity of Bookbinding: A Bookbinder’s Journey into the World of Leather Dyeing” at NBSS

2019
– at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Conservator Todd Pattison, gave a lecture on “Adhered Boards Construction: The transitional ‘missing link’ between laced on boards and case binding”
– John DeMerritt spoke at NBSS on “Building a Living Craft”, where he spoke on his decades of experience as an edition binder
– during a visit to Boston, private practice conservator and tool maker, Jeff Peachey spoke about his recent project “Conservation of Dante’s 1477 La Commedia” at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University

A Look Back // Lectures from 2000 – 2009

Although programming occurred less often, the Chapter continued on with its efforts to share knowledge through the following lectures. All this information has been sourced from old Guild Newsletters from 2000 – 2009.

2000
– during the annual meeting at the Rhode Island School of Design, Reader’s Services Librarian, Laurie Whitehall Chong, spoke on the history of artist’s books, showing examples from the collection of over 600 pieces
– at North Bennet Street School, Per Culled, Senior Conservator at the Uppsala University Library in Sweden, gave a presentation on the fire at the Linkoping Library, in addition to a demonstration on “Paper Splitting”

2001
– during a tour at the new Berry Library at Dartmouth College, a panel discussion on Standards was given by Eric Alstrom (Dartmouth College), Mark Andersson (NBSS) and Peter Verheyen (Syracuse University) with James Reid-Cunningham as moderator
– David Lanning, from Hewit’s Tannery, discussed the longevity of leathers made for bookbinding
– Nancy Norton Tomasko, editor of The East Asian Library Journal at Princeton University, gave a talk on “Chinese Papermaking” at RISD

2002
– Christopher Clarkson gave a slide lecture on “The Kennicott Bible: a description of its illumination, box binding, and conservation problems” at the Harvard Law Library
– a lecture on “The Making of an Armenian Manuscript” was given by Sylvie Merian at the Bedford Free Public Library
– in a co-sponsored event with Masscribes, Patricia Lovett lectured on “Medieval Manuscripts to Modern Calligraphy” at the Arlington Center for the Arts

2003
– Katie MacGregor presented on papermaking where she discussed fiber and pigment formulas she had developed for making conservation papers for older books, other aspects of her process and her career in the field
– Dr. John L. Sharpe spoke on “Development of the Early Codex”

2004
– at The Club of Odd Volumes, Sam Ellenport lectured on “The Economics of Desire: The History of the Club Bindery”

2005
– Martin Frost gave a lecture at the Boston Public Library on “The Curious Art of Hidden Fore-Edge Painting”

2008
– Scott Husby, former Rare Books Conservator at Princeton University, spoke on his research into the history of incunables at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University

2009
– Tom Conroy gave a lecture
– Shanna Leino gave an artist talk at NBSS

A Look Back // Lectures from 1990 – 1999

During the second decade, the Chapter continued to thrive and stay active with lots of programming. The following is a list of lectures given during 1990 – 1999, all sourced from the GBW Newsletter.

1990
– Nicholas Pickwoad gave a slide lecture on “Stained Decoration of 17th and 18thc. Bookbinding” at the Boston Public Library – this lecture was co-sponsored with North Bennet Street School
– Dr. Sydney Berger (Curator of Manuscripts and Archives at the American Antiquarian Society) spoke during the NEGBW General Meeting on the Antiquarian book trade and the perils of evaluating books
– Roger Stoddard (from the Houghton Library at Harvard University) gave a lecture on William Gowans, a 19thc. Antiquarian Bookseller – this lecture was co-sponsored as an annual lecture series with the Friends of the Wellesley College Library

1991
– talk at the Easthampton Public Library with Nancy Jacoby (from the Japanese Paper Place) on “The Varnishing World of Japanese Handmade Papers”
– given at the Harcourt Bindery, Scott Vile, proprietor of Ascensius Press presented a slide lecture on the history and predecessors of his press: Southworth, Authoenson, Shagbark and Ascensius Presses
– as part of the Wellesley College Library lecture series: David Esselmont, proprietor of Gregynog Press spoke
– during the annual meeting held the Northeast Document Conservation Center, Sherelyn Ogden, Director of Book Conservation at NEDCC, spoke on “Preservation Options for Scrapbook and Album Formats”

1992
– a lecture and demonstration by Frank Mowery on “Form and Function, the Logic of German Bookbinding”
– Harry Duncan of the Cummington Press was invited to speak on an exhibition of Cummington Press books in the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College – this lecture was co-sponsored with the Letterpress Guild
– during the annual meeting held at Acme Bindery, David Bourbeau repeated his Standard’s presentation on “Mastering the refinements of case bookbindings”

1993
– during the annual meeting at NEDCC, Brian Allen gave a slide lecture on “Letterforms: From Stonecut to Computer – an illustrated journey through the history of written communication in western culture”

1994
– during a meeting held at the Carriage House Handmade Paper Works, Elaine Koretsky spoke about Chinese papermaking and demonstrated techniques she learned during a trip to China
– presentation by Robert Hauser on “Preservation of Collections: Programs and Disasters” given at the New Bedford Whaling Museum

1995
– during a meeting at the Harvard Law School Library, David Ferris, Curator of Rare Books, spoke about notable bindings from the collection
– Monona Rossol, an Industrial Hygienist, spoke on “Hazardous Materials – Health and Safety in your Studio” at the American Antiquarian Society
– another lecture at AAS was given by Sue Allen on “Connoisseurship of 19thc. Bookbindings”

1996
– Joe Newman gave a talk on Mary Crease Sears, the first American master-bookbinder of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Boston
– during a meeting at NEDCC a panel discussion on “Ethics and Standards in Bookbinding” included the following panelists: Nancy Schrock (Conservator and Consultant to major libraries), Nancy Southworth (edition and fine binder), Paul Parisi (President of Acme Bookbinding Co.) and Karl Eberth (binder in private practice) with Sam Ellenport as moderator
– Bill Streeter gave a presentation of his research on copy presses, beginning with James Watt’s 1780 letterpress copying machine and ending with Chester Carlson’s copying machine of 1938 – this was held at Wide Awake Garage in Easthampton

1997
– Carol Barton gave a slide lecture on historical antecedents of tunnel books
– during a visit to the Providence Public Library, Dr. Philip Maddock, a private collector, spoke on Irish bookbinding along with a viewing of decorative bindings from the collection
– at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, members heard a lecture from Scott Kehoe on how to photograph books
– Rick Cavasin gave a presentation at NBSS on his production of parchment and vellum
– Roger Barleee, Director of J. Hewit & Sons Tannery, in Edinburgh, Scotland gave two talks on leather production (one at Harvard University and one at Smith College)

1998
– during a visit to the Burns Library at Boston College, Sally Key, Instructor of NBSS, discussed the construction of model historic bindings and Dr. Bernard Meaghan, Keeper of the Manuscripts at Trinity College, talked about the materials used in the manufacture of the Book of Kells
– during a joint chapter meeting with the Letterpress Guild and NEGBW at the Quercus Press, Johnny Carerra demonstrated the use of his Linotype and showed his work as both printer and binder

1999
– during a meeting held at Goldsmith 3 (a custom design and hand-crafted jewelry business), proprietor, Vincent Ferrini, demonstrated making and applying metal to books in his talk “Metal Book Hinges, Clasps, Hasps and Escutcheons”
– Nancy Leavitt gave a slide lecture on her three-week trip to Northumbria titled “From Landscape to Manuscript Book: a tour of Iona and Holy Island” where she discussed the Gospel Book produced in the great religious centers of Iona, Scotland and Holy Island, England from 650 through 1000CE
– Stuart Walker, Head of Book Conservation, spoke about the exhibit “Five Centuries of Bookbindings at the Boston Public Library: an exhibit of bookbinding from the collection of the Rare Book and Manuscript Department”
– an additional lecture at the Boston Public Library was given by Christopher Clarkson on “Conservation of Early Books”

Lecture at MIT on Adaptive Preservation

The following lecture may be of interest to conservators and binders in NEGBW:

Adaptive Preservation
presented by Hugh Phibbs

When: Thursday, November 14 from 10–11
Where: MIT, Maclaurin Building, 4–370.

Please find details and register here https://libcal.mit.edu/calendar/events/adaptivepreservation

The lecture is sponsored by the MIT Libraries Wunsch Conservation Laboratory, The MIT Museum, and the MIT LIST Visual Arts Center. This is not a NEGBW sponsored event.

Upcoming Talk with Jeff Peachey // Harvard University – November 19

Please join us for our upcoming lecture with Jeff Peachey:

The Conservation of Dante’s 1477 La Commedia
Jeffrey S. Peachey, Independent Book Conservator, New York City, jeffpeachey.com

The conservation treatment of Dante’s 1477 La Commedia will be detailed in this profusely illustrated lecture. An examination of the remains of earlier binding structures, and decisions that lead to its resewing and rebinding in an alum tawed goatskin conservation binding will be discussed. During the treatment, evidence was found suggesting that the Inferno and Purgatorio cantiche may have circulated separately at one point. Differences between historic 15th century binding practices and modern conservation binding techniques will be highlighted, as will the difficulties of achieving a sympathetic relationship between original and new binding materials. Observations on the history, nature and idea of conservation rebinding will conclude the lecture, followed by an audience discussion. Conservators, bibliophiles, bookbinders, librarians, Italian scholars, and anyone curious about the physical structure of books will find this lecture of interest.

Where: Schlesinger Library, Harvard University, 3 James Street, Cambridge, MA
When: 6:00 – 8:00pm

​Jeff Peachey Bio:
Peachey is an independent book conservator and toolmaker based in New York City. For more than 25 years, he has specialized in the conservation of books for institutions and individuals. He is a Professional Associate in the American Institute for Conservation, has taught book conservation workshops internationally, and was awarded fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (Italy) and the University of Toronto’s Fischer Library (Toronto). He is a Visiting Instructor for the Library and Archives Conservation Education Consortium (LACE) of Buffalo State University, New York University, and the Winterthur/University of Delaware. “Ausbund 1564: The History and Conservation of an Anabaptist Icon” is his latest publication.

Hope to see you there!

Tackets, Overbands, Lacings and Buckles

Tackets, Overbands, Lacings and Buckles: a lecture by Katherine Beaty on early Italian stationery bindings of Harvard’s Baker Library

When: Friday November 17th, 4-5pm
Where: 90 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, MA 02138

This lecture is free and open to the public. Seating in limited, so please arrive early!

The Harvard Business School’s Baker Library houses the largest collection of early Italian business records outside of Italy. It includes 150 account books and day books of the Medici Family, 81 volumes from the Barberini Family, and many more. Presenter Katherine Beaty will talk about the use and structure of early Italian stationery bindings that were observed during recent conservation projects of the Medici and Barberini collections. These unique limp vellum bindings include unusual structural features, such as overbands, decorative alum-tawed lacings, spine and endband tackets, and different fastenings types, including ties, loop and toggle, and buckles. This lecture is presented in conjunction with a workshop on Italian tacketed stationery bindings hosted by the New England Chapter of the Guild of Bookworkers. For more information on the workshop and to register for one of the few spots remaining in the workshop, click here.

Presenter Katherine Beaty is a rare book conservator in the Weissman Preservation Center for the Harvard Libraries. For the past 10 years, Katherine has been treating rare books from the Harvard library collection, with a special interest in parchment, Islamic and non-western books, and investigating historical book structures. Over the last four years, she has been conserving early Italian account books from the Harvard’s Business School’s Baker Library Historical Collections. Katherine earned her M.A. from the Buffalo State College Art Conservation program with a specialization in book conservation.

 

40 Years of Work: Peter and Donna Thomas

Peter and Donna are book artists from Santa Cruz, California who started their business in 1977. They completed their first book, “The Three Cedars,” in 1978. 2017-18 marks their 40th anniversary, which will be celebrated in libraries across the country with retrospective shows displaying from those libraries own holdings.

Beginning in August of 2017 Donna and Peter will be traveling to visit those shows as “Wandering Book Artists”. They will also be meeting with community-based and academic book arts classes, teaching book arts workshops, and working with fellow book and paper artists to create collaborative artworks.

Donna and Peter will be coming to Boston!
Where: North Bennet Street School, 150 North Street, Boston, MA
When: Wednesday, October, 11 at noon

For those unfamiliar with their artistic practice, Donna and Peter make their own paper, letterpress print or hand render the texts, illustrate, and hand-bind their books themselves. They make both edition and one-of-a-kind books that combine the precision of the fine press aesthetic with the structural exploration and artistic creativity found in contemporary artists’ books.

Peter and Donna have written this about their past trips:

“We drive a pickup truck pulling a “Tiny Home on Wheels” (which is featured in a book by the same name published in 2014 by Shelter Books). Our tiny rolling home is a finely crafted wooden travel trailer, built in 2009 using local sustainably harvested woods, and decorated with Donna’s colorful folk art painted designs. Although the trailer is our home while on the road, more esoterically it is a physical artwork, and metaphorically it embodies our ideas about the changing nature of the physical book in the digital age.

People always stop us, wondering what it is, and if they can look inside. When conversation turns to what we are doing and what exactly is an artists’ book, we use our rolling home as a metaphor saying, “When people see, or look inside regular RV what do they think? Usually nothing, or, “How practical.” But when people see our caravan they get excited, curious, inspired – something magical always happens. Commercially produced books are like regular RVs, practical and full of information. Artists’ books are like our tiny home on wheels. They inspire imagination, wonder, excitement and do the many wonderful things that art works do.

On campuses we open the door and invite in visitors. The conversations often are about living in small spaces and making do with less, what it means and takes to live a creative life, what or who is an artist, and what is a “book artist”? We keep a blog documenting our travels and conversations as wandering book artists which you can find at: http://www.wanderingbookartists.blogspot.com/

 

Salem Athenaeum Conservation Night

While not a Guild event, we occasionally highlight events which might be of interest to our members.

Conservation Night

When: September 27, 2017 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Where:  Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex St, Salem, MA 01970

Cost: Free

Contact: Jean Marie Procious 978-744-2540

Email

Join us for the sixth annual Conservation Night featuring some of the most important books in our historical collections.  We will unveil the conserved volumes — books sponsored by generous participants of the 2016 Conservation Night — and present more ailing books for your consideration.  Executive Director Jean Marie Procious will give an illustrated presentation about the books and their value to the collection.

For more information, visit http://salemathenaeum.net/event/conservation-night-2/

Workshop: Italian Tacketed Stationery Bindings with Katherine Beaty

Workshop: Italian Tacketed Stationery Bindings with Katherine Beaty

During this workshop, we will explore the structure of early Italian tacketed stationery bindings based on the Medici family account book collection at Harvard Business School’s Baker Library. From the 14th through the 19th centuries, tacketed stationery books were used for day, letter, and account books. These books were designed for daily use and had to live up to the task. In this 2-day workshop, we will construct the most common style of tacketed stationery binding: a limp vellum binding with laced overbands and a fore-edge flap. The textblock will be sewn over split thongs, which will lace through the front cover and be secured under the overbands. The cover will be reinforced with stiff leather overbands, secured to the cover with decorative alum tawed lacings. During this workshop, we will discuss terminology, binding variations, and examine images from the Medici collection.

Participants should have previous bookbinding experience, and be comfortable using paper, parchment, and leather.

When: Saturday – Sunday, November 18th and 19th
Where: Third Year Studios, 369 Congress Street, Floor 6, Boston, MA 02210

Cost: $125 for GBW members, $175 for non-members

Additional materials fee of $65 due to Katherine on the first day of the workshop.

Katherine Beaty is a rare book conservator in the Weissman Preservation Center, Harvard Library’s special collection conservation facility, where she has worked for the past 10 years. Prior to her appointment at Harvard, Katherine interned at the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Harry Ransom Center. Katherine received an MA in art conservation with a specialization book from the Art Conservation department at Buffalo State College. She has taught workshops for the North Bennett Street School, for local chapters of the Guild of Bookworkers in New England and New York, and presented at the Guild of Bookworkers Standards of Excellence. Katherine has spent the last four years working on collections of early Italian account books at Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.

The workshop will be accompanied by a lecture given by Katherine: Tackets, Overbands, Lacings and Buckles: early Italian stationery bindings of Harvard’s Baker Library. The lecture will be open to the public.

Friday, November 17th. Location and time TBD.

Any questions regarding the workshop can be directed to Kate Levy at newgbwprograms@gmail.com.

For registration click here: https://gbw.formstack.com/forms/italian_tacketed_stationery_bindings_with_katherine_beaty

Gray Parrot

Two non-guild events that may be of interest to members:

Exhibition: January 30 – April 30, 2017
Bookbinding and the Pursuit of the Human Touch: The Work of Gray Parrot
curated by Britta Konau

University of Southern Maine
Great Reading Room, 7th Floor
Glickman Family Library

Free and Open to the Public

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Lecture: Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at 7:00pm
Bound to be together: Gray Parrot, Leonard Baskin and the Gehanna Press
presented by Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, University of Oxford, England

University of Southern Maine
University Events Room, 7th Floor
Glickman Family Library

Free and Open to the Public