Saturday, March 28, 2020

Links & Auctions

- On the TCD blog, "A Bibliographical Alphabet."

- Via IMLS, "COVID-19 Resources for Libraries and Museums."

- From Sarah Werner, "Blanking out," on what blank pages have to tell us if we look closely enough.

- The Yale University Library's new exhibition "Trial by Media: The Queen Caroline Affair" is now online.

- Robert Oldham writes for the APHA blog on "Restoring a Coisne Stanhope Hand Press."

- Over on the Providence Public Library Special Collections blog, "Archives in the Time of COVID-19."

- Stephen Grant has the second part of his profile of Folger director William Adams Slade at The Collation.

- Over on the Manhattan Rare Book Company's blog, "Beyond the Page: Finally, the Perfect Gift."

- From Swann Galleries, a short piece on the value of manuscript journals.

- Nolin Deloisin-Baum is in the "Bright Young Collectors" spotlight.

- Over on the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, a profile of Humfrey Wanley.

- Anke Timmerman writes about book collecting on a budget, for the FB&C blog.

- The NYSL has posted video of their recent event with Sean D. Moore about his book Slavery & the Making of Early American Library.

- From the Audubon Society's blog, "The Woman Behind The Birds of America," about Juditha Dowd's new biography-in-poems of Lucy Bakewell Audubon.

- More useful things: the BPL's guide to their medieval manuscripts, and Heather Cole's guide to online instruction with primary sources from Brown.

- Released this week, Matt Kirschenbaum's Mellon-funded report "Books.Files: Preservation of Digital Assets in the Contemporary Publishing Industry."

- From the Innerpeffray Library blog, "Meet the Borrower – Thomas Stalker Part I."

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Works on Paper including Autographs and Memorabilia at Chiswick Auctions on 31 March.

- The Alex Raymond Flash Gordon Collection at Profiles in History on 31 March.

- Spring Auction at Alexander Historical Auctions ends on 1 April.

- April Auction at Arader Galleries on 4 April.


Sunday, March 22, 2020

Links & Auctions

And I thought things were looking weird last week ... gosh. As you can, please support your local independent, used, and antiquarian booksellers in any way that they need it right now (check their websites and social media for details). Support your local public and academic libraries by strongly encouraging them (if they haven't already) to close for now and carry on their missions remotely. Trust me, there is plenty we librarians can be doing, even without being in close proximity to the books in our collections.

Speaking of which, I should have thought of this sooner, too, but if it's even the tiniest bit of help to anyone (student, teacher, professor, librarian, bookseller), the list of my library is online, and if I have a book that you need to consult for reference, need a citation from, &c., just say the word and I'll be happy to get you whatever information would be useful.

- Several exhibitors at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (all known to many of us) have tested positive for COVID-19, according to messages sent via the ABAA and ILAB this week. Please be aware of this in case it is relevant to your personal situation, and I know all readers of this blog join me in wishing our friends a speedy recovery.

- The BSA is offering the first in a series of free webinars this week, and are calling for volunteers to help with future installments and/or to assist with other timely programming.

- From my dear friends at LibraryThing, who've been working at home for years, "Work From Home Like LibraryThing Does."

- Many university presses are offering sales on books they were planning to exhibit at conferences this spring and summer; I'm sure there are others, but here are the relevant pages for JHUP and UVA Press.

- Over on the N-YHS blog, "Martha Lamb: New-York Historical Society Pioneer."

- Rebecca Rego Barry writes for CrimeReads: "Carolyn Wells, in the Library, with a Revolver." Rebecca also has a post on the FB&C blog about "Saving the Baskerville Bible."

- From Kyle Clark for the Beyond the Reading Room blog, "Unveiling the Mystery inside a Greek Manuscript Binding."

- The Culture Minister for Wales has placed a temporary export bar on a 15th-century Lewis of Caerleon manuscript to allow a UK buyer to raise the £300,000 required to keep it in the UK.

- Megan Cook and others have been crowd-compiling a spreadsheet of Digital Repositories for Book History Teaching.

- At Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "A Dispersed Album of Illuminated Cuttings."

- A number of NYC-based philanthropic organizations have formed the "NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund to support New York City-based social services and arts and cultural organizations that have been affected by the current coronavirus public health crisis."

- More on the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments fakery from the Guardian.

- From Elizabeth DeBold and Heather Wolfe at The Collation, "A Wyncoll's Tale."

- Over on the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog, "Need a Project, no. 2? Chromolithography." They've also pulled together a collection of links of "Online Content for Printing History and Art History."

- More useful online resources from the Folger, too.

Upcoming Auctions

- Rare Books, Manuscripts & Relics, Forbes Collection Part I, Kerouac Estate Part II at University Archives on 25 March.

- The Birmingham Assay Office Library at Forum Auctions on 26 March.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 27 March.

- Rare Books, Manuscripts & Ephemera at Addison & Sarova on 28 March.


Courage, friends. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

Links, Auctions & Courage

Well. What a time. Honestly it's sort of hard to know what to say through all this, other than to make a heartfelt offer to help in any way that I can. If there's anything you need that I might be able to help with, I'm here. I'm looking forward to trying some experimental instruction sessions with some classes I've been working with this semester, and hope to be able to continue to make progress on many fronts. This is going to be a challenging time for us all. Courage, friends. Stock up on books. Wash your hands. Wash 'em again. Take care of yourselves. 

- Rebecca Rego Barry is tracking postponed or cancelled book fairs.

- Quite a story from Michael Greshko for National Geographic: testing has reportedly proven that the Dead Sea Scroll fragments acquired for the National Museum of the Bible are all modern forgeries. Much more from Art Fraud Insights, including their full report on the findings. See also, The Lying Pen of Scribes. There are implications here for other fragments in collections around the world.

- From American Book Collecting, "In the Midst of It: A Book Hunter Down the Cataloging Rabbit Hole."

- Some great new marbled paper sample books in the Graphic Arts collection at Princeton.

- The recently-recovered 14th-century Divan of Hafez is scheduled to be sold at Sotheby's on 1 April.

- From Sarah Werner, "notes on feminist bibliography."

- Julie Stoner writes for the LC's maps blog, "Solving a Burning Question."

- Jon Munster is in the "Bright Young Booksellers" spotlight.

- The NYTimes ran an obituary for Andreas Brown of the Gotham Book Mart.

- The Philadelphia Inquirer has a feature on the arrival of the books and other materials from the David Library of the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society.

Upcoming Auctions 

- Backal Collection and Library at Morton Subastas on 17 March.

- Art & Archaeology of Asia – Travel & Exploration – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 19 March.

- Livres Anciens et Modernes at Binoche et Giquello on 20 March.

- The Partridge Fine Arts Research Library at Forum Auctions (online) on 20 March.

Saturday, March 07, 2020

Links & Auctions

- The Library Company of Philadelphia and Penn have announced a joint symposium in honor of Michael Winship on 1–2 May.

- Christine Jacobson writes about the book trades as depicted in the new film version of Little Women.

- Over at Sammelband, "Teaching Manuscript: Lessons Learned from Quill-Cutting."

- The new Booksellers documentary opens this weekend; it is noticed in the NYTimes, NPR, the CSM, and the Guardian.

- Tony Dunnell writes for Mental Floss on "18 Surprising Things Stolen from Libraries."

- Two bibliospheric passings to note: Andreas Brown, longtime owner of the Gotham Book Mart, and Katharine Kyes Leab, editor of American Book Prices Current. Several of Kathy's excellent Rare Book School lectures are available to listen via their website, and I recommend them most highly.

- Heather O'Donnell speaks on the Biblio File podcast about the joys of buying, selling, and collecting books.

- The BL's Untold Lives blog reports on an exciting new Wynken de Worde acquisition.

- From William & Mary, some interesting work being done to identify the annotator of their copy of Newton's Principia.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres Anciens du XVe au XIXe Siècle at ALDE on 10 March.

- Printed & Manuscript Americana at Swann Galleries on 10 March.

- Fine Books, Atlases, Manuscripts & Historical Photographs at Bonhams London on 11 March.

- The Medical & Scientific Library of W. Bruce Fye, Part III at Bonhams (online) on 11 March.

- The Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing (residual part) at Forum Auctions (online) on 12 March.

Sunday, March 01, 2020

Links & Auctions

- Rare Book Week New York is here!

- The group of Romanian nationals charged with the theft of rare books from a shipping warehouse near Heathrow at the end of January 2017 went on trial this week. Quite a lot more detail than I'd previously seen about the machinations ...

- Federal and state prosecutors were in court this week urging the return of a 1780 Alexander Hamilton letter (to Lafayette) to the Massachusetts State Archives. It is believed to have been among the items stolen by a library cataloger between 1938 and 1946, but is not specifically listed among the known stolen items when a list was released in 1950. It turned up after it was consigned to a Virginia auction house in 2018.

- Jennifer Schuessler writes for the NYTimes about recently-unveiled plans for a merger of the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Public Library.

- Don't miss Heather O'Donnell's tweet thread about a really fascinating manuscript she acquired last year.

- From the library of the Peterhouse Perne and Ward Libraries, "Independence Day," largely about the long-ago thefts from the libraries by Mark Fitzgeorge-Parker.

- Rare Book Monthly's March articles are available today.

- A 19th-century manuscript of Inca history stolen from the National Library of Peru during the Chilean occupation of Lima in the 1880s has been returned.

- TheBookGuide will cease publication at the end of March.

Upcoming Auctions

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, Books from the Library of Dawson Turner, and the John Lawson Reference Library at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 4 March.

- Rare Books at Heritage Auctions on 4 March.

- Maps and Atlases at Forum Auctions (online) on 5 March.

- Rare Photography: Books & Images – The Robert Enteen Collection. With Illustration & Fine Books at PBA Galleries on 5 March.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams New York on 6 March.