Bookbinding and the Working Woman
In honor of International Woman’s Day, we’re reposting this blog post from 2016. Enjoy! One of the by-products of the Industrial Revolution was a change in the status of women working outside the home. Working from home–doing piece-work in and around all the other jobs that were part of running
The Journeyman Bookbinder
Just a Journeyman Binder of Books Working from town to town A craftsman old, of an ancient guild With graying hair and wrinkled frown. He binds the books in leather and cloth, Tools them in letters of gold Some printed thoughts that come to naught, Others of priceless mould.
For a Common Good
The history of unions in the US is firmly rooted in the much older Guild system that arose in medieval Europe (and which in turn may have sprung from the collegia of the Roman Empire). It’s easy to forget, with all the anti- and pro-union rhetoric that gets slung around
The Clash of Man and Master
In 1740, when James Fraser (seen left) was born, the route to being a master bookbinder was clear, if not necessarily easy. Start in your mid-teens as an apprentice, survive apprenticeship and receive your journeyman papers, and finally–with luck–become a master. Apprenticeship, during which time a youth was trained (and