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

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Women in Book Cover Design

We recently wrote about the tedious and arduous process of hand-sewn book binding and the hard work of the young women involved. But what about the book covers themselves? We thought it might be interesting to take a look at women’s role in crafting book covers. Early book covers were

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Learning Sewn Endbands

This past autumn I had the opportunity to take Bookbinding Level II through the Canadian Bookbinding and Book Arts Guild (CCBAG). During level two one of the things we learned was how to do sewn endbands. Previously in level one we had done endbands made from cord and cloth wrapped

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A Factory Girl at The Dickens Fair

In over a year of giving tours at the American Bookbinders Museum, I have spoken about the women in mid-19th-century binderies who sewed books, day in and day out. Speed was of the essence: By the mid-1800s many of the time-consuming processes of binding had been mechanized, increasing production capacity hugely.

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S. T. Prideaux on Design

One of the notable individuals featured in our current exhibit, “The Woman Bookbinder,” is Sarah Treverbian Prideaux (1853-1933). Born in London, S.T. Prideaux ended up as one of the most distinguished female bookbinders and binding designers of her time, even though she began at age 35. She was lucky enough to

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Bookbinding and the Working Woman

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 a home, or being part of the “seasonal work force” for her husband’s business–had been

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