Hunting the elusive bookbinder

That’s All She Wrote In 1941 Hannah Dustin French of the Wellesley College Library published an essay entitled “Early American Bookbinding by Hand.” In the essay, she makes mention of American’s first bookbinder: Bookbinding was one of the very early crafts to be practiced in this country, but where the

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Care and Repairs for Standard Hardcovers

Many of us have personal libraries, and within those libraries the chance that we own a standard hardcover book is high. Modern case bindings (also known as hardcovers) are everywhere. These bindings are constructed from paper boards covered by a sturdy cloth or decorated paper, and the cover is generally

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How Would They Look if They Weren’t Well Bound? – A Bookbinders Song

The Bookbinder’s Song “Be man’s peculiar work his sole delight.”–Minstrel, Book 1 Air: “Johnny Lump’s Visit to Somerset House” Ere Printing began the dark ages to mend, On volumes of parchment their writings were penned. Now fine printed books in abundance are found, But how would they look if they

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Pension societies and Almshouses for Bookbinders

This post is the second of a series of features written by our archivist, Jae Mauthe, exploring the development of charitable organizations devoted to social services for bookbinders. The industrial revolution brought about many changes to the worklife of bookbinders. Bookbinder John Jaffery sought social reform in Victorian London through

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From the Archivist’s Desk: John Jaffray

This post is the first of a series of features written by our archivist, Jae Mauthe, exploring the development of charitable organizations devoted to social services for bookbinders. I read a moving post on the British Library’s “Untold Lives” blog a couple years back.  It was about an 18th century

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Patron Saints of Bookbinding

Bookbinding is not for the timid of hand or heart. courtesy of Dan Goldberg Risk of stab by needle, loss of fingers by guillotine: these are the few perils that bookbinders face every day in their field of work. There is even one recorded case of death by beating books. courtesy of

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