Library Company conservators have gathered a wide assortment of materials highlighting new perspectives on the material culture of the book. This multimedia exhibition will look at the book as an object and a tool for education, reflection, and fun.

Opening TODAY!! 

The Living Book : New Perspectives on Form and Function curated by the Library Company’s conservation department, where the love of the book knows no bounds, but maybe all bindings.                           

Tomorrow we welcome Michael Zinman, renowned collector of Americana and inventor of the critical mess theory of collecting, to speak at our Annual Meeting reception and celebrate the opening of our exhibit, The Living Book: New Perspectives on Form and Function. Mr. Zinman has given the Library Company some amazing additions to our collection including texts for the blind and many with unique bindings, such as this dos-a-dos, Psalms and Hymns (1810), on display in the gallery. 

Psalms and Hymns (New York, 1810).  The Michael Zinman Binding Collection.

Life and Loves: adventures with books and booksellers (highly enjoyable and often successful); with women (entertaining but a non-starter in this environment); and with my epiphanies du jour (invariably disastrous); in all, a merry dessert for a merry evening. To attend, register HERE. 

You may recall book conservator, Alice Austin, showing off this ca. 1850 handmade tunnel book depicting the Thames Tunnel thoroughfare, posted in September 2015. Since then, Alice has continued her research on tunnel books and will be presenting on the subject at The Living Book Symposium on Thursday, May 18, 2017! 

Catch Alice, Mark Dimunation, Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, and Russell Maret, type designer and private press printer, as they share their unique perspectives on the book. For more info, visit the event page HERE. Hope to see you  there! 

[Handmade tunnel book showing an enclosed thoroughfare] [graphic].
Published  ca. 1850. Description  1 item:  watercolor and pencil;  folded to 9 x 9 cm (3.5 x 3.57 in.) (accordion format)

On November 10th, the Library Company celebrated its 285th Annual Dinner with guest speaker Donald L. Miller, author of Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys who fought the Air War against Nazi Germany. Dr. Miller described the heroism and tragedy of the American 8th Air Force during World War II. His book is now being produced as an HBO series with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks at the helm. We were lucky to have Mr. Hanks welcoming us to our Annual Dinner, as you can see in the photo. 

Today we give you an #LCPInsider sneak peek into our upcoming WWI exhibit, opening November 10th, 2016. Curators, Sarah Weatherwax and Linda August are hard at work creating one of LCP’s most colorful exhibitions. Digitization is also well under way, so keep a look out for more in the coming weeks, including some fun experiments with WWI recipes! 

The installation of our upcoming exhibition, Common Touch, is under way!! For more information please visit http://commontouch.librarycompany.org.

 Common Touch: The Art of the Senses in the History of the Blind has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. @pewcenterforarts

Those who have never used a large format camera, there is nothing like it. It is incredibly technical and temperamental, but the results (when shot correctly) are also incredibly sharp and detailed. It is not something easily achieved by smaller formats, including digital formats. This photograph by William Rau aptly captures the process involved in taking large format photographs. This photograph is part of a mini-exhibition to coincide with today’s lunchtime talk with John Stauffer about the German influence on American photography. For more information please visit http://www.librarycompany.org/events/index.htm .

William Rau. [Photographing the Packsaddle for the Pennsylvania Railroad], ca. 1891. Albumen photograph. Gift of William Rau Haden, Sr.

Frederick Douglass was the most photographed American of the 19th Century. His likeness also appears in print processes large and small, from broadsides and political cartoons, to frontispieces and ephemera. We selected some details from our collection to share with you today to complement a temporary mini-exhibition about the celebrated abolitionist on display in our Logan Room, and a lecture about Douglass’ relationship with photography as a tool for social justice by Harvard historian and author, John Stauffer. For more information please visit http://www.librarycompany.org/events/index.htm.

To coincide with the unveiling of the Rare Wine Co.’s Library Company Madeira, LCP put together a mini exhibit highlighting some history of the wine made only in the Portuguese islands of their namesake.The “Old Madeira” bottle holds the seal of Peter von Scholten, Governor General of the Danish West Indies from 1827 to 1848.

[Two hand-blown Madeira Bottles, 1819 (left) and c1820 (right).  Loaned by Mannie Berk.]

Photo: Concetta Barbera

Seeking a seductive silhouette? Look no further than this keyhole. #victorianbeautyispain

The secret out at last. Why Mrs. Brown has such a perfect figure. [graphic] New York : Trautmann, Bailey & Blampey, c1885.

Tonight LCP hosts Unlacing the Victorian Woman. Please join us for a performance that will unveil the mystique of ladies fashion in the Victorian era. Free for Library Company Members / $12 for Non- Members. Performance begins at 6:15 followed by a Dessert Reception.