2010-2011

Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 6:00 PM
Ticknor Society Show & Tell Evening
First Church of Boston Auditorium, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston

Fifty Ticknorites attended the Society's first Biblio Show and Tell evening, held at the First Church of Boston auditorium in the Back Bay. Nine of our members shared stories about their collections, and described favorite books and other collectables. Thomas Michalak also gave an update about the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies Annual Book Tour that the Ticknor Society will be managing in June 2012, along with a Symposium on "Boston and The Book Arts", to be held on June 9, 2012 in celebration of the Ticknor Society's Tenth Anniversary.

Saturday, November 12, 2011
The Ticknor Society Collectors’ Roundtable at the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair
The Hynes Convention Center, Boston

For the past ten years, The Ticknor Society has hosted the popular Collectors Roundtable at the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair, where several collectors share the process and pleasures of collecting in many different fields. This year the panelists were:

Thomas Harakal, the 2009-2010 Katherine Pantzer Fellow in Descriptive Bibliography at Harvard's Houghton Library, discussed a single title: Jack London's first book, "The Son of the Wolf", (Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1900). He has been collecting this book for many years, and researching its printing and publication history. He started collecting Jack London first editions in 1986. By 1995, his interest in London took an academic turn. He brought several of his copies of the book for display/discussion, including what he believes to be the earliest possible copy.

Addie LaBraico, a long-time Ticknor Society member, discussed her extensive collection of bookends, and brought some examples to show to the audience. She has been collecting bookends for over twenty-five years, and is also an eclectic book collector. She also collects revolving bookcases and library stairs.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Curatorial Tours by Ronald Grim, Curator of Maps, of
“Torn in Two: The 150th Anniversary of the Civil War”
Boston Public Library, McKim Building, Boston, MA

The Boston Public library's Curator of Maps, Ronald Grim, gave Ticknorites a special curator's tour of this fascinating exhibit. It examines the Civil War from the perspective of the many maps produced before, during, and after the war. Some were aimed primarily at the military, others at the public. The exhibit is beautifully designed and laid out, and has broken records for attendance at BPL special exhibits. It features many rarities and fascinating documents, in particular, a map showing the density and distribution of the slave population in the American South at the beginning of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln is known to have frequently consulted this map.

The exhibit is rich with details of the underground railway, examples of out-of-date maps having disastrous effects on military campaigns, and remarkable aerial panoramas concocted from the imagination of the mapmaker. Also on special loan from the St. Gauden House in Vermont are five striking bust studies done for his famous Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on the Boston Common. The exhibit runs through December, 2011.
Exhibition website:  http://www.tornintwo.org/

Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Curator's Chat and tour of the exhibition: "The Adventures of Thackeray in his Way Through the World"
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

This fascinating exhibit about William Thackeray was the first event of the Ticknor Society 2011 - 2012 season. Heather Cole, the Ticknor Society's Membership Secretary, gave us a curator's tour of the exhibit. Thackeray was a major novelist in the 19th century, but his star has unfortunately dimmed today. Vanity Fair is the only one of his novels still widely read, and his novel, Barry Lyndon, was adapted by Stanley Kubrick for his movie of the same name.

Thackeray began his career hoping to become an illustrator, and the exhibit features many charming examples of his drawings. But his art career did not turn out as hoped. He submitted a drawing for a proposed book cover to Charles Dickens, but Dickens rejected it. (The two writers eventually fell out, and the rift continued for many years.) His writing career, on the other hand, was a major success, and he was widely read and appreciated throughout his relatively short life (he died at the age of fifty-two).

June 8, 2011
Annual Meeting of the Ticknor Society
Boston Public Library, Boston Room

Talk by Andreas Brown, Owner, Gotham Book Mart, Trustee of the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Edward Gorey House, Yarmouth Port, MA.

The Ticknor society met for their annual meeting on June 8, 2011 at the Boston Public Library main branch. The guest speaker was Andreas Brown, owner of the Gotham Book Mart, Trustee of the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Edward Gorey House, Yarmouth Port, MA. He spoke about Edward Gorey, giving us some fascinating background about the famous illustrator and cartoonist, whose work had been featured throughout the spring of 2011 at the Boston Athenaeum in a special exhibit that broke all records for attendance at the institution.

Afterwards, attendees gathered for a reception at Papa Razzi restaurant on Newbury Street. Many stayed for dinner afterwards, during which John Kristensen of the Firefly Press (http://www.fireflyletterpress.com/) distributed beautiful letterpress keepsake menus he designed and printed.

Firefly Press: Guided tour conducted by proprietor John Kristensen
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Allston, MA

On April 26th, 2011, over two dozen Ticknorites visited the Firefly Press, a letterpress facility in Allston, Massachusetts. We were treated to a guided tour by Operator John Kristensen and his assistant, Jesse Marsolais. Early in his career, John told us, he had wanted to become an architect, but soon realized that he really preferred all the many aspects of the printing process. He decided to devote himself to that instead, a decision he has never regretted. Running a letterpress shop lets him "do everything," he says.

John and Jesse demonstrated some of the many printing machines on the premises, which include: Linotype and Monotype typesetting machines; a Chandler & Price platen press; a Miehle Vertical cylinder press; and a Vandercook SP20 proof press. Several Ticknorites got the chance to turn the crank of a real, live letterpress, weighing hundreds of pounds. After that, printing out a computer file on an inkjet printer seems dull, indeed! On display throughout the Press were dozens of wonderful letterpress bookplates, keepsakes, booklets, invitations, menus, and many other specimens, all designed and produced at the Press. John is an eloquent spokesman for the letterpress art, and his enthusiasm is infectious. The tour was a delight, and we thank both John and Jesse for sharing the wonders of the letterpress art with us.

We recommend visiting the Press's website (www.fireflyletterpress.com) and viewing the delightful video there --  a guided tour of the Press by John that has become a big hit on YouTube!

John is a frequent lecturer and instructor of printing history and technique. He is the Cruft Reader at the Boston Athenaeum, and was the American Printing History Association’s 2009 Lieberman Scholar.

Jesse studied creative writing at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. He came to Firefly Press in 2007, and has launched his own imprint, the Marsolais Press.

International Paper Museum: “Before Paper,” Guided Tour, Brookline, MA
Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Twenty-eight Ticknorites gathered for a special guided tour of the International Paper Museum's exhibit, Before Paper, conducted by the Museum's Director, Elaine Koretsky. The exhibit is on view through December, 2011 (www.papermakinghistory.org). The Museum is hidden gem, tucked away in a carriage house in Brookline, not far from Coolidge Corner. 

We began in the main-floor conservatory, which contains examples of live plants that have been used for writing over the ages, including palms, bamboo, and papyrus. Then we went upstairs to the main exhibit, past striking decorated wall hangings made of beaten tree bark. Elaine spoke with great enthusiasm and animation about the many items on view, made of stone, clay, vellum, parchment, papyrus, palm leaves, bamboo strips, wood, plant leaves, animal skins, rice paper, metal and bone.

Among the fascinating and esoteric items on view were: a Sazigyo, a woven cotton band from Yangon, Myanmar, with Burmese calligraphy and images woven into it; a nineteenth-century Coptic prayer book with Coptic script on parchment, with sewn binding and wood covers; and a nineteenth-century Harvard diploma made of real sheepskin!  We ended with a wine and cheese reception.

The Museum sells beautifully-printed catalogs, books, and hand-made paper. Our thanks to Elaine for her gracious hospitality!

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Wednesday, February 9, 2011 
The Caricatures of the Queen Caroline Affair (1820) and the Roles of
Publisher William Hone and the Caricaturist George Cruikshank: An Illustrated talk by Thomas J. Michalak
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Tom Michalak, the Secretary of the Ticknor Society, gave an informative and amusing lecture about the Queen Caroline affair to the Ticknor Society. The affair became an obsession with the early nineteenth century British public, sparking the creation of hundreds of caricatures and related material. Tom has an extensive personal collection of Cruikshank caricatures, some of which he brought to the event. The Houghton augmented these by presenting a special exhibit of Criukshank caricatures from the library's collection. Our thanks go to Bill Stoneman and Karen Nipps at the Houghton for their help, and for kindly hosting the Ticknor Society.

The activities of George as Prince of Wales, Regent (1811-1820), and as King (1820-1830), and those of his wife Caroline of Brunswick (Queen Caroline), stimulated the publication of hundreds of caricatures, broadsides, and pamphlets.   William Hone, a popular and influential political satirist, pamphleteer, publisher, and bookseller collaborated with the young caricaturist and illustrator George Cruikshank to produce a number of popular pamphlets depicting King George’s domestic battles with Queen Caroline. These pamphlets established Cruikshank’s reputation as the leading caricaturist of his time.

Throughout most of the 1700s and early 1800s, satirical prints were wildly popular in England. Artists created scathing satires of politicians and society that were published in editions of hundreds and even thousands of copies. Gentlemen, lords and even royalty formed large collections of prints and brought them out to share with their guests. King George IV, when he was Prince of Wales, collected hundreds of them (most of them now at the Library of Congress). Print collections were preserved in portfolios and bound volumes and many of them are now in the collections at Yale, Cambridge, NYPL, The Pierpont Morgan Library, and Harvard, among others.

During this time, the Italian term caricatura — which means to load or charge — was adopted in England and Anglicized into the word we use today: caricature. London printshops and booksellers used caricature to define a genre that included virtually any print with a satirical or humorous theme.

In response to popular demand, print shops opened and displayed the prints in their storefront windows, as evident in James Gillray’s famous print “Very Slippy Weather”. Crowds of customers — as well as people who couldn’t afford to buy prints — jammed the sidewalks to see new works by Gillray, Rowlandson,  Bunbury, the Cruikshanks and others. Savvy viewers could be heard explaining subtle details in the prints. Many of these shops rented out caricatures. “Folios of caricatures lent out for the evening,” became a byline of one of the largest publishers and print sellers, Thomas Tegg.

Some background on Tom Michalak:

From November 2002 until his retirement in July 2005, Tom Michalak served as the founding director and publisher of the Open Collections Program established by Harvard in 2002 with the support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.  From 1996 to 2002, he served as Executive Director, Baker Library at the Harvard Business School.  During his tenure at the Business School, the extensive manuscript and archival business collections of Baker's Historical Collections were rejuvenated through the appropriate use of web technologies to create new forms of access to resources.

Prior to the Harvard Business School, his academic career spanned a number of leading research institutions: Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, and Indiana University.  He has a broad range of experience in managing libraries and in developing research collections and supporting services in fields as diverse as economics, political science, the sciences and engineering, and business information.

In 1989 Michalak was the second recipient of the American Library Association's Hugh C. Atkinson award for leadership, innovation, and management of information technology in libraries.

He is currently active with the Town of Winchester Finance Committee, The Ticknor Society, The Edward Gorey House, and his collections of 19th century British caricaturists and his collection of Edward Gorey.

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Thursday, December 9, 2010, 6:30 PM
Michael Russem Discusses Postage Stamps By Type Designers
Boston Public Library, Orientation Room, Boston Public Library, Copley Square

Michael Russem, a book designer with Kat Ran Press in Cambridge, gave a delightful, informative lecture about the many charming and little-known postage stamps designed by famous typeface designers, such as Eric Gill, Jan Van Krimpen, Hermann Zapf, and others. They created postage stamp lettering, calligraphy and graphic designs. Michael gave away free stamp samples to the Ticknor audience.

Michael grew up in North Andover, Massachusetts, before moving to Syracuse, Florence, Athens, and now Cambridge (and Florence). He spent three years working at the Press & Letter foundry of Michael & Winifred Bixler, where he learned almost everything he knows about the minutiae of letters and spacing and pages. He worked very briefly at Wild Carrot Letterpress, Horton Tank Graphics, and Warwick Press, before establishing physical offices for Kat Ran Press in 1999. (He spent New Year's Eve painting the floor.) When he's not designing or printing books, he's looking at books or buying books or reading books or riding his bike or running or drawing or shopping or looking at stamps.

He has a new book out about postage stamps and type designers, called Notes on Postage Stamps. It discusses Eric Gill's exacting and pointed opinions about postage stamps, their purpose, and their design. Accompanied by nine of Gill's previously unpublished preparatory drawings and sketches for stamps, Notes on Postage Stamps is a short, previously unpublished essay by Gill in which he succinctly lays out his philatelic ideas—some of which were a little too idealistic and some of which were spot-on. It contains fifty-six full-color illustrations, most of which will be completely unfamiliar to historians and enthusiasts of Eric Gill's work. An afterword chronicles Gill's seven attempts at stamp design—only two of which resulted in published stamps. For more details, visit http://www.katranpress.com/books11.html.

Saturday, November 13, 2010, 3:00 PM
Collector’s Roundtable, Boston Antiquarian Book Fair
Hynes Convention Center, Boston.

The Ticknor Society’s 9th annual Collectors’ Roundtable took place on Saturday, November 13th at 3 PM during the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair at the Hynes Convention Center. Three New England collectors shared their collecting passions and adventures with audience questions, and brought some of their special books and other collectibles to show.  Each panelist spoke briefly, and then took questions from the audience. Ticknor Society president Chris Morgan moderated. The panelists were:

Alan Tannenbaum, who discussed his extensive collection of Lewis Carroll items

Alan Tannenbaum is a life-long collector. For the past 25+ years his focus has been on Lewis Carroll  books and ephemera, with the obligatory voyage down the rabbit hole of Alice in Wonderland memorabilia. He is a ‘completist’, with practically none of the myriad collecting paths off limits. His extensive collection of rare, collectible, and popular culture qualifies him as an expert on the subject, and he regularly gives talks on Carrollian biographical and bibliographical topics. He is the immediate Past-President of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, a member of The Ticknor Society, and now a retired technologist of 33 years at IBM. He has built a library for his collection onto his 1770 house in Chelmsford, where he and his wife live.                                                                    

Todd Pattison, who discussed his collection of books bound by Benjamin Bradley

Todd Pattison collects books bound by Benjamin Bradley, a pioneering book binder who established one of the first cloth binderies in Boston in 1832. He bound many of the publications of Ticknor & Fields, and also did binding for numerous other publishers. At one point, he employed upwards of 80 people and the bindery was able to turn out 3000 bound volumes in a day. Mr. Pattison owns about 400 signed bindings by Bradley. Todd Pattison worked as a book conservator at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts for twenty years. In September, 2010, he begins working at Widener Library as the Harvard College Library Collections Conservator. He studied bookbinding with Fred Jordan in western New York state in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and later studied with Hugo Peller and Edwin Heim in Ascona, Switzerland. He has an undergraduate degree in Art History from Nazareth College and an MLS from the University of Alabama.

        Dan Johnson, who discussed his collection of Frank Brinkley's works on Japan

Dan collects Brinkley's works in all their variations. He will describe the process of hand-coloring albumin photographs, and discuss the collotypes of Ogawa. Originally from Spokane, Dan as been collecting books for most of his life. Within the last ten years he has discovered the works of Captain Frank Brinkley and the folios of hand painted albumin photos of the people and scenes of Japan, along with wood blocks and other samples of Japanese goods. He lives in Bridgewater with his wife, Yulia.

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Saturday, November 13, 2010, 6:00–8:00 PM
Special Joint Ticknor Society/Grolier Club Reception
Back Bay Hilton Hotel, Adams Room, 40 Dalton Street, Boston

Over forty Ticknor Society members who attended the 2010 Boston Antiquarian Book Fair also came to a special joint reception, sponsored by the Grolier Club and the Ticknor Society, hosted by Grolier Club President Eugene Flamm and Director Eric Holzenberg. It was a memorable evening of drinks, hearty hors d’oeuvres, and book-chat. Following the Grolier reception, Ticknor President Chris Morgan spoke to a dinner of Grolier Club and Ticknor Society members on the topic, "Is the Physical Book in Danger?" The text of his speech is HERE.

Katherine Wolff: Boston's Early Bibliophiles & Their Athenæum
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Boston Public Library, Copley Square

For our inaugural Fall event, Katherine Wolff, author of Culture Club: The Curious History of the Boston Athenæum, discussed "Boston's Early Bibliophiles & Their Athenæum." The Boston Athenaeum's founders--many of them devoted book collectors--worked hard to build a community of like-minded amateur intellectuals. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, these gentlemen looked to Great Britain for their cultural heroes. A careful reading of Athenaeum documents reveals passion, anxiety, and veiled assumptions about class. Indeed, the values of the nascent institution became a kind of scaffolding for one notion of American culture. Our society's namesake, George Ticknor, was among the bibliophiles whose taste and motivation helped solidify the early Athenaeum. Katherine Wolff is an independent scholar, who received her doctorate in American literature and history from Boston University.

First-Ever Ticknor Scrabble Slam!
North Bennet Street School, North End, Boston
Thursday, October 28, 2010

The first-ever Ticknor Scrabble Slam was held at the beautiful North Bennet School in the North End with a special guided tour of the school conducted by Marie Oedel. Marie is a board member of both the Ticknor Society and the North Bennet school. The North Bennet Street School is an internationally renowned craft and trade school in Boston, and offers programs and workshops in woodworking, bookbinding, cabinet & furniture making.

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2009-2010

Annual Meeting
Boston Public Library, Copley Square, Boston Room
Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Featured speaker Jeff Mayersohn discussed “Books on Demand and the Bookstore of the Future”.  Jeff demonstrated his remarkable on-demand book-making machine.  Jeff Mayersohn is co-owner, along with his wife, Linda Seamonson, of Harvard Book Store, an independent bookstore founded in 1932. Since Jeff and Linda assumed ownership in 2008, HBS has initiated same-day “green” delivery and print-on-demand via an Espresso Book Machine located on the sales floor.

Jeff graduated from Harvard College in 1973 and received a masters degree in physics from Yale in 1977.  He has worked at several high tech companies including Bolt Beranek and Newman, where he had management responsibility for projects that contributed to the rapid growth of the Internet. These included the design of some of the earliest electronic mail networks and the deployment of the America Online network.  From 1998 until 2008, Mr. Mayersohn was an executive at Sonus Networks, a start-up that became a market leader in Internet telephony.

After Jeff’s presentation, attendees adjourned to the Vox restaurant for a complimentary wine and cheese reception. During the reception (one of the best-attended Ticknor events we've ever had), our members chatted with Jeff about the ideas he discussed during his speech, including: the surprising popularity of local, self-published poets; the holding power of backlisted books; and the allure of having your own copy of a book that might otherwise be impossible to obtain. Thanks to all who attended!

Wellesley College’s Special Collections and Book Arts Lab, Clapp Library
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

It’s not often one gets to see a page from a Gutenberg Bible close-up, and one that’s not under glass! That was just one of the remarkable sights on view when the Ticknor Society visited Wellesley College’s Clapp Library on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010, to see the library’s Special Collections and Book Arts Lab.

Our guided tour was conducted by Special Collections Librarian Ruth Rogers and Book Arts Program Director Katherine Ruffin, assisted by Special Collections Research & Instruction Specialist Mariana Oller. See a slideshow of our visit at www.bookgenius.org/wellesley

Ruth gave us a tour of the items in the Special Collections rooms that were on display especially for our group. They featured some of the remarkable holdings from the Wellesley collection, and represented key milestones in the technology of communication over the past several thousand years. They are used by Ruth and Katherine in their course, “Papyrus to Print to Pixel,” at Wellesley.

Some highlights of the items on display include:

Pre-codex era: a cylinder seal ca. 1920 – 1850 B.C.E., and a facsimile of a pugillarium, a pair of folding wooden tablets coated with wax, used by the Greeks and Romans for writing (The pugillarium facsimile was made by Ruth’s father).
Sacred manuscripts: a 13th century French Bible and a 15th century Book of Hours.
Humanist manuscripts: De vita solitaria, by Petrarca, Northern France, 15th c., and I trionfi, 15th c., also by Petrarca.
Incunabula: leaves from the Gutenberg Bible, Book of Amos, 1454 – 1455; Schedel’s Liber cronicarum, Nuremburg, 1493; and an incunabulum finished by hand, Boccaccio’s De montibus, silvis, fontibus, Venice, 1473.
Two-color printed book, with all woodcut decorations: Euclid’s Elementa geometriae, Venice, Ratdolt, 1482.
16th century innovations: octavo format, italic types, and woodcut religious and scientific images: These included Ovid’s Publii Ovidii Nasonis heroidum epistolae, Venice, 1502, and Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica, Venice, 1568.

There were many more items on view, up through the 20th century. After seeing the Special Collections exhibit, we joined Katherine in the Book Arts L ab, where she showed us some of the many teaching aids she uses in teaching printing techniques. There were examples of bound books, sewn signatures, and woodcuts. One woodcut was the first attempt of a Wellesley student -- and a very good one!

The Lab is a complete working print shop, with several printing presses on view. Some of the Ticknorites tried their hands at printing a keepsake on the Lab’s wonderful Vandercook press. We also received copies of a beautiful Lance Hidy poster, commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Clapp Library.

To round out the visit, we saw the original front door from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s London home, and a special book display assembled by Mariana Oller. A wine reception followed. Special thanks go to Ruth, Katherine, and Mariana for their hospitality, and for making such a wonderful event possible!

"The Daguerreotype Process, Its History and Preservation Challenges"
Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Thursday, March 11, 2010

Over Forty Ticknor members came to the Houghton Library in February to hear an informative lecture about daguerreotypes given by Elena Bulat, the photograph conservator for the Mellon Photograph Preservation Program at Harvard University Library.
 
She described the history of the invention, gave some background about Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre (1787-1851), the inventor of the process, and explained how the daguerreotype swept the world from the 1840’s through the early 1860’s. (By 1841, for example, New York City had over 100 daguerreotype studios).
 
The daguerreotype was the first commercially popular and successful form of photography. Daguerre presented his invention to the world in 1839 in Paris and it immediately spread to England and America. The photographic process was extensively practiced.  Since the daguerreotype is a direct positive photographic process, every single image is a unique and a finely detailed optically correct visual record of the world.  Many art and historical institutions have important holdings of this medium.
 
Elena described the recent reawakening of interest in the daguerreotype, and the many contemporary photographers who gather at conferences and continue to create new daguerreotypes, often in new and unusual ways. She also discussed the challenges involved in preserving and restoring daguerreotypes, and brought along several beautiful daguerreotypes to show to the audience.
 
Elena Bulat is the photograph conservator for the Mellon Photograph Preservation Program at Harvard University Library. Previously she was a paper and photograph conservator at George Eastman House, funded by the Rochester Community Foundation. Elena received her certificate from the ARP in 2003. She also attended the Certificate Program in Photograph Preservation and Archival Practice at George Eastman House from 1998 to 1999. Elena holds a master degree in the history of art and paper conservation from the State University of St. Petersburg in Russia. She spent fifteen years as a paper and a photograph conservator at the State  Russian  Museum in St. Petersburg. This museum holds the largest collection of Russian Fine Art.
 
Elena Bulat is actively working to disseminate the knowledge she received through her experience at George Eastman House. She created a series of workshops in photograph preservation and conservation in St. Petersburg. In November 2005 she directed a pilot collaborative workshop at the State Hermitage Museum, Conservation Assessment in Photograph Collections: the First Step in Preservation Planning, sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Elena also designed a two-year initiative between George Eastman House and the State Hermitage Museum. Over the last two and a half years, ARP staff and fellows worked with Elena Bulat and Paul Messier, a Boston-based photograph conservator, and the Hermitage Museum staff to create a comprehensive survey of Museum holdings and publish the Hermitage’s daguerreotype collection.

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"Finding Collectible Books and Ephemera Online": a panel discussion 
Boston Public Library - Orientation Room, Copley Square, Boston, MA
Thursday, February 11, 2010

We had an excellent turnout at the Boston Public Library on February 11, for the first Ticknor Society event of the year: a panel discussion given by three Ticknor Society members about “New ways to find collectible books and ephemera online”. The event included live computer demonstrations. Over thirty Ticknor Society members took part. (See panelists' list of resources)

Tom Michalak discussed “Collecting Cruikshank and Caricature online,” and gave tips for using ebay.com <http://ebay.com/>  to buy books and prints online. He brought along several prints from his extensive collection of Cruikshank prints. Tom is Secretary of the Ticknor Society, former director of the Harvard University Library Open Collections Program, and former executive director of the Baker Library at the Harvard Business School.

Beth Carroll-Horrocks, a former Ticknor board member, discussed "Finding Ephemera Online." She showed how she uses the web – in particular, ebay.com <http://ebay.com> , etsy.com <http://etsy.com> , and the Ephemera Society of America (www.ephemerasociety.org <http://www.ephemerasociety.org/> ) -- to add to her collection of rulers. She brought along several rulers from her collection to show to the audience. Beth is Director of Archives at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Christopher Morgan discussed "New Book Search Strategies: Getting the Most out of WorldCat, Google Books, and other Book-related Web Sites." He discussed the addall.com <http://addall.com>  site, which compares book prices from many vendors, as well as the Worldcat, Google books, and twitter.com <http://twitter.com>  sites as sources of book-related information. He also demonstrated a website he is developing that uses authorized subject headings to search for books. Chris is President of the Ticknor Society, a former vice president of Lotus software, a book collector, and a web site designer.

During the question and answer period, the audience shared their own online book-buying and searching experiences.

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"First Hand: Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection"
Boston College, McMullen Museum of Art
Tuesday, December 1, 2009

On December 1, 2009, the Ticknor Society gathered to view an exhibition at Boston College's McMullen Museum entitled "First Hand: Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection". We were given a special guided tour by the exhibit's co-curator, Judy Bookbinder.

The exhibit, running through December 13, 2009, presents to the public for the first time drawings by Joseph Becker and his colleagues, 19th century artists who worked as artist-reporters (Special Artists) for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. The exhibit showcases the largest private collection of Civil War era drawings. None have been exhibited before.

Judy's excellent presentation included detailed background stories about the drawings, created as a visual record of the American Civil war during the the 1860s. At the time, news-related illustrations in newspapers were a new idea, and the drawings were the basis for the many engravings that appeared in the newspapers. The artists annotated their drawings with extensive, detailed notes. Some of the images were edited and censored when made into engravings, often to tone down scenes that were considered too graphic. The artists were embedded with the troops, and a high percentage of their drawings depict non-combat scenes in the army camps. This is because the war's battles, though fierce, took up a relatively small percentage of the total time spent by the soldiers. The drawings thus become a valuable record of what happened between battles.

Photography in the 1860s was still relatively new, requiring long exposures, and making action photographs of battles effectively impossible, so it was left to the artists to preserve the war's images with their remarkable images. Many were created under fire, yet exhibit astonishing artistic quality. As Judy noted, these drawings are the closest we can hope to come to visually experiencing the Civil War.

Boston Antiquarian Book Fair: Ticknor Collectors' Roundtable
Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Ticknor Society’s 8th annual collectors’ roundtable was held during the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair at the Hynes Convention Center.  Three New England collectors shared their collecting passions and adventures with audience questions and a close look at some special books and works of ephemera.  Ticknor Society president Chris Morgan moderated this ever-popular event.

Ticknor Society member Shawn Whalen, a public relations consultant, has read and collected classic American 20th-century science fiction for many years.  He shared some of his first editions, and first magazine appearances, of works by H.P. Lovecraft (Arkham House), Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and others.  He has a time machine, he tells us, which helps him predict the future value of first editions.

Joyce Kosofsky of Boston talked about “Books in the Bathroom—Not Just for Reading Anymore.”  She and her husband Ken Gloss, proprietor of the Brattle Book Shop, have a legendary display of colorful bindings in their guest bathroom.  “Rather than buy cheap art, we built bookshelves and put in cheap but decorative bindings”—starting, of course, with the autobiography of Thomas Crapper, “Flushed with Pride.”

Baseball expert John Kashmanian of Providence shared items from his collection of rare and important baseball ephemera.  He is the co-author of “Baseball Treasures” (1992), which featured many of his collectibles, and he has appeared as a special guest on “Antiques Roadshow.”   As he says, “The search for the next important piece of baseball ephemera will be just as much fun as my first find 35 years ago.”

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"A Fixed Rule of Design: the Book Art of Bertha Stuart": A conducted tour by Curator Barbara Adams Hebard
Boston Public Library, Rare Book Room
Thursday, October 15, 2009 

Bertha Stuart (1869-1953), an Oregon artist, trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, moved to NYC in 1900, and studied at Cooper Union and the Art Students League while creating more than 175 book cover designs, numerous page decorations, and illustrations for major NYC publishers between 1902 and 1912. Bertha, an award-winning artist, also designed bookplates. In 1912 she returned to Oregon, was a trustee of the Society of Arts and Crafts of Portland, and pursued a career in interior design. This exhibition of books with covers and interior pages designed by Stuart also includes bookplates and items from her interior decorating career.

Barbara Adams Hebard, Conservator of the John J. Burns Library, Boston College, is a graduate of the North Bennet Street School bookbinding program. Ms. Hebard is a member of the National Guild of Book Workers and the Ticknor Society. She is a Professional member of The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, a Fellow of The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, and Board Member of New England Conservation Association. She is proud to be an Overseer of North Bennet Street School. She frequently exhibits books of her own design nationally and internationally. Ms. Hebard also enjoys writing articles on book-related topics.

The exhibit runs from October 5 – December 31, 2009, Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm. ~ Directions to the BPL

"'A Monument More Durable Than Brass': The Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson": A Curator's Tour
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Wednesday, September 16, 2009  

This exhibit features books and manuscripts from the Donald & Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson at the Houghton Library, conducted by curator John Overholt. The exhibit is presented in conjunction with the Houghton symposium, "Johnson at 300," held this summer.

Considered one of the world’s most important collections of eighteenth-century literature, the Hyde Collection was assembled over a 60-year period.  With Johnson at its center, it encompasses letters, manuscripts, first editions, and works of art relating to Johnson and his circle. The collection includes half of Johnson’s surviving letters and several drafts of his “Plan for a Dictionary” and is comprehensive in its coverage of Johnson’s published works.  A bequest of Mary, Viscountess Eccles (1912-2003), to Houghton Library, the Hyde Collection is also rich in materials that document the lives of Johnson’s friends and contemporaries, such as James Boswell, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Tobias Smollett, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and David Garrick.

2008-2009

"Gluttons for Books: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Their Libraries": A Curator's Tour
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston
Saturday, August 22, 2009

Curator Jeremy Dibbell graced us with a tour of the Massachusetts Historical Society exhibit, "'Gluttons for Books: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Their Libraries", including the book catalogs of Jefferson and Adams, correspondence between members of the Adams family about books and reading, and selections from the retirement correspondence of Jefferson and Adams (one of the most fascinating exchanges of letters ever written). Our friend George Ticknor even makes a cameo appearance! One case highlights the recent discovery and verification of Jefferson's inventory of the collection of books he received through the bequest of his friend and teacher George Wythe. A computer terminal is available to access those portions of the exhibit which have been digitized (including Jefferson's 1783 and 1789 book catalogs, the BPL's excellent John Adams Library site, the Wythe List, and online catalogs of the Jefferson and Adams libraries).

Annual Meeting
Featured speaker: Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library: "Old Books and E-Books" 
St. Botolph's Club, 199 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Ticknorites celebrated yet another exciting year of programs with our traditional festive Annual Meeting. For this year's fun, we returned to the distinguished St. Botolph's Club in Boston. The evening began with refreshments and a brief business meeting, followed by our featured speaker, Robert Darnton.  Members gathered afterward for a lovely dinner.

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Edgar Allan Poe and the Publishing Industry: a talk by Rob Velella
Boston Public Library, McKim Building, Orientation Rooom, 1st floor
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

2009 marks the bicentennial of the birth of Poe, with events around the United States (and the world) honoring the man whose dark tales of horror continue to thrill his readers. Also credited as the inventor of the modern detective story, the progenitor of modern science fiction, and for his many 19th-century humor pieces, Poe was one of the most important literary critics of his day and an editor and magazine proprietor at a time when the publishing industry and technology were rapidly changing. Rob Velella, independent Poe scholar and author of the Edgar Allan Poe Calendar, discussed Poe's knowledge of the publishing industry, his role in it, and how it changed around him - though, ultimately, he was never able to profit significantly from it.

Tour of the Phillips Library at the Peabody-Essex Museum
Saturday, April 4, 2009

Sidney Berger, Ann C. Pingree Director of the Phillips Library, offered Ticknor Society members an insider's view.

Special tour of the Harcourt Bindery
Charlestown, MA
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Ticknor Society members took a behind the scenes tour of The Harcourt Bindery in its new location in Charlestown with Sam Ellenport who runs the shop.  The Harcourt Bindery was founded in Copley Square in 1900, producing fine leather bindings.  Early on the company won prizes for its quality work - e.g., in 1927 it was recognized by the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts - and more recently the work of the shop has been exhibited in Sweden, Finland and at various venues in the U.S.  In 2007 Harcourt joined Acme Bindery, a leader in library and edition binding, combining expertise to better serve their respective clients.

Woodblock Printmaking Workshop
ABRAZOS PRESS, Somerville, MA
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Woodcut artist Annie Silverman offered an intimate lecture and demonstration of the techniques for contemporary woodblock printmaking at her print shop in Somerville, ABRAZOS PRESS.  Using many examples of her own work, Annie showed carving and printing techniques as well as actual prints and the woodblocks used to create them. Printing demonstrations showed the creation of a wood block print using her beautiful press and other by-hand methods. Participants were able to ink and print a small carved woodblock or carve in another medium to make a sample keepsake print. A former papermaker, Annie Silverman has been experimenting with methods of relief printmaking for over 20 years.  She teaches both relief printmaking and Artist Books at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.  Her prints and unique books are exhibited nationally and internationally.

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Ticknor Society Members Publish
Boston Public Library, Mckim Building, Orientation Room, 1st Floor
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The achievements of three of our members who have published on varying topics relating to book history were celebrated:  Thomas Horrocks, whose Popular Print and Popular Medicine Almanacs and Health Advice in Early America has just been issued by the University of Massachusetts Press; Nicholas Basbanes, whose newest book on the history of the Yale University Press is due out this fall; and Roger Stoddard, who discussed his monograph, Jacques-Charles Brunet: Le Grand Bibliographe, a guide to the books he wrote, compiled, and edited and to the book-auction catalogues he expertised ( London:  Quaritch, 2007).

Collectors' Round Table
Boston International Book Fair, Hines Convention Center
Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Ticknor Society hosted its seventh annual collectors' round table at this year's Boston International Book Fair at the Hynes Convention Center. The panel was moderated by Chris Morgan, Ticknor Society vice-president and himself a past panelist.

• Vincent J. Buonanno, of Providence and Chicago, spoke about his illustrated Italian books on Renaissance and baroque Roman architecture and urbanism. Several of his books and maps were exhibited at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design two years ago. He presented a few view books of Rome from Du Perac in the 17th Century to Piranesi in the 18th Century.
• Robert Dalton Harris, an antiquarian bookseller who holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, spoke about his large collection on The Atomic Age. Its core is books and ephemera from 1945 to 1963-from the first atomic bombs to the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty-as well as much material before and after those key dates. Harris and his wife Diane De Blois are the proprietors of the bookselling firm, aGatherin', which specializes in ephemera and manuscripts in many fields.
• Photographer Karl Baden shared his collection of fiction, poetry, and other books that re-use well-known photographs on their jackets. He discussed the alternative history of photography they reveal, as well as issues involved in collecting out of the mainstream. Selections from Baden's collection are now on display at the Boston Public Library in the exhibition titled "Covering Photography: Imitation, Influence and Coincidence." Baden is on the fine arts faculty at Boston College.
  
  

"To Promote, to Learn, to Teach, to Please: Scientific Images in Early Modern Books"
Houghton Library, Harvard University
Saturday, October 18, 2008

Images in early modern European books of science (1500-1750) were shaped not only by the needs of scientific communication; they were also deeply influenced by economic, social, and cultural considerations. Through representative examples, this exhibition examines early scientific images and the books they illustrated to show how they were intended to appeal both to men of science and to a more general audience.

Ticknor Society members were invited to the Houghton Library for a curator’s chat of the exhibition “To Promote, to Learn, to Teach, to Please: Scientific Images in Early Modern Books.” The tour was conducted by the curator of the exhibit, Caroline Duroselle-Melish. The exhibition remains on display until December 20, 2008.

Readings by Benjamin Markovits and Matthew Pearl
Radcliffe Gym, Radcliffe Yard (10 Garden Street, Cambridge)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Ticknor Society in cooperation with the Byron Society of America hosted readings by Benjamin Markovits and Matthew Pearl.  Mr. Markovits read from his new novel, A Quiet Adjustment (W. W. Norton, 2008).  The novel is the second in a projected trilogy based on the life and times of Lord Byron.  Mr. Pearl read from his novel The Dante Club (Random House, 2003), based on an episode in the life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  A conversation between the authors on their common experiences writing literary historical fiction followed.

Curator's Tour  
Boston Museum of Fine Arts Library
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A tour of highlights from the rare book collection of the Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs was conducted by David Becker, Claire W. and Richard P. Morse Curatorial Research Fellow, who shared with us his in-depth knowledge of this unique collection of rare books which he has been cataloging.

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2007-2008

Annual Meeting
The Ether Dome at the Massachusetts General Hospital
Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Another exciting year of Ticknor events wrapped up! Our business meeting, including election of new board members, was followed by the opportunity to hear Ken Gloss, Proprietor of the Brattle Bookstore, speak on  “Treasures in Your Attic: Old and Rare Books”.

Star Wars: The Golden Age of the Celestial Atlas
Co-sponsored by the History of the Book Seminar of the Humanities Center at Harvard University
Monday, April 7, 2008

Internationally known British bookseller Roger Gaskell discussed aspects of the history of star atlases from 1482 to 1851 and various controversies over the naming of constellations and how the skies should be mapped through an illustrated lecture. Star atlases capture the sweeping grandeur of the heavens and are among the most beautiful scientific books ever made. They were works of science, first and foremost, but these atlases nevertheless have a universal appeal. The blending of star maps with constellation figures in a grand and monumental format is hard for anyone to resist.

Tour of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA
Saturday, March 22, 2008

The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester opened its doors for a special Ticknor Society event. Director Ellen Dunlap and other staff welcomed us with a variety of presentations and tours celebrating the founder of the AAS, the "Patriot-printer" Isaiah Thomas.  The Society's rich heritage and collections as they relate to the history of the American book was the primary focus with further discussion of forthcoming outreach programs, such as cataloging initiatives, academic seminars, and their new K-12 programs. As an additional treat, the Society's previous director, Marcus McCorison, discussed his forthcoming work on Isaiah Thomas's original collection gift.

Tour of Brandeis University's Special Collections
Tuesday, February 5, 2008

 Karen Adler Abramson, Director of Archives and  Special Collections, gave a brief lecture providing an introduction to the University's special and rare collections and Jim Rosenbloom, the resident Judaica librarian and expert, discussed the University's rich collections in that area.

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A Ticknor Society Member Collects …
December 2007

In December, member Chris Morgan invited fellow members for a glimpse at his personal collections which vary from a Lewis Carroll collection to a copy of The Maltese Falcon signed by Dashiel Hammett to comic books.

Collectors’ Roundtable at the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair
Saturday, November 17, 2007 • Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA

The Ticknor Society’s annual tradition at the book fair continued with the very popular Collectors’ Roundtable. Three collectors shared their experiences collecting books on garden history, carriages, and telegraphy.

Field Trip to Dartmouth College - the Guild of Book Workers and George Ticknor
Saturday, October 27, 2007

The Guild of Book Workers promotes all the book arts to broaden public awareness of the hand book arts, to stimulate commissions of fine bindings, and to stress the need for sound book conservation and restoration. The Guild is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a touring anniversary exhibition. The Ticknor Society arranged for a special event in conjunction with the exhibition which featured both a Retrospective section and a section of Current Members' works, The day included a panel discussion by Guild members, time for independent viewing, and a reception. An added bonus was the guided tour of some of the George Ticknor collections held by Dartmouth (Ticknor was an 1811 graduate of Dartmouth and bequeathed a large part of his estate to his alma mater) by Special Collections Librarian, Jay Satterfield.

Decorated Papers from the Collection of Rosamond B. Loring
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 • Houghton Library, Edison & Newman Room, Harvard University

Ticknor Society members attended the opening of Decorated Papers from the Collection of Rosamond B. Loring, an exhibition presenting examples from the extensive collection of decorated papers formed by Rosamond B. Loring (1889-1950) and bequeathed to Houghton Library, including historical examples of marbled, paste, Dutch gilt, and printed papers, as well as papers made by Loring herself. The evening featured Ticknor Society member Charles A. Rheault, who presented an engaging talk entitled, “A Pretty Mysterious Business – Ox Gall and Gum Dragon: The Arts of Marbling Paper and Books.”

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2006-2007

Ticknor Society Annual Meeting
Thursday, 14 June 2007 • Casperson Room, Langdell Hall-Harvard Law School Library

Our program began with a reception followed by a short business meeting and lecture by Daniel R. Coquillette, J. Donald Monan S.J. University Professor at Boston College Law School, on “Man of Mystery: Collecting Francis Bacon”.

Celebrating the Longfellow Bicentennial
Saturday, April 14, 2007

A special day celebrating the bicentennial of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's birth began at the Houghton Library at Harvard University with a curator's tour of the library's exhibition "Public Poet, Private Man: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at 200."  The exhibition featured manuscripts, drawings, and photographs from Longfellow's papers at Houghton Library and the Longfellow National Historic site.  We assembled at the Longfellow House after for an in-depth guided tour of the house.

Paste Paper Workshop
Saturday, March 17, 2007 • Simmons College

Back by popular demand, Sid Berger offered a hands-on workshop on the art and craft of paste paper decoration. Born in the seventeenth century, carried out in religious communities and in the secular world with tremendous artistry and precision, the technique produces papers of an endless variety of design, color, and imagination. They are easy to produce and more fun than you can imagine, using simple materials and tools.

The Private Collection of David Godine
Saturday, February 3, 2007 • Godine home, Milton, MA

David R. Godine, one of the premiere publishers in the United States and a distinguished collector of rare books, graciously welcomed a select number of Ticknor Society members to his home for a private tour of his treasures as well as dinner and drinks. 

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John Adams Unbound: A Talk and Guided Tour of a Major Exhibition of the Library of President John Adams
Saturday, December 9, 2006 • Boston Public Library, Copley Square

Ticknor Board Member and Acting Keeper of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Boston Public Library, Earle Havens, presented a talk and guided tour of the first major public exhibition of the contents of John Adams’ personal library, a collection that has resided at the BPL for over a century.

Collectors' Roundtable at the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair
Saturday, November 18, 2006 • Hynes Convention Center

The Ticknor Society's annual tradition at the book fair continued with the very popular Collectors' Roundtable, featuring several young collectors who shared their experiences in the process, as well as the passion, of collecting.  The Ticknor Society information booth on Cultural Row allowed members to chat in person and newcomers to become members.

Benjamin Franklin: Printed Corrections and Erasable Writing
Wednesday, September 20, 2006 • Houghton Library, Harvard University

The evening included a lecture by Peter Stallybrass, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania, followed by a reception. The Houghton Library exhibition, "Benjamin Franklin: A How-To Guide," was on view before and after the program.

2005-2006

A Literary Tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery
Saturday, May 6, 2006

We paid a special visit to the final resting place of George Ticknor's cousin, the publisher William Davis Ticknor, and several of our namesake's friends and colleagues, including William Hickling, Prescott, Lowell, Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, among others. We also watched for some of the many interesting birds following the spring migratory route that runs through the area.

Inside Baker Library at Harvard Business School
Wednesday, April 12, 2006

From its humble beginnings in 1908 as a small collection housed in an alcove of Gore Hall (the predecessor to Widener Library), Baker Library has emerged as the cornerstone of the Harvard Business School campus. The library underwent major renovation and expansion from 2003 to 2005.  Staff members offered a behind-the-scenes tour of the new building with a focus on the state-of-the-art special collections areas.

The evening began with a reception and an opportunity to spend some time viewing the exhibitions in the library, including "Coin and Conscience: Popular Views of Money, Credit and Speculation," on display in the historic lobby. From Rembrandt to Gillray, there was something to interest academic and art-lover alike.

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Medieval Manuscripts and Rare Books Adventures at Boston College - a Tale of Two Curators
Thursday, March 2, 2006 • McMullen Museum of Art and the Burns Library, Boston College

Earle Havens, Curator of Manuscripts at the Boston Public Library, offered an after-hours behind-the-scenes tour of a major exhibition of the BPL's medieval and Renaissance manuscripts collections at Boston College. The group then crossed the mall to the Burns Library for an informal tour and talk on the Burns Library and its collections by Robert O'Neill, Director of the Burns Library. Mr. O'Neill regaled the group with bibliophilic tales.

Papers You Wish You'd Heard
Tuesday, December 6, 2005 • Houghton Library, Harvard University

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Collectors' Roundtable
Saturday, October 29, 2005 • Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, Hynes Convention Center, Boston

Two annual traditions were brought together this year by hosting our annual Collectors' Roundtable at the fair as well as staffing an information booth. Several local collectors described their collections and showed some favorite books.

Anti-Slavery Collections of the Boston Public Library - a Curator's Tour
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 • Boston Public Library

Marion Kilson gave an informal talk about the leading Boston abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, and the history of his Boston newspaper, The Liberator. Kilson also provided a curator's tour of the exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of Garrison's birth, "Words of Thunder: The Life and Times of William Lloyd Garrison", on display at the Boston Public Library. The exhibition draws from the BPL's unrivaled collection of anti-slavery and abolitionist rare books, manuscripts, prints and related materials. A series of exhibits and events relating to Garrison will be offered by the BPL and the Museum of Afro-American History.

2004-2005

Annual Meeting
Tuesday, May 3, 2005 • St. Botolph Club, Boston

The year wrapped up with a special evening at the St. Botolph Club in Boston including a talk by Bernard Margolis, president of the Boston Public Library, and a brief business meeting and reception open to all. Members afterward dined with fellow Ticknorites.

Curator's Tour with Ken Rendell
Sunday, April 17, 2005 • National Heritage Museum, Lexington, MA

Curator and collector Ken Rendell conducted a guided tour of his exhibition The Western Pursuit of the American Dream. Nearly 200 spectacular objects from Rendell's collection were exhibited, chronicling the West through the words and artifacts of explorers, travelers, warriors, gold seekers, merchants, and outlaws who shaped the American frontier.

Field Trip to Providence
Tuesday, April 5, 2005 • Private Collection, Providence

The Honorable Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island and the owner of one of the largest private collection of books, manuscripts, and artifacts relating to Abraham Lincoln, spoke on Collecting Lincoln. The evening included a tour of Judge Williams' chambers and some of his collection housed therein.

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Paste Paper Workshop
Saturday, March 5, 2005 • Simmons College, Boston

The art and craft of paste paper decoration was born in the seventeenth century, carried out in religious communities and in the secular world with tremendous artistry and precision. The technique produces papers of an endless variety of design, color, and imagination. They are easy to produce and more fun than you can imagine. Using simple materials and tools (and some lovely papers), participants created paste papers in this workshop conducted by Sidney Berger who has given such workshops on two continents.

Tour of Widener Library with Matthew Battles
Tuesday, March 1, 2005 • Widener Library, Harvard University

Matthew Battles, the author of the popular Library: An Unquiet History and Widener: ABiography of a Library, led a guided tour of Widener Library followed by a reception.

Theda Skocpol on Fraternal Literature
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 • Barker Center for the Humanities, Harvard University

Co-sponsored with the History of the Book Seminar, Barker Center for the Humanities. Theda Skocpol, Ph.D., Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, and Director of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, spoke on her use of publications of fraternal organizations in her research on the rise and development of voluntary organizations in the United States from the 1790s to the present.

Collectors' Roundtable
Thursday, December 2, 2004 • Boston Public Library

The theme of this year's collectors' roundtable was collecting popular medicine. The panelists were Charles E. Rosenberg, Ph.D., William H. Helfand, and Lawrence M. Vincent, M.D. The roundtable was moderated by Thomas Horrocks, Vice President of The Ticknor Society.

Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair
Friday, November 19 - Sunday, November 21, 2004 • Hynes Convention Center, Boston

The Ticknor Society staffed an information booth and sponsored talks by members at the fair.

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Field Trip to the Beinecke Library and the Elizabethan Club, Yale University
Saturday, November 13, 2004

Members of The Ticknor Society enjoyed a day-long visit to New Haven, beginning at the Yale Center for British Art, where a William Morris exhibition was on display. After viewing the exhibition, the group headed to the Beinecke Library for a tour, punctuated by a complimentary catered luncheon on the Beinecke mezzanine. After a break, the group convened down the street at the Elizabethan Club for a tour of the clubhouse, grounds and "vault."

John O'Mara: "A bookseller who collects...a bartender who drinks?"
Thursday, October 21, 2004 • Signet Society, Harvard Square

John O'Mara, of John O'Mara Fine & Rare Books, entertained us with the story of his own personal collecting of annotated sixteenth-century books (with examples on exhibition) and how it relates to the current state of the book trade and book collecting.

2003-2004

Annual Meeting and Visit to the Museum of Printing
Sunday, June 6, 2004 • Museum of Printing, North Andover, MA

The museum is dedicated to preserving the history of the graphic arts, printing equipment, and printing craftsmanship. In addition to many special collections and small exhibits, the museum contains hundreds of antique printing, typesetting and bindery machines, as well as a library of books and printing-related documents. For more information about the museum and for directions, visit their website at www.museumofprinting.org.

The afternoon began with a short business meeting, followed by a talk about the Mergenthaler Library by Larry Oppenberg, President of Galapagos Design. There were tours of the museum, including hands-on demonstrations.

American Book Collectors of Children's Literature
Saturday, April 24, 2004 • Boston Athenaeum

Founded in 1986, the American Book Collectors of Children's Literature (ABCs) Connecticut Chapter is open to authors and illustrators, book dealers, collectors, faculty members, librarians, and others who have an interest in collecting, preserving, reading, and studying children's books no matter where they live.

The ABCs Connecticut Chapter invited Ticknor members and friends to join them at the Boston Athenaeum for a guided tour of the Athenaeum's recently renovated children's room and some older children's books from their collections. After lunch, the group met at the West Newton studio of Nancy Schon, the sculptor who created the Make Way for Ducklings statues in the Boston Common, the Tortoise and the Hare at Copley Square, and similar works.

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Sir Hans Sloane and His Printed Ephemera Collections
Friday, March 19, 2004 • Houghton Library, Harvard University

Giles Mandelbrote, Curator of British Collections 1501-1800 at the British Library, spoke about the printed ephemera collections of Sir Hans Sloane. Mr. Mandelbrote is a frequent contributor to scholarship about the history of the book trade and of book ownership, particularly in the seventeenth century. He is also one of the editors of the Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland.

A Curator's Tour by Roger Stoddard
Tuesday, February 24, 2004 • Houghton Library, Harvard University

Roger Stoddard, Curator of Rare Books in the Harvard College Library, led visitors on a tour of his exhibition Res Gestae: Libri Manent; a Curator's Choice, a celebration of Stoddard's career, highlighting 89 of his favorite acquisitions purchased for the Houghton Library from 1965 to 2003. The exhibition, mounted on the occasion of Stoddard's retirement, was on view at the Houghton Library through March 31, 2004.

A Passion for Paper: The Decorated Paper Collections of Michèle Cloonan and Sidney Berger
Wednesday, February 4, 2004 • Cloonan/Berger Home

Members Michèle Cloonan and Sidney Berger hosted Ticknor Society members and friends for a visit to their home in Newton to see their remarkable collection of decorated papers, both historical and modern. A special highlight of the evening was the opportunity to print a keepsake on one of their Har-Ma hand presses.

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Collectors' Roundtable
Tuesday, December 2, 2003 • Boston Public Library

Following up on its previous collectors' roundtable, the Ticknor Society decided to make this an annual event.  Fellow booklovers joined members Kent Bicknell, Victor Gulotta, John Hench, and Charles Rheault in discussing their rationales and passions for collecting western writers on eastern thought; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; American World War II books, magazines, and newspapers; and private press books. Member Anne Bromer moderated the program.

An Evening with Joanne Dobson
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 • Harvard Faculty Club

This dinner and talk by author Joanne Dobson was cohosted with the Speckled Band of Boston, a Sherlock Holmes society. Professor Dobson teaches English at Fordham University and is the author of the Karen Pelletier mysteries. Her first in this series, Quieter than Sleep (1997), was an Agatha nominee. It was followed by The Northbury Papers (1998), The Raven and the Nightingale (1999), Cold and Pure and Very Dead (2000), and The Maltese Manuscript (2003). In her scholarly work, Professor Dobson has concentrated on the recovery of the neglected literature of nineteenth-century American women writers. She is a founding editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers and a general editor of the Rutgers American Women Writers reprint series.

There was a short talk and reading by Professor Dobson followed by a book signing and a chance to talk with the author. After dinner Professor Dobson spoke on biblio-mysteries.

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Four Contributions to the Cultural History of Libraries
Saturday, October 4, 2003 • Barker Center for the Humanities, Harvard University

Cosponsored with the History of the Book Seminar at the Barker Center for the Humanities, the program included four papers:

• "The Librarian in loco parentis" by Matthew Battles, Coordinating Editor of the Harvard Library Bulletin and author of Library: An Unquiet History
• "'A beginning is made': Women and Harvard's nineteenth-century card catalogue" by Barbara A. Mitchell, Head of Public Services, Frances Loeb Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
• "'Variously employed': Sir Sidney Cockerell and the Boston Public Library" by William P. Stoneman, Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
• "Building 'wisdom and stability': Mary Lowell Putnam's library and women's book culture in nineteenth-century Boston" by Helena Toth, Graduate Student in Modern European History, Harvard University

2002-2003

The Meaning of Everything: An Evening with Simon Winchester
April 15, 2003 • Boston Public Library

The popular and highly regarded author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, Krakatoa and The Meaning of Everything: the Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, took us on a tour of his books, how places he has been have influenced his work, and his experiences writing his books.

Professors Joel Myerson and Ron Bosco on Emerson and His Books
March 27, 2003 • Houghton Library, Harvard University

Professors Myerson and Bosco, both noted authors, collectors, and leading authorities on Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendentalists, were co-curators of a Houghton exhibit mounted to commemorate the bicentennial of Emerson's birth. They spoke about Emerson's library and his thoughts on books.

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First and Most Recent - But Never Last!
February 4, 2003 • Boston Public Library

Ticknor Society members discussed their rationales and passions for collecting, member Nick Basbanes moderating. Robin Bledsoe let us in on just what started her collecting horse books; Leonard Scinto admitted to a particular enthusiasm for commedia dell’arte, and Joan Nordell shared her fervor for one-of-a-kind artists’ books. Dan Posnansky opened the door to let us have a peek at his amazing collection of Shelockiana.

A Visit to Kenneth Rendell's World War II Museum
December 3, 2002 • Natick, MA

Noted autograph and manuscript dealer and author Kenneth W. Rendell invited us for an unforgettable evening at his vast Museum of World War II. This museum can ONLY be visited by invitation. For an introduction to the collections, visit www.museumofworldwarii.com. We had free range of the collections while enjoying cocktails; Ken spoke on philosophies of collecting and how they have changed over the centuries.  A full dinner on the premises followed.

Book Fair Secrets: a Roundtable Discussion
October 17, 2002 • Boston Public Library

This roundtable discussion was hosted by the New England Chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, its chair, Peter Stern, presiding over a panel of Boston-area booksellers. Greg Gibson of Ten Pound Island Books (Gloucester, MA), Greg Powers of Powers Rare Books (Manchester, NH), Priscilla Juvelis of Priscilla Juvelis, Inc. (Cambridge, MA), Michael Ginsberg of Michael Ginsberg Books (Sharon, MA), and Mike McIntyre of McIntyre and Moore Booksellers (Somerville, MA) discussed their experiences at book fairs; dealers and collectors shared first-hand experiences.

2001-2002

An Evening Celebrating the Ticknors
June 26, 2002 • Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston

The second meeting of the Ticknor Society celebrated the Ticknors - George Ticknor and his daughter, Anna Ticknor - for whom the club was named. The meeting featured speakers Professor Sally Schwager of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Peter Accardo of the Houghton Library, and Ken Carpenter, retired from the Harvard University Library.  Hosts Peter Drummey and Bill Fowler of the Massachusetts Historical Society provided a wondrous array of edible delights and liquid refreshment which, when balanced with talk of book collectors and the comradeship of like-minded book lovers, made for a great event.

Nicholas Basbanes on "A Fellowship of Books"
May 22, 2002 • Harvard Law School

The inaugural meeting of the Ticknor Society was hosted by David Ferris, David Warrington, and the Harvard Law School which generously provided a lovely space for our first meeting  as well as appropriate and ample refreshments. The meeting was a great success, attracting over 80 bibliophiles.

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Last modified: Monday, 12-Dec-2011 18:37:42 EST