The Construction of Books

Cockerell, Douglas. Excerpts from Bookbinding and the Care of Books 5 th Ed. (London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd. 1953 Rpt. 1971), pp. 34-51, 98-111, 144-147, 159-169 (Call #: Z271 .C66 1971). A bit old-fashioned but still cited by the University of Virginia Rare Book School. The illustrations, especially of the folding of paper in book production (37-40) and the sewing of a book (104-105), are evocative and helpful.

Marks, P. J. M. Excerpts from “Techniques: Forwarding” and “Finishing” in The British Library Guide to Bookbinding: History and Techniques (London and Toronto: British Library and University of Toronto Press, 1998), pp.29-50; 69-83 (Call #: Z269 .M37 1998). The section from “Forwarding” provides very good illustrations of the binding and sewing of books; definitions and descriptions of end-leaves, doublures, limp bindings, and boards; comments on the different types of leather (calf, goat, sheep, pig), vellum, cloth, and paper covers. The excerpt from “Finishing” provides a century by century description of the major characteristics of European book covers and bindings, with many illustrations.

Marks, P. J. M. “History of the Bookbinding Trade” in The British Library Guide to Bookbinding: History and Techniques (London and Toronto: British Library and University of Toronto Press, 1998) pp. 12-28 (Call #: Z269 .M37 1998). Discussion of bookbinding as a profession in Europe focusing on the 16th through 18th centuries; includes a brief commentary on women in the profession.

Nickell, Joseph. Excerpts from Pen, Ink and Evidence ( New Castle, De: Oak Knoll Press, 2000), pp. 35-40 (on the history and manufacture of ink), 72-80 (on the invention and history of papermaking); 171-175 (on deciphering handwriting); 196-205 (Chronology of Writing & Writing Materials). First Edition, Second Printing with Corrections. (Call #: Z40 .N53 2000)

Spawn, Willman. “The Evolution of American Binding Styles in the Eighteenth Century” in Bookbinding in America, 1680-1910 From the Collection of Frederick E, Maser (Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr College Library, 1983), pp. 29–36. (Call #: Z 270 ,U5B7 1983). Discussion of the evolution of an American book style through the lens of bookbinding, covers, and spines.

Literacy and Reading

Brewer, John. “Readers and the Reading Public.” The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 167-197. (Call # DA 485 .B74 2000). Discussion of readers, literacy, libraries, book circulation, and book clubs in eighteenth-century England.

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. “The Expanding Republic of Letters,” in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 102-120. (Call # Z124 .E374 2005). Discussion of the rise of professionalism in the printing industry in conjunction with issues of book production, rising literacy, individual reading, and the status of authorship.

Hal, David D. and Elizabeth Carroll Reilly. “Practices of Reading” in A History of the Book in America, Volume One: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. Ed. Hugh Amory & David D. Hall. ( Cambridge: Cambridge U. Pr., Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2000) pp. 377-410 (Call #: Z473 .C686 2000). Discussion of schoolbooks, the consumer market for books, libraries, and women readers.

Shields, David S. “Eighteenth-Century Literary Culture” in A History of the Book in America, Volume One: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. Ed. Hugh Amory & David D. Hall. ( Cambridge: Cambridge U. Pr., Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2000) pp. 434-476 (Call #: Z473 .C686 2000). Discussion of American appropriation and invocation of literary genres, including poetry, journals, satire, ballads, and religious and political tracts.

Thomas, Keith. “The Meaning of Literacy in Early Modern England,” in The WrittenWord: Literacy in Transition edited by Gerd Baumann (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 97-132. (Call #: Z 40 .W 75 1986). Analysis of literacy and the ways to measure literacy historically; suggests a spectrum of literacy and raises issues relating to oral culture and literacy, numeracy and literacy, uneven rise in literacy, and so on.

Publication and Circulation

Amory, Hugh. “The New England Book Trade, 1713-1790” in A History of the Book in America, Volume One: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. Ed. Hugh Amory & David D. Hall. ( Cambridge: Cambridge U. Pr., Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2000) pp. 314-346 (Call #: Z473 .C686 2000). The companion piece to “Printing and Bookselling in New England, 1638-1713,” describing and analyzing the expansion of the printing industry in the period, including data on genres of publication and the impact of economic and political events.

Amory, Hugh. “Printing and Bookselling in New England, 1638-1713” in A History of the Book in America, Volume One: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. Ed. Hugh Amory & David D. Hall. ( Cambridge: Cambridge U. Pr., Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2000) pp. 83-116 (Call #: Z473 .C686 2000). Discussion of licensing law and censorship; genres that were published; print runs and literacy.

Brewer, John. “Authors, Publishers and the Making of Literary Culture.” The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 125-166. (Call # DA 485 .B74 2000). Analysis of publishing in eighteenth-century England, including the roles of the printer and bookseller; the impact of copyright and licensing acts; publication by subscription; the patronage system; and different genres in publishing.

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. “Defining the Initial Shift,” in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 13-45. (Call # Z124 .E374 2005). Standard account of the transition from script to print in early modern Europe; edited by Eisenstein’s two volume work on the subject.

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. “Some Features of Print Culture,” in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 46-101. (Call # Z124 .E374 2005). Standard account of the standardization and dissemination of printed text in early modern Europe, including the impact on scholarship and the shift from corrupt versions of text to standard editions.

Green, James N. “The Book Trade in the Middle Colonies, 1680-1720” in A History of the Book in America, Volume One: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. Ed. Hugh Amory & David D. Hall. ( Cambridge: Cambridge U. Pr., Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2000) pp. 199-223 (Call #: Z473 .C686 2000). With a focus on the career of William Bradford, Quaker publications, and government publications.

Green, James N. “English Books and Printing in the Age of Franklin” in A History of the Book in America, Volume One: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. Ed. Hugh Amory & David D. Hall. ( Cambridge: Cambridge U. Pr., Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2000) pp. 248-297 (Call #: Z473 .C686 2000). Discussion of Franklin’s career in Philadelphia, his competition in New York and Philadelphia, and the roles of printer and publisher in the period.

Levarie, Norma. Excerpts on the history of printing in England from The Art & History of Books (1968; reprinted by New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll, 1995). Pp. 157-162 (15 th-Century); 212-215 (16 th-Century); 228-234 (17 th Century); 243-253 (18 th-Century); 265-280 (19 th Century). Overview of British printing; each section has a brief description of the state of printing in the period with many illustrations.

Sutherland, J.A. “Novel Publishing 1830-1870” in Victorian Novelists and Publishers (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976) pp. 9-40. Outlines the four primary ways that novels were marketed in 19th-century England; provides data regarding marketing and profit for authors and publishers. This text also includes chapters on the publishing histories of Henry Esmond, Westward Ho!, and Middlemarch and on the publishing careers of Trollope, Dickens, and Hardy.

Winton, Calhoun. “The Southern Book Trade in the Eighteenth Century” in A History of the Book in America, Volume One: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. Ed. Hugh Amory & David D. Hall. ( Cambridge: Cambridge U. Pr., Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2000) pp. 224-246 (Call #: Z473 .C686 2000). Centering on bookselling in Virginia and South Carolina.

Handwriting

Fairbank, Alfred. “The Teaching of Handwriting,” in The Story of Handwriting: Originsand Development (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1970), pp. 95-99 (Call #: Z40 .F33). Brief discussion of the teaching of handwriting in England, focusing on the Renaissance, with multiple illustrations of different handwriting styles.

Thornton, Tamara Plakins. “The Lost World of Colonial Handwriting,” in Handwriting in America: A Cultural History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 2 - 41 (Call #: Z40 .T46 1996). Discussion of different types of handwriting: increased literacy; handwriting as a craft; handwriting as self-presentation.

Thornton, Tamara Plakins. “Men of Character, Scribbling Women: Penmanship in Victorian America,” in Handwriting in America: A Cultural History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 42-71 (Call #: Z40 .T46 1996). Discussion of new modes of teaching handwriting and the ideology of gender attached to handwriting (in process and product).

Research on Rare Book and Archive Pedagogy

McCoy, Michelle. “The Manuscript as Question: Teaching Primary Sources in the Archives—The China Missions Project,” College & Research Libraries (January 2010): 49-62. A discussion of a project at DePaul University, in which history students choose a letter from the University’s archive of correspondence from missionaries in China (1923-1952), transcribe and annotate the letter, then analyze the text within its immediate and broader contexts.

Mummert. Roger. “Handle this book!” A New York Times article about recent efforts at universities to encourage undergraduates to pursue research in rare book collections.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/education/edlife/rarebks.html

Reynolds, Matthew and Dale Sauter. “Engaging undergraduates in special collections through English composition,” C&RL News (June 2008): 318-321. Discusses a second semester English composition assignment at East Carolina University, in which students select an artifact that focuses on an aspect of North Carolina history, and research and write about the artifact’s significance and historical context.

Robb, Jenny E. “The Opper Project: Collaborating with Educators to Promote the Use of Editorial Cartoons in the Social Studies Classroom,” RBM: A Journal of Rare Book, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage (2009): 70-94. A discussion of a collaboration with librarians, university faculty, and K-12 educators to use editorial cartoons from Ohio State University’s Cartoon Library and Museum to teach history to public school students.

Roff, Sandra. “Archives, Documents, and Hidden History: A Course to Teach Undergraduates the Thrill of Historical Discovery Real and Virtual,” The History Teacher Vol. 40 #4 (August 2007): 551-558. Discussion of Roff’s “Archive, Documents, and Hidden History” course at Baruch College, which emphasizes defining an archive and archival practices, the importance of the visual in historical research, the use of advertisements to assess consumer culture, and the use of documents to assess race, gender, and class in American culture.

Stephens, Robert and Josh Thumma, “Faculty-Undergraduate Collaboration in Digital History at a Public Research University,” The History Teacher Volume 38 Number 4 (August 2005): 525-42. An analysis of a student-faculty collaboration to develop a digital teaching module for the history of the year 1968. Particularly effective in laying out the challenges in faculty-student collaboration, the archival research involved, and the pedagogy (of the collaboration, and of the teaching module that Stephens and Thumma created).