Author Archives: tavistock_books

A Post-RBS Report from Tavistock Books Scholarship Winner Travis Low

This year Tavistock Books was pleased to offer a scholarship to Joel Silver’s excellent course, “Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books,” at Rare Book School (RBS). We found a worthy winner in Travis Low of Ken Sanders Rare Books. Travis started out as a shipping clerk and has taken advantage of numerous opportunities to expand his role. His new responsibilities often include researching new inventory, making this RBS course ideal. Travis checked in with us to share his RBS experience.

TavBooks: Tell us a little about the class you took, “Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books,” with Joel Silver.
Travis: A group of us sat around a large table taking copious notes while Mr. Silver imparted his reference book wizardry, guiding us through labyrinths of bibliographies, exhibition and auction catalogues, various lists of books, etc. While we mainly focused on reference books, we also learned a lot of valuable information about reliable online sources for researching books. This was extremely useful for the booksellers (like me), librarians, and collectors in the class, giving us the tools to do better research in any field for collecting or selling. For me, the class also sparked a lot of new ideas and strategies for cataloguing and book buying and selling.

TavBooks: How was the class structured? What was the learning environment like?
Travis: It was a fairly traditional lecture and discussion class, but with a lot of interaction with the books under discussion. We also had two very useful workbooks to interact with and take notes in. The floor was always open for questions and discussions. Mr. Silver’s knowledge base and ability to teach through instruction, interaction with material, storytelling, and personal anecdote were very impressive.

TavBooks: What was the most useful or immediately applicable lesson you learned?
Travis: It quickly became clear to me that, to some extent, any bookseller, librarian, or collector is about as good as their abilities to navigate and effectively use the reference materials in their relative fields and specialties. The class really opened my mind to the wealth of resources that are available in all fields. So, I’ve immediately become more interested in familiarizing myself with the reference literature in new and unfamiliar fields of interest, while making sure that I have all my bases covered in the fields that I already deal in on a regular basis.

TavBooks: What was the most challenging part of the course? The most interesting?
Travis: The most challenging part is simply grasping the breadth and depth of information that is available and learning the best methods and practices for engaging the material that is available. Sometimes it takes a clever mind to figure out which resources to consult to do effective research, especially with new or obscure material. The most interesting parts of the class were the stories that Mr. Silver shared about the formation of notable and well known collections, or the processes by which many of the bibliographies and catalogues were produced and the eccentric personalities that created them. These stories gave interesting perspectives and insight into various ways of approaching book collecting and selling. I find this very valuable as I continue to try to learn and grow and find my way in the book trade.

TavBooks: How did RBS complement your experience at the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS)?
Travis: CABS was amazing for giving a broad and general overview of many of the aspects of the book trade — a detailed map of the book world and how to engage with it. RBS goes deep into the details and particularities of specific subjects and areas of interests. I felt that CABS was the perfect gateway to attend RBS. Many of the things that I learned at CABS prepared me and gave me the proper background and context to be able to make the most out of my experience at RBS.

TavBooks: How would you describe RBS to someone who’d never heard of it before?
Travis: It is an enlightening and invigorating experience. Be sure that you are ready to absorb a lot of information, and take a lot of notes that you can use later. The classes go into a lot of depth, are very detailed, and are taught by the most interesting and knowledgeable professionals in the field. The campus and the living experience are a lot of fun at the University of Virginia, especially on ‘The Lawn’ where I stayed. The social experience is a lot of fun, providing many great opportunities for networking between classes, at lunches and dinners, and at other evening events, etc.

TavBooks: Which course are you hoping to take next?
Travis: I’m currently forming and deciding on a personalized course of action for the RBS’s new Certificate of Proficiency Program, which “allows students to create a specialized focus for their coursework at RBS and to earn formal recognition for their concentrated studies at the School.” My next class will probably be either “Introduction to the Principles of Bibliographic Description” or “Printed Books Since 1800: Description and Analysis.” But so many of the courses sound interesting! I hope to eventually take “Developing Collections: Donors, Libraries, and Booksellers,” and several of the courses that explore various aspects of illustration.

Based at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Rare Book School offers a wide variety of courses addressing the art, history, and bibliography of the book. Taught by world experts in the field, these classes are geared not only toward antiquarian book sellers, but also librarians, collectors, and anyone else who embraces the book as an object. Please visit RBS online for more information.

The Benefits of Bibliography

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For new collectors, the idea of “books on books” may seem like a strange one. However, within this genre of books lies one specific category known as bibliographies, which are an incredible resource for collectors of virtually all levels and interests. Using a bibliography to direct your collecting efforts is an excellent way to eliminate guesswork and find new direction. They are your guidebook to the author/subject on which you focus your collecting energies and monies.

What Is a Bibliography?

‘A Short Account of the Life and Work of Wynkyn de Worde’ offers both biographical and bibliographical information on the man who popularized the printing press.

Most of us think of bibliographies as the source lists at the end of research papers and journal articles. in the world of rare books, “bibliography” still refers to a list of books and other works, but with a slightly different focus. A bibliography is a compilation of all the printed works that fall into a given category. It may be annotated, which means that it includes more than simply publication information for each item listed. Bibliographies are available in almost every concentration.

Genre: The Bibliography of American Literature (BAL) is the definitive source on the subject. Other genre bibliographies, such as The Fourth Estate (newspapers) and British Literary Magazines: The Modern Age, 1914-1984 are even more narrowly focused.
Location: Robert Bent’s The London Catalogue of Books includes all titles published in that city from 1814 to 1839. California’s Pictorial Letter Sheets 1849-1969 focuses on both genre and location.
Author: A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle and A Bibliography of the Writings of Henry James are both excellent references for collectors of these authors.
Collector: The libraries of famous collectors often merit their own study. Bibliotecha Steevensiana, for example, details the incredible collection of legendary bibliophile George Steevens.

Know Your Books

This rare catalogue of the short-lived publishing firm is both a resource and a collectible in its own right.

One of the greatest challenges for novice book collectors–and sometimes even professional antiquarian book dealers–is accurately identifying the book in front of us. It can be difficult to differentiate among different editions of books, for example. The bibliography can eliminate that uncertainty. These research tools often list relevant points of issue, that is, small details about a book than can help you tell the difference between the first edition and subsequent editions, or between different printings of the same edition; in the era of letterpress printing, for instance, the printer would often make changes to the typeset (sometimes mid-run) to correct errors. A collector would need to know these, in order to correctly spot true first editions and avoid potentially costly mistakes.

Discover New Direction

Typically collectors focus on the “high points” in their specialty or genre. Dickens collectors, for example, generally begin with the Inimitable’s most famous works like Pickwick Papers, Bleak House, and Great Expectations. This propensity for collecting high points has two important results. First, it means that most collections lack much depth. Second, prices for these high point works are driven up, often out of the reach of amateur collectors. The bibliography, then, offers a means of discovering lesser known works that add interest and completeness to a collection. It can also point collectors toward fascinating items that are more accessible from a cost standpoint. Ultimately the bibliography can act as a collector’s “checklist.”

As you move forward with building your own collection, find out which relevant bibliographies are considered most useful. Add these to your personal library as soon as you can! They’ll prove a sound investment as you delve deeper into the world of rare and antiquarian books. Finally, Tavistock Books offers an annual workshop on Reference Book use [the next being this coming August 24th]. Should you desire further information on this workshop, please contact Margueritte Peterson at msp [@] tavbooks.com

A Brief History of True Crime Literature

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True crime literature is unique because, in the words of Joyce Carol Oates, the genre has “always been enormously popular among readers…[and] appeals to the highly educated as well as the barely educated, to women and men equally.” The popularity of true crime literature extends to the rare book world.

Daniel Defoe

The literature of true crime dates all the way back to the Elizabethan era, but the genre didn’t enter the mainstream until the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It its earliest form, true crime literature included biographies of prisoners before and after executions. In some cases, these accounts were factual, but they were just as often completely fictionalized–and almost always sensationalized. These gave rise to fictional criminal autobiographies, notably The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1721) by Daniel Defoe. Domestic dramas such as George Lillo’s The London Merchant; or, The History of George Barnard (1731).

William Makepeace Thackeray

The second half of the eighteenth century saw a sharp decline in crime literature, but the genre reasserted itself in the nineteenth century. Factual reporting, in the style of Francis Kirkman’s The Counterfeit Lady Revealed (1673), again came into vogue. The Newgate Calendar published criminal biographies starting in 1773, and it was periodically published before finally being compiled in 1841. In the United States, the National Police Gazette was launched in 1845 and remains in publication today. Meanwhile leading literary figures also began to address issues of crime and punishment. Charles Dickens included studies of Newgate and the Old Bailey in his Sketches by Boz, and William Makepeace Thackeray wrote “Going to See a Man Hanged” (1840).

Perhaps the most influential was “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts,” two essays Thomas de Quincey published in Blackwood’s Magazine (1827 and 1839). De Quincey explored the Radcliffe murders of 1811, which were presumably committed by mariner John Williams. He delved into the psychology of the murderer, victims, and witnesses in a way that no other author had attempted before. Oscar Wilde followed suit in “Pen, Pencil, and Poison” in 1889, when he argued that Thomas Griffith’s creativity improved when he began taking out life insurance policies on relatives, whom he then poisoned with strychnine. These seminal works paved the way for modern works like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1966).

Crime in fiction had taken a turn for the low brow; starting in the 1820’s the so-called “Newgate novel” romanticized the lives of criminals, depicting highwaymen as heroes–even when their exploits ended at the gallows. Thackeray would parody Newgate novels in several of his works and publicly attach their authors, but the works still flourished. GWM Reynolds, for example, published Mysteries of London from 1845 to 1848, with sequels to 1856. The books, which sold for one cent, came to be known as “penny dreadfuls.”

The iconic Sherlock Holmes

The 1830’s saw the development of the modern police force–with detectives to investigate crime and constables to enforce order–in both England and the United States. For this we can thank, among others, author and magistrate Henry Fielding. Soon these men of the law popped up as characters in fiction: Inspector Bucket in Dickens’ Bleak House (1853) and Sergeant Cuff in Collins’ The Moonstone (1868), respectively based on real-life Scotland Yard detectives Charles Field and Jack Whicher. Poe invented a more complex detective in his C. Auguste Dupin character, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle debuted Sherlock Holmes in 1887. Four years later the detective began making regular appearances in Doyle’s Strand Magazine.

In the last century there has been a markedly decreased overlap of true crime and literature. But the genre of true crime writing remains quite popular, and many rare book collectors build entire collections around the genre. There are plenty of interesting items for collectors of true crime literature and ephemera.

The Confessions of Jesse Strang

Originally from Putnam County, New York, Jesse Strang deserted his wife when he suspected that she’d been unfaithful. After a stint in Ohio, Strang made his way to western New York–where he faked his own death in the spring of 1826. Strang ended up in Albany, where he used the alias of “Joseph Orton.” He saw Elsie Whipple in an Albany bar and was immediately interested in the spirited young woman. Elsie was the daughter of a wealthy family in Albany, and Strang managed to get hired as a handyman at the family’s estate, Cherry Hill–where Elsie lived with her husband, John. But that didn’t stop Strang from pursuing Elsie, and the two were soon exchanging love letters with the assistance of other members of the household.

Cherry Hill as it looked at the time of the murder

Elsie, known for being moody and tempestuous, decided that the lovers should kill John and run away together. Strang was reluctant, but ultimately supplied Elsie with arsenic to poison John. But she didn’t administer enough poison, and John merely suffered an upset stomach. The lovers clearly needed a more foolproof plan, and Elsie urged Strang to shoot John. Eventually he acquiesced, climbing onto the roof and shooting John through a window into the couple’s quarters. Elsie had removed the curtain to give Strang a clear shot. Strang rushed to a local store to give himself an alibi, then returned and even helped the doctor remove the bullet from John’s body. But the police ruled that Strang had enough time to commit the murder and make it to the store, so he was arrested. He immediately confessed and implicated Elsie.

Strang desperately asked his lawyer to plant papers at Cherry Hill implicating Elsie as the mastermind of the plot, arguing that Elsie would receive a lighter sentence because she was a woman. His lawyer refused, but Strang was correct. While he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging, Elsie was found not guilty on all charges. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people came to watch Strang’s execution on August 24, 1827. Among the crowd were peddlers hawking pamphlets containing Strang’s confession. Strang himself promoted the pamphlet from the scaffold, saying, “This contains a confession of the great transaction for which I am about to die, and every single word that it contains, tot he best of my knowledge, is true; if there is a single word in i t that is not true, it has been inserted by mistake, not by design.” Strang’s hanging was botched, and his neck did not break. He hung for half an hour before suffocating. It was the last hanging in Albany.

Official Report of the Trial of Laura D Fair

On November 3, 1870, Laura D Fair followed Alexander Parker Crittendon onto a ferry, where he was meeting his family. Fair shot Crittendon in the chest with a pepperbox pistol and fled to the ship’s saloon, where she immediately confessed to her crime. Fair believed that she was defending her own name; Crittendon had represented himself as single when he began courting Fair, and when she discovered that he was married, Crittendon promised to divorce his wife. When he failed to follow through, Fair decided to exact revenge.

Laura Fair

The ensuing trial was a national sensation. Fair’s defense argued that Fair had experienced delayed menstruation (in part because she assumed a masculine role by running her own business), which resulted in temporary insanity. Suffragists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony took up the cause, noting that “female hysteria” had long been used to subjugate women to men. Prosecutors also focused on gender, portraying Fair as a man-hungry murderess whose temporary insanity could also have been caused by sexual excess. Fair was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but the trial was overturned because evidence had been incorrectly admitted. After a second trial, Fair was acquitted.

The case remained in the headlines intermittently from June 1871 to January 1873. Mark Twain and his collaborator Charles Dudley Warner would incorporate the case into Twain’s first novel, The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-Day, published in December 1873: Laura Hawkins bears a striking similarity to Laura Fair. Twain also incorporated another famous trial; the Senate investigation of Senator Dilworthy for vote buying parallels the real trial of Kansas Senator Samuel C Pomeroy. Both critics and historians agree that these sensational elements greatly contributed to the novel’s success.

Ruth Snyder’s Own True Story

Snyder and Judd Gray conferring during a break in the trial

In 1925, housewife Ruth Brown Snyder began an affair with married corset salesman Henry Judd Gray. She soon began planning her husband, Albert’s murder, with only reluctant support from Judd Gray. Snyder reportedly made seven attempts to kill her husband. Finally, she and Judd Gray garrotted Albert, shoved chloroform soaked rags up his nose, and staged a burglary. Their ploy fell apart under only the slightest scrutiny, and they were both convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Ruth would be the first woman executed at Sing Sing since 1899, and the first ever to be executed by electrocution.

The murder trial was covered by a number of prominent journalists, but only one was granted an interview: Jack Lait, who would provide Ruth the typewriter she used to record her memoir. Ruth Snyder’s Own True Story (1927) proved a poignant and candid account of Ruth’s experience–and a useful bit of propaganda for Lait. In the preface, he writes that Ruth “bristles with courage, she has poise, assurance, no end of intelligence…she loves like fire and hates like TNT.” (With such a portrayal, it’s perhaps no wonder that Ruth received 107 marriage proposals before her execution!) At Ruth’s execution, Chicago Tribune photographer Tom Howard captured her final moment with a miniature camera strapped to his ankle. The image, now famous, was emblazoned on the front page of the New York Daily News the next day.

Our interest in rare books about true crime shows no evidence of fading, especially since the genre so frequently intersects with the worlds of history and literature. How has true crime crept into your book collection?

Meet Dr. Erin Blake, Curator of Art & Special Collections at the Folger!

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Dr. Blake examines the backside of a broadside, where we often find clues about the document that we can’t glean from the text. This item, which the Folger acquired from Tavistock Books, is the Edinburg edition of the “Regicides” broadside (1660), wherein Charles II commands those involved in the death of Charles I to present themselves, “being deeply guilty of that detestable and bloody Treason.”

This week we’re pleased to welcome our friend and colleague from Rare Book School, Dr. Erin Blake. Dr. Blake is the Curator of Art and Special Collections at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. She was kind enough to sit down with us to talk about her journey to the Folger and her evolving role as the curator of “anything that’s not a book or a manuscript.”

TavBooks: Tell us a bit about your career path. What drew you to art history? And what brought you to the Folger?
Dr. Blake: I started out as a history major and discovered that I really liked studying objects as part of history, as evidence. And art history is where you actually get to delve into that, so I did a double major in history in art history. When I got my PhD, I didn’t want to do that typical art history thing where you pick an artist no one else has “done” before. Instead I ended up studying topographical views designed for the zograscope, which was a viewing device that gained popularity around 1750 in England. You look through a lens and mirror arrangement to get a three-dimensional view of a scene.

This colored print, from the University of Exeter, shows a zograscope in use.

Although these images were often topographical, they weren’t really maps. Nor were they really art. But when the British Museum split into the British Museum and the British Library, the zograscope images went to the map library. The art people didn’t study them because they weren’t art, and the map people didn’t study them because they weren’t maps. So here I was, this art person looking at pictures in a map library!

It was only a matter of time before I began exploring the world of special collections libraries. I always knew that I’d wanted to work in a library, rather than a museum, and that I didn’t want to be an art history professor. When the Folger advertised for a curator, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

TavBooks: Your original title was Curator of Art, and that has been expanded to include special collections. What are your responsibilities now? And how has your position evolved since you began?
Dr. Blake: My job here is to make the items in our collection available to scholars as primary sources and to acquire new items that complement the research needs of the collection. Our interests in that regard are unusual for art. Museums want rare, pristine, first state prints, but we’d rather have the more common ones. The version of an item most seen and used by people is of most use to researchers. When Mr. and Mrs. Folger were building their collection, they were also interested in things that had been written in, written on, things that had been used. When people come to study the history of readership, that record helps us determine what was important to people as they looked at books and prints.

When I started at the Folger, I was in charge of art. The objective definition of art is “anything that isn’t a book or manuscript.” And special collections is lots of stuff that isn’t really art by other people’s definition. Here, for instance, that includes ephemera like playbills, scrapbooks, and even strange objects.

TavBooks: What’s your favorite item in the collection? Have you discovered anything that inspired you to do more in-depth research for yourself?
Dr. Blake: It’s interesting to explore the degree to which there are fetish objects associated with Shakespeare. For example, there are items made out of Shakespeare’s mulberry tree. The tree grew in his garden, and he supposedly planted it. During the eighteenth century, people would make pilgrimages to Shakespeare’s home. They’d take slips of the tree and use them to grow their own at home.

This tea caddy, wrongly attributed to Thomas Sharp, bears Shakespeare's bust and coat of arms.

A 1905 auction catalogue featured a photograph of this “tea-caddy made from the mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare” and called it “an undoubted genuine relic, having Sharp’s own stamp on it.” Thomas Sharp was the most recognized maker of mulberry souvenirs, stamping his products with “Shakespeare’s wood.” This box has no stamp, but rather a place where a stamp appears to have been scraped away.

Eventually the man who owned the property grew tired of the constant stream of visitors, so he cut down the tree and sold it for firewood. But the people who bought it didn’t use it for firewood. Instead, it was made into a wide variety of souvenirs and talismans, such as bookmarks and figurines. We obviously can’t definitively determine whether each of these items actually originated from the tree in Shakespeare’s yard–at least not without destroying the objects themselves–but what’s important is that the people believed these items were associated with Shakespeare.

But my favorite items are the unexpected ones. One is a book of caricatures by the artist Sem. Because of the way the Folger collection was unpacked in 1932, items were sorted into books and manuscripts, or prints and drawings. This volume is more like a scrapbook. The pages have really detailed watercolor caricatures of people from the theater scene, along with handwriting samples from each person, often letters written to the collector who created the book. There’s also a Shakespeare quote with each character. The book was marked “A.L.S.” — autograph letters, signed — and placed with the manuscripts because of the handwriting samples, so it ended up being catalogued as about 60 separate manuscripts. People never knew significant art was there, but this year a summer intern is making preliminary records for the drawings.

TavBooks: How has our perception of art changed since Shakespeare’s time?
Dr. Blake: The status of artists has changed quite a bit, a shift which really started around Shakespeare’s time. There was a movement to elevate artists to the status of intellectuals; art was not a craft, and not a trade. But for a long time art sat astride two worlds. The people who did theater scenery might also show at the Royal Academy.

For some time, book illustrators were excluded. Illustrations were not seen as fine art. But we find a whole lot of primary source information in book illustrations. But there’s been a shift in the past ten to fifteen years. Researchers used to come to the Folger and say, “I’ve written a book. Now I need illustrations to go with it.” Now it’s the other way around. They say, “I’m writing a book, and I need to examine the visual evidence.” We’ve learned that evidence can also be visual, not just verbal.

The collection includes many drawings and sketches of costumes and scenery, such as this one. Charles Hamilton Smith and his daughter, Emma drew these watercolor drawings and tracings of theatrical costumes, banners, shields, and arms especially for Charles Kean’s productions at the Princess and Haymarket theaters.

TavBooks: What do you love about working at the Folger Shakespeare Library?
Dr. Blake: One of the great things about working here is the flexibility for people to do things they particularly enjoy. I’ve become much more involved in descriptive cataloguing. I’ve been helping to develop a new edition of guidelines for libraries to catalogue pictures. The manual, Descriptive Cataloguing of Rare Materials (Graphics), will be published later this year.

TavBooks: Why are you particularly interested in descriptive cataloguing?
Dr. Blake: That goes back to why I was so interested in working in a library. When I was doing dissertation research in the 1990s, web-based online catalogues were brand new. I was doing research at Northwestern when they got their new online system, and I noticed that one of the tabs on the search results was “Staff View.” I wondered what that was, so I clicked on it. It was an encoded version of all the information displayed elsewhere in the record. All this information was hidden from scholars, but it meant much more sophisticated searching strategies for those who knew.

I’ve always been interested in systems, how they’re constructed, and how they work. What I enjoyed was building a database, seeing how things broke down, and figuring out how to make the data accessible to the people who needed to use it. The methodology of descriptive cataloguing certainly fits into that. And I wanted to help create a system for something that’s often perceived as subjective.

TavBooks: You’ve also done some interesting work in the field of preservation. Tell us a little bit about your discoveries.
Dr. Blake: We received an NEH grant for developing a sustainable preservation environment with the help of the Image Permanence Institute. The long-received wisdom was that the best way to maintain your library was a straight-line temperature and relative humidity: 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 50% RH. It turns out that this guideline, which had long been the convention, was actually a provisional guideline that wasn’t meant to be widely applied. In most cases cooler and dryer is actually better. But there’s also a greater range of acceptable conditions. As an analogy, think of flexing a piece of cardboard: it has quite a bit of give; it’s only if it’s bent past a certain point that it gets permanently creased.

For libraries, maintaining an absolute flat line at 70 degrees and 50% RH is expensive. It’s also damaging to the environment. So our goal was to define more flexible parameters and make preservation more sustainable. If we’re preserving a collection, but destroying the environment, then why bother? Ultimately we upgraded key air handlers to maintain a cooler, dryer environment while consuming less energy. We also now shut off air handlers for underground spaces at night; the conditions are relatively stable, and books don’t require constant air circulation. We did face a problem with humidity in the summer, but have figured out how to handle that.

TavBooks: You’re responsible for items that are made of basically everything except paper–and probably some paper, too. What preservation challenges do you face as a result?
Dr. Blake: The most difficult things are objects that aren’t entirely one material or another, but that are made of multiple materials. A painting on wood in a metal frame…these materials expand and contract at different rates, the frame could rust, etc.

TavBooks: As a curator, you’re responsible for deciding the direction and scope of an extensive collection. Individual book collectors are also curators, albeit on a smaller scale. What advice would you offer them?
Dr. Blake: Be sure to collect something that interests you. Don’t collect because you think it will be worth money in the future. And come up with a clear theme for your collection–and stick to it! You build a strong collection around a core idea. There’s a phrase in libraries, “build to strength.” We don’t want a few random things, but the best collection of X, whatever X may be. Consider your collection as something you’re building for the future, and that you’re telling a story with your collection. What you choose to collect illustrates what’s important to you and to someone of your era.

It’s also important to document your collection and why it’s particularly interesting to you. Record when and where you got each object, and why you chose to acquire it. Otherwise, that object dies because its story isn’t being told. Ask yourself, “What else can this object tell us about people in the 21st century?”

A terrific example of a large and meaningful collection is the Babette Craven Theatrical Memorabilia collection. Mrs. Craven collected objects across all media from late eighteenth-century to early nineteenth-century England. The way she collected reflected her intention that the collection would be a legacy. It included not only prints and playbills, but also figurines and other memorabilia. Most institutions wanted only one category of items, rather than the collection as a whole. But we saw the value in the whole body of work, and our enthusiasm for the collection has inspired others to build similar legacies.

Craven-Collection-Folger-Shakespeare-Library

Three items from the Craven collection: Bilston enamel bodkin case of Dorothy Jordan and the Duke of Clarence (ca. 1795) (verso); enamel patch box of Dorothy Jordan and the Duke of Clarence( late 18th century); turned wooden box with a Bilston enamel portrait medallion of Dorothy Jordan(ca. 1790).

TavBooks: It seems like eventually the Folger would own a pretty comprehensive and complete collection. Has it become more difficult to find and acquire new, unique objects over time?
Dr. Blake: It seems that there’s always some private collection that’s been unexplored and no one’s paid attention to. So things are constantly coming to the market. We’re sometimes amazed that they haven’t been discovered before, but no one was looking for it!

We thank Dr. Blake for her time! If you’re in Washington,DC we also encourage you to stop by the Folger Shakespeare Library. Currently on exhibit is “A Book behind Bars: The Robben Island Shakespeare.” Nelson Mandela served eighteen years as a political prisoner at Robben Island. A fellow prisoner smuggled in a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare, and prisoners–including Mandela–signed and dated their favorite passages. The book is on display along with a series of sketches Mandela made reflecting his life in prison.

Are You Ready for the Pasadena Antiquarian Book Fair?

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Pasadena-International-Book-Fair-Bustamante-Shows Photo: Bustamante Shows

On August 10 and 11, over 60 exhibitors will come together at the Pasadena Center for the 14th Annual Pasadena International Antiquarian Book, Print, Photo, and Paper Fair. Visitors will find a wide variety of antiquarian, rare and modern first edition books, prints, posters, vintage photographs, and a variety of unique ephemera. It’s an excellent opportunity to experience an incredible number of fine collections.

We’ll be among the exhibitors and would love to see you at Booth #208! The show, organized by Bustamante Shows, is always a terrific event. Sheila Bustamante, who oversees the Pasadena Fair, was kind enough to share her perspective on collecting and explain why this fair is exceptional.

TavBooks: How did you get involved in organizing these antiquarian book shows? Are you a collector yourself?
Bustamante: Throughout the years in producing the antique shows, we had a couple of participating book dealers. In their occasional conversations with Mr. Bustamante, they would always encourage him to produce a book fair, but the suggestion was never taken too seriously. Our schedule of shows was pretty full with over 39 shows per year in California, Nevada, and Arizona. It wasn’t until fifteen years ago that Walter Larsen approached Mr. Bustamante and urged him to produce a book fair in Pasadena. The time was right, and our schedule of annual shows had been reduced sufficiently to allow us to take on the endeavor.

And yes, I’m a collector of books, American brilliant cut glass, art, and many other antique items.

TavBooks:Many of the dealers who’ll attend the Pasadena fair are from California and neighboring states, but one dealer is coming all the way from New York. What’s unique about the rare book community in Pasadena? Why are dealers so interested in attending this fair?
Bustamante: Pasadena has a lot of wonderful history. It was a “sleepy” town for a long time. When we first started producing antique shows there, the town would close up at 9 o’clock at night. Our shows didn’t close until that time, and dealers would not have a place to grab a bite to eat or relax afterward, except back in their hotel rooms. The residents of Pasadena have always been serious about preserving their history. They have done a marvelous job of resurrecting their downtown, and making their city more inviting for the young as well as the older generation. Pasadena has become a marvelous place to visit, without the congestion.

TavBooks: Bustamante Shows has been organizing these book fairs for many years. How has the rare and antiquarian book industry changed since you got involved with the business?
Bustamante: Bustamante Enterprises, Inc has been organizing the book fairs for fourteen years. We’ve been producing antique shows since 1975. Since we have only been involved with the book fairs for a short period, we have nothing to compare with on the evolution of the trade. We do feel, however, that just like the regular antique business, it’s always important to generate new collectors and to get our young generation interested. These will be the future custodians of history. If we do not teach our younger allies how to appreciate and preserve, we will lose those objects that carry the very stories and souls of our ancestors.

TavBooks:What advice would you offer a novice collector who doesn’t have much experience navigating a book fair like this?
Bustamante: For any novice collector: ask questions, research, and purchase what tugs at your heart and desire.

TavBooks:Any exciting items that you know dealers are planning to bring?
Bustamante: We never get involved with our dealers’ inventory, unless they have placed on display something inappropriate for the show. After all, it is always the unknowing that brings those collectors to the doors early, that causes excitement when on the hunt for an item to add to a collection. So whether one is young or old, a novice or a seasoned collector, there is always something at our fairs for everyone.

Fair Details

The Pasadena International Antiquarian Book, Print, Photo, and Paper Fair is open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Saturday, August 10 and 11:00 am to 4:00 pm on Sunday, August 11. General admission is $8, with discounts available for senior citizens (62+) and free admission for children under 12. Your ticket includes free return privileges. The Pasadena Center (300 East Green Street) has ample parking.

Have a question about the show? Call 626-793-2122 or reach the show promoter at 209-358-3134.

Astronomy, Astrology, Potato, Po-tah-to?

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From ‘The New Astrology’ (1786)

Since the Neolithic age, humans have attempted to track lunar cycles and understand their relationship with natural phenomena like the changing tides. From these rudimentary attempts, the fields of astrology and astronomy were eventually born. The two disciplines evolved together, but our changing understanding of the universe has relegated astrology to the world of superstition and folklore. The world of rare books offers an interesting glimpse into these parallel studies.

An Ancient Science

Astrology evolved from our desire to better understand changing seasons, weather patterns, and other natural phenomena. It proved useful in agriculture, and astrological predictions were soon applied to other aspects of life. Eventually kings and emperors even had astrologers as The first evidence of astrology as a discipline comes to us from the Babylonians. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, compiled in Babylon around 1200 BCE is one of the oldest known astrological references. For almost 2,000 years, astronomy and astrology were synonymous. Astrology was introduced to the ancient Greeks around 400 BCE. Respected thinkers like Plato and Aristotle incorporated astrology in their works, giving it credibility. The Romans eagerly adopted astrology, and the practice endured through the ages.

It’s from the Romans that we get our modern-day names for the signs of the Zodiac, which means “circle of animals” in Greek. Early astrologers knew that it took twelve lunar cycles (now known as months) for the sun to return to its original position in the sky. They then identified twelve constellations that were linked to the progression of the seasons and assigned these the names of animals or figures. For example, during the rainy season, the corresponding constellation was Aquarius, which means “water bearer.”

Horoscope charts relate the position of the sun, moon, planets and stars to a particular time, place. Astrologers don’t use horological time, but rather “sidereal time,” which is based on the sun’s position at the spring equinox. They consult an astrological ephemeris, a table listing the positions of the sun, moon, planets, and constellations at any given time. The information they gather helps them make predictions about finances, relationships, and other life events, along with inferences about personality traits.

The Advent of Heliocentrism

In many ways, astrology drove discoveries in astronomy, and the two were regarded as the same discipline for centuries. Then in the medieval period, when we knew more about the stars and solar system, astronomy was seen as a means for gaining a greater understanding of astrology. Some concepts from astrology also influenced the study of alchemy, meteorology, and even medicine. But a basic premise of astrology conflicted with emerging knowledge; scientists were beginning to realize that the Earth was not the center of the universe.

As scholars came to realize that the sun was the center of the universe (a theory known as heliocentrism), astrology naturally came under fire. Though the study persisted, it has since been relegated to the realm of superstition and novelty; to this day, people still read their daily horoscopes, though more for fun than anything else. Meanwhile, astronomy has proven itself as an academic discipline. For instance, scholars have applied principles of calculus to the function of the cosmos, lending validity to the science.

Rare Books about Astrology and Astronomy

A Briefe and Most Easie Introduction to the Astrological Judgement of the Starres (1598)
Noted French physician Claudius Dariot practiced in the tradition of Paracelsus, the Renaissance physician, botanist, and astrologer who founded the discipline of toxicology. Paracelsus and his followers divined their patients’ treatments from astrological readings. Dariot applied astrology in a new way, for horary astrology (using astrological readings to answer specific questions). His Introduction was a seminal work in the field of astrology and remains a principal authority in its field. This edition of the book contains two texts. The first is a revised and expanded translation of Dariot’s work by Fabian Wither, including a brief treatise on electoral astrology. The second is the first edition of an original text on medical applications, written by G.C., an unidentified Englishman who was also responsible for the revisions and expansions of Dariot’s original text.

The New Astrology; or, The Art of Predicting or Foretelling Future Events, by the Aspects, Positions, and Influences of the Heavenly Bodies…In Two Parts (1786)
The real Sir Christopher Heydon was a Member of Parliament, solider, and astrology writer. He died in 1623, and the author of The New Astrologerevidently used his name as a pseudonym. The author’s use of a false name indicates that the field of astrology wasn’t necessarily considered “respectable.” The work includes 17 tables and diagrams. OCLC shows three institutional holdings, none in the US; ESTC shows two copies in the US; and ABPC shows no copies at auction in the last thirty years.

A Collection of Examples of the Applications of the Calculus of Finite Differences and Examples of the Solutions of Functional Equations (1820)
John Herschel, William Frederick, and Charles Babbage were distinguished mathematicians who contributed to a mathematical revival in England. Hershel, a member of the Royal Society since 1813, had a brilliant career in astronomy, while Babbage (also elected to the Royal Society in 1816) would go on to pursue analytical and difference engines–the precursors to the modern computer. The close relationship between mathematics and astronomy, so eloquently explored by these scholars and others, would distance it from the formerly synonymous field of astrology.

The Unseen World: Communications with it, Real or Imaginary, Including Apparitions, Warnings, Haunted Places, Prophecies, Aerial Visions, Astrology, &c &c (1847)
Educated at Trinity College, John Mason Neale was an Anglican priest, scholar, and hymn writer. The author of famous holiday carols like “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” and “Good King Wenceslas” seems an unlikely author for a book on astrology. Indeed, Neale’s views were quite high church, but he also wrote a devotional and mystical commentary on the Psalms. The Unseen World (1847) illustrates the ways that mysticism (of which astrology can be considered a part) often commingled with religion–as it still does to this day.

Elias Samuel Cooper: Renowned and Controversial Surgeon

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Elias-Samuel-Cooper The nineteenth century was a time of exploration and discovery in the field of medicine. One man who made significant contributions to the field in America was Elias Samuel Cooper, a surgeon whose aspirations stretched beyond building a successful private practice. Dr. Cooper founded the first medical college in San Francisco, where his techniques drew both controversy and respect from the medical community.

Self-Education and Training

Cooper was raised on a Quaker farm in Ohio, where his abolitionist family settled after relocating from slavery-friendly South Carolina in 1807. His sister lived on a neighboring farm, so Cooper grew up with his nephew, Levi Cooper Lane. Cooper left no personal account of his life, so what we know is gleaned from his brother’s journal and a few other historical sources. From that document, we learn that Cooper’s birthday was November 25, 1820. It’s presumed that Cooper attended a country school in Butler County. His brother Jacob’s journal also refers to Cooper’s apprenticeship to a Dr. Waugh in 1838. Cooper’s older brother Elaias also entered the medical profession, and it appears that Cooper either apprenticed or partnered with him in Greenville, Indiana from 1840 to 1843.

In 1851, Cooper was awarded a medical degree from St. Louis University. At that time, a candidate who got credit for “four years of reputable practice” could obtain a degree after only one lecture cycle, which lasted four-and-a-half months. That seems like little training for such an important profession, but most medical practitioners at the time had no formal training, or little more than an apprenticeship. Cooper had actually “self-awarded” himself an MD at least two years earlier; he published “Remarks on Congestive Fever” in the Jan/Feb 1849 edition of St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal. He signed it “ES Cooper, MD.” Such a practice was relatively common, and it was not until later that more rigorous standards were implemented to prevent self-credentialing and practicing without proper instruction.

By all accounts, Cooper was an incredibly industrious physician, spending many hours in self-study. He was particularly interested in surgery. In 1843, Cooper set up his private practice in Danville, Indiana. Soon he was making almost $800 a month, a tidy sum at the time. At only 23 years old, Cooper performed an impressive surgery, successfully removing a large portion of the patient’s jaw. The procedure required sophisticated knowledge of anatomy, including deep knowledge of the vascular system. Cooper’s success sealed his local reputation in the medical community.

Greater Aspirations

Cooper moved to Peoria, Illinois in 1844, and within a year he’d opened up a dissecting room and begun offering lectures on anatomy and surgery. Less interested in growing his private practice, Cooper focused more heavily on surgery. His first operation was on a case of strabismus (when the eyes are not aligned properly). Soon Cooper had established himself as the preeminent surgeon for the eyes and face, and for orthopedics. Patients would travel from neighboring states to see the young physician.

Cooper’s reputation raised the ire of his colleagues, who decided to attack Cooper for his dissections. At the time, it was legal for surgeons to dissect the bodies of convicts, provided that the relatives had no objections. Thus when convicted murderers Thomas Brown and George Williams were executed, Cooper received their bodies. He removed them under cover of darkness, because the executions had been quite a public spectacle (and had almost taken place at the hands of an angry mob instead of at the hands of sanctioned officials). Cooper had anticipated receiving the bodies, and he’d advertised an anatomy lecture to take place shortly after the execution. Thus, everyone knew where these bodies came from.

But there were no criminals available for Cooper’s next lecture, which raised suspicion of grave robbery. Cooper’s detractors published a handbill called “Rally to the Rescue of the Graves of Your Friends,” drawing attention to the fact that Cooper must be digging up bodies to supply himself with dissection subjects for his numerous anatomy lectures. The handbill called for a public indignation meeting. Cooper attended the meeting himself, along with some of his friends, who were labeled “Cooperites.” One of his companions, who happened to be drunk, offered to preside over the proceedings. When it was suggested that he was unfit for the task, he retorted, “A drunken man may get sober, but a nature-born fool will never have any sense, by God!” The crowd roared with laughter and soon dispersed. This was Cooper’s first brush with controversy, but it wouldn’t be his last.

Cooper’s practice continued to grow, and he had to purchase a second building to house his Infirmary for the Eye and Ear. He also specialized in the removal and correction of deformities from the lower extremities, especially club foot. But his goal was to establish a medical school, so in 1854 Cooper went to Europe to observe the medical institutions there and to meet with leading medical practitioners. When he returned to the United States, he settled in San Francisco.

The First Medical School in San Francisco

After relocating to San Francisco, Cooper established the Cooper Eye, Ear, and Orthopedic Infirmary in a prominent location. He immediately began advertising for free lectures and demonstrations of his surgical techniques, a strategy that didn’t earn him any friends in the local medical community. Cooper also published reports of his various surgical endeavors. One of these was “Report of an Operation to Remove a Foreign Body from Beneath the Heart.” Published by the San Francisco County Midico Chirugical Association in 1857, the report details how Cooper removed an iron slug lodged in the patient, BT Beal, for 74 days before Cooper endeavored to remove it. The patient’s health improved so dramatically after the procedure that he was “not to be recognized by the medical men present at the operation.”

Clearly Cooper had developed an incredible talent for the art of surgery, but he also made notable advancements to the field. He helped to introduce the use of chloroform during surgery, an indispensable tool in the days before general anesthesia. Cooper also used alcoholic dressings to prevent infection to incisions and wounds, significantly reducing mortality rates. He was a pioneer in the use of animals to test surgical techniques. In 1858, Cooper used his connections and knowledge to establish the Medical department of the University of the Pacific. The school has existed under several names almost without interruption ever since.

Though Cooper still drew some criticism for his dissections, he worked to clarify regulations and ensure proper practices in California. But that didn’t mean that he received universal approbation. In 1857, Cooper performed San Francisco’s first caesarean section. The mother, Mary Hoges, survived but her child did not. Thanks to the encouragement of Dr. David Wooster, who had been the assisting physician, Hoges sued Cooper for malpractice. She argued that the procedure had been unnecessary. The trial resulted in a hung jury, but Wooster continued to publicly attack Cooper, whom he considered a rival. Cooper finally responded in The San Francisco Medical Press, which he founded himself.

Cooper’s career was cut short in 1862, when he succumbed to nephritis after a prolonged illness. But his contributions to medical literature offer fascinating insights into the evolution of the field.

Rare Books in History: The Revolutionary War

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Independence Day commemorates the American colonies’ declaring their intention to gain independence from British rule. These items from our inventory illuminate critical moments in history, both before and after the Revolution.

An Account of the European Settlements in America

Published in six parts and two volumes, An Account of the European Settlements in America was written by Edmund Burke and William Burke. The work is most often attributed to Edmund, who was considered a friend of the Americans during the Revolutionary War. That interpretation is an oversimplification, however; though Burke sympathized with the Americans’ dissatisfaction with British rule, he also hoped they’d strive to avoid war. In 1769, Burke published a pamphlet criticizing the British for stirring up conflict with their policies. Five years later, he spoke out against American taxation. Edmund and William were questionably related but referred to one another as “cousins.” The two published their Account in 1757, and Howes lauds it as the “best contemporary account” of the colonies. Details>>

The Pennsylvania Evening Post, Vol I No 1 (Tuesday, January 24, 1775)

Published by Benjamin Towne, The Pennsylvania Evening Post initially came out tri-weekly through 1784 with hiatuses during the Revolutionary War. In 1783, Towne modified the paper’s name to The Pennsylvania Evening Post, and Daily Advertiser”–the first daily paper in the United States. On July 6, 1776, the paper was also the first to publish the print the Declaration of Independence. Bingham notes 11 institutional holdings of this first appearance, making it uncommon in the trade. Details>>

The Naval Atalantis, Parts I & II

Joseph Harris used the pseudonym Nauticus Junior when he published The Naval Atalantis, which makes sense given the critical commentary he offers therein. Harris offers character sketches of 91 British officers, many of whom played a role in the American Revolution. Howes notes than many of the officers “are unmercifully criticised or lampooned by Harris, notably Viscount Wililam Howe, Lord of the Admiralty.” This is a fair assessment; Harris says of Howe “his Lordship’s conduct on the coast of North America, rather served to throw a shade over the laurels he had acquired in his youth.” Harris was reportedly the secretary to Admiral Milbanke, whom Harris features in Part I. Harris’ tone is often quite caustic toward his fellow soldiers. No copies of this edition have been at auction for over thirty years, making it relatively rare in the trade. Details>>

Independence Day Orations of Josiah Quincy III

Josiah Quincy was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and his namesake would earn the nickname “the Patriot” as principal spokesman for the Sons of Liberty. Thus Josiah Quincy III inherited a legacy of patriotism. He served as a member of the US House of Representatives and as Mayor of Boston before becoming president of Harvard University. Quincy III delivered multiple Independence Day orations to the city of Boston, including one on July 4, 1789 and another on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826. Details>>

Monody on Major Andre

Anna Seward was a prominent woman of letters in her day, having, for example, the admiration of Wordsworth and Scott, and whose disapproval of Dr. Johnson is as well chronicled as her support of young writers of the era is, perhaps, under appreciated. This title, her second published, by the ‘Swan of Lichfield’ [as this poet is known] is a tribute to the suitor of her friend, Honoria Sneyd (stepmother to Maria Edgeworth); the suitor had been executed, as a courier of information from Benedict Arnold to General Clinton, during the Revolutionary War by the Americans. The work’s publication reportedly “brought her an apology from General Washington.” Details>>

Campagnes Militaires de Lieutenant General Sir William Howe en Amerique

William Howe was the British Commanding General during the Revolutionary War, and here he offers his account. It’s an interesting and scarce edition, with no copies at auction in the last 25 years; OCLC lists only three institutions with this edition. It has a preface not present in the English edition: “‘Twenty times,” exclaims the translator (in this preface dated Amst. 25 Nov. 1780), “have the English encouraged the idea and flattered themselves with it of putting a speedy termination to the war, yet after six years they are no farther advanced in the conquest or reconciliation than they were on the first day.’ [Sabin]. Details>>

The Adventures of Christopher Hawkins

During the American Revolution, prisoners of war were treated and managed very differently than they are today; in the eighteenth century, each army was expected to provide supplies and provisions for their own POW’s. Meanwhile, King George III had declared all American soldiers to be traitors, which negated their status as POW’s. Initially, captured American soldiers were simply hanged for treason. However, once the Continental Army caught a large number of British soldiers at the Battle of Saratoga, this practice seemed risky; the British feared reciprocal treatment for their own soldiers. The British resorted to holding their prisoners in dilapidated war ships and prisons. Conditions were deplorable, and many POW’s died as a result. One soldier, Christopher Hawkins was captured and imprisoned on the HMS Jersey off the shore of New York. Hawkins managed to escape, and the details of his captivity were published much later, in a privately printed account. Details>>

Meet Art Conservator Extraordinaire, Karen Zukor!

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Karen Zukor, Senior Conservator at Zukor Art Conservation. Photo courtesy of SF Gate.

This week we welcome special guest Karen Zukor to our blog! Zukor is the senior conservator at Zukor Art Conservation. She’s been a professional paper conservator for more than thirty years and is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation. She’s been responsible for many collections, both public and private, trains both pre- and post-program interns, and offers lectures and workshops to the public. This week she was kind enough to sit down with us to discuss her career path, how conservation has evolved, and how rare book collectors can preserve and protect their collections.

Tav Books: You’ve been in conservation for over thirty years. How did you decide on this career?
Zukor:Initially I was teaching Art History on the East coast, but when I moved out to California in 1974 with my husband, I couldn’t find a teaching position. My interest in art & history also included a curiosity about materials and techniques, so conservation seemed like a good fit. However, I didn’t know really what it entailed or whether I’d have aptitude for it. So I apprenticed with two different conservators and took many courses in related fields. When those apprenticeships were over, I continued to work in the studio with the conservator who initially trained me; that was great because I always had a more senior person there to help me over rough spots. I opened my business four years after those apprenticeships began and worked out of his studio. Eventually, about two or three years later, I moved out on my own.

Tav Books: How have conservation techniques changed since you began your career?
Zukor: I would say that chemical research, particularly in paper conservation, has advanced quite a bit. We’ve gotten a lot more information about the processes that were in place for many decades and also potential treatments in the future. In some ways it’s been a subtractive rather than a cumulative process; long-term research has shown that many conservation techniques are simply not as successful as we’d like them to be–and in some ways can be detrimental. We know more, but we do less. The attitude has changed quite a bit.

Conservators these days are more conservative and practice more restraint. In this field, you’re always implementing some kind of intervention, no matter how subtle. But in the last 25 years, I’ve seen more conservators choose the most minimal treatment and opt for housing an object properly, to slow down the deterioration, rather than to reverse its damage. I think this is my approach, but we also do more full treatments. We have a great deal of experience, though! Right now about seventy percent of our projects are art on paper. The rest is archival material, manuscripts, maps, documents, and books.

Tav Books: Explain the differences among preservation, conservation, and restoration.
Zukor: Restoration usually involves removing as much of the damage as possible, returning the object to a condition that most closely resembles the way it looked when it was originally manufactured. When you conserve an item, you try to remove damage–ravages of time, stains and soil…but you acknowledge that the piece can really not be returned to its original appearance. The focus is instead on trying to stabilize the object both physically and chemically, while acknowledging that the object will continue to deteriorate. There’s less emphasis on cosmetic appearance.

Preservation is about finding the best long-term care and storage for an object, so that deterioration is minimal or at least slowed down as much as possible. When we preserve something, we often ask, “What kind of enclosure or package will give the most protection?” For a book, that would be a box–it keeps out light, dust, and should made out of good quality archival material.

The only times we do restoration is when we fill losses with paper that’s as close as possible to the original. If it’s not a terribly valuable object, we’ll draw in the missing image or tone the paper. For preservation we sometimes do enclosures, especially boxes, for clients so that we know the piece will be properly housed for long-term storage.

One of Zukor’s more unusual commissions: to open a time capsule from 1896! Check out what she finds inside.

Tav Books: What are the most common issues you address?
Zukor: We work on a lot of prints, drawings, and watercolors, and the most common problem is that they come in having been mounted to a board of poor quality. So they were either at some point glued down to a rigid support (because people always seem to think the piece looks better flat). Unless those supports are really good quality, they’ll transfer their properties to whatever’s attached–if you mount something onto an acidic board, that acidity will migrate to the piece. And you also change the nature of the piece; that print attached to a board is no longer a print; it’s a board with an image on it.

A second mistake we address on a regular basis is the use of pressure sensitive tapes. These are usually either used to make repairs or to attach a work of art to a mat. Paper conservation is relatively new. It’s only about sixty years old. And people only started studying paper chemistry and the factors that caused paper to deteriorate in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Research about pressure sensitive tapes is even more recent than that. And formulas for manufacture change periodically–masking tape from 50 years ago is a completely different product, so it will age differently than masking tape manufactured today.

Tav Books: What’s the most challenging or interesting project you’ve tackled?
Zukor: Oh, there are too many to single out! But probably the most challenging was a project in India with a very large, extremely damaged book, all hand written and illustrated in water-sensitive colors. The volume was close to 1,000 pages. It took three people six months, spread out over five years, to do the text. It was very difficult because we were working in an extremely remote location, so we had to bring everything we needed with us, which also led to some instances of interesting improvisation!

Tav Books: Any favorite materials to work with?
Zukor: The first thing that comes to mind is really Japanese papers. We do all of our repair, mending, and backing with very good quality Japanese papers because they’re thin, strong, and flexible. They are wonderful to work with! They’re much better quality than what we could get in the West. It’s pretty much all paper conservators work with. Most of them are handmade, and not dyed. They’re made of different kinds of fibers than they have here in the West. Japan makes the best paper without a doubt, and it’s certainly an arduous process. The conservation community has been partly responsible for keeping Japanese paper manufacture a viable craft.

Tav Books: Tell us a little bit about the kinds of works on paper that are most durable. What about the ones that are most delicate or fragile?
Zukor: Older papers are made from better quality fiber, such as cotton or linen. They also don’t contain a lot of additives or bleaches that would contribute to their deterioration. Later papers had sizings, bleaches, brighteners…all kinds of components that made paper less durable than the earlier ones. The absolute worst quality is newsprint, which is ground wood pulp.

Tav Books: To what extent does the material impact the way it should be stored and preserved? Zukor: The poorer quality the paper, the more likely it is to become brittle and darkened with exposure in just ordinary conditions. Pages made from low-quality paper need more protection from light, heat, humidity, and one another. They often need interleaving material. This can present a problem with antiquarian books, because you can’t interleave the entire book. That would put too much stress on the binding. But owners can definitely put acid-free tissue over the illustrations.

Tav Books: What’s the biggest mistake that private collectors make in caring for/storing their collections?
Zukor: Neglect. Not paying enough attention, not investing in the right materials, and ignoring the need to provide protection with the right kind of materials. Not only to slow aging in the individual item, but to protect different items from influencing and damaging one another. Collectors also tend to handle their items with less than very clean hands. I’m a hand washer because I think that white gloves, no matter how well fitted, give you a less secure grip on the item. There are some instances where gloves are imperative, but most of the time we recommend that people just wash really thoroughly.

The other thing I would emphasize is that collectors should not try to do their own repairs. If they don’t want to take something to a conservator, the best course of action is to leave the piece alone. Don’t attempt to do any repairs or add any material that you think will work! We spend a lot of time undoing work done by people with good intentions.

Karen Zukor and her team specialize in the repair and preservation of art and artifacts on paper, from prints and drawings, to documents, maps, manuscripts, and rare books. Their field of expertise covers a broad spectrum, from small repairs to the treatment of severely damaged and deteriorated objects. Zukor Art Conservation is equipped to handle large-scale works on paper, and can host on-site workshops for up to twenty people. Their lab is designed to provide conservation treatment for both single artifacts and larger collections. Whether of artistic, historic, or personal significance, every item is viewed in context, with consideration for how it will be used.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!

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Summer is officially underway, and the season is synonymous with family vacation, road trips, and carefree adventures. Though the ways we travel have evolved over time, the thrill of the journey endures.

Planes

Since the beginning of time, humans have been obsessed with flight. At first, their attempts were based on the way birds flew. Next the hot air and hydrogen balloons gave us a means of navigating the skies. But it was two bicycle manufacturers from Dayton, Ohio who would introduce the airplane. The Wright brothers revolutionized travel, war, and commerce with their invention.

The Call of the Clouds

Edson Gallaudet formed the first aircraft engineering office in 1908. Two years later, Gallaudet Engineering Office had begun building planes under contract. The company was reorganized as the Gallaudet Aircraft Corporation in 1917 and offered its first product, the Curtis floatplane, the following year. This rare trade catalogue, The Call of the Clouds, presents the Gallaudet Chummy Flyabout Sport Model–which sold for the low price of $3,500. We’ve found no evidence that this plane was ever actually produced, making the catalogue a fascinating record of a machine that could have been.

Pilot’s Flight Operating Instructions

Our collection includes three pilot’s’ flight operating instructions for Army planes, published in 1945. These flight manuals address both American and British planes used during the World War II era, such as the P-51 and B-29. They incorporate numerous charts and graphs for pilots, along with a few annotations from the original owner. For those interested in aviation or military history, this collection of documents are quite fascinating.

Aeroplanes

A rare early aviation trade catalogue, Aeroplanes presents models manufactured by Aug. C. Gomes & Cie, with specifications, illustrations, and performance records for Henry Farman, Sommer, Bleriot, Tellier, Voisin, Antoinette, Maurice Farman, REP, and Hanriot models. A powerplant section follows, and the catalogue concludes with a variety of other aircraft accessories and components. The company even offers hangar facilities for some airplane models. We’ve found no listing for this particular catalogue in either OCLC or KVK.

Trains

As early as 1550, roads with wooden rails were built in Germany to make it easier for horse-drawn carriages to move. These wagonways, as they were called, were the precursor to the modern railroad. Two centuries later, iron had replaced wood. But the railroad truly became an efficient means of transportation with the introduction of the steam locomotive. Today, trains evoke the romance and nostalgia of leisurely travel.

Baldwin Locomotive Works Photographs

This photo album apparently belonged to SM Vauclain, locomotive designer and eventual president of Baldwin Locomotive. It’s possibly unique, with 18 pasted-in albumen prints of various Baldwin locomotives. Identified models include “Nacional Mexicano,” “Northern Pacific,” “Companhia Paulista,” “EFOM,” “Ramal Dumont,” “WNY & PRR,” and “Estrada de Ferro Central do Brazil.” The photo quality is very good to fine.

War of the Gauges

In December, 1853, the city of Erie and its neighboring township Harborcreek waged an interesting battle against rail travel. They tore up tracks of the Erie and North-East Railroad, wherever the tracks intersected the public highway or city streets. While their actions were ostensibly promulgated by a debated over track width, it indicated an underlying struggle for economic advantage. For two months, rail travel between New York and the West was interrupted, but the inconveniences lasted a full two years. The War of the Gaugesis the first book publication documenting this exciting time in Erie history, complete with court testimony and individual statements.

The Union Pacific Railroad

This Union Pacific Railroad brochure served as both a progress report and a promotional brochure. Because the railroad fell under the auspices of the federal government, it issued regular updates for Congress. Issued in 1868, this one includes information through December, 1867. It outlines the progress of the railroad west of Omaha, Nebraska, which resulted in an unbroken line from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The report’s frontis features a “Map of the Union Pacific Rail Road and its connections.”

Automobiles

Though Henry Ford is widely credited with inventing the automobile, the machine’s history is actually much more complex. Back in the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci created designs and models for vehicles that foreshadow the modern-day automotive. Many suggest that Karl Benz actually invented the first true automobile, and it was his wife, Bertha, who undertook the first road trip to demonstrate the road-worthiness of her husband’s invention.

Locomobile

Founded in 1899, the Locomobile Company manufactured small, affordable steam cars for only four years before offering only internal combustion-powered luxury cars. This brochure, one of the first the company issued, notes the demand for “a self-propelling vehicle that will combine the qualities of lightness, speed, economy, and ease of operation.” It describes the advantages and attributes of the vehicle and includes images of several models. The last, Model 6, is billed as “the Fastest Racing Machine in the World.” OCLC records only three institutional holdings of this item, making it uncommon in the trade.

A Joy Ride of 1911

Generously illustrated with both photographs and postcards, “A Joy Ride of 1911” is a charming amateur account of one family’s Chalmers automobile trip through New Jersey up through New England. Their objective is to reach the White Mountains. Recorded by the anonymous wife/mother of the family, the vacation is engagingly chronicled.

1936 Report of Bonneville Salt Flats Speed Runs

JB Jenkins Robinson made a typewritten report to HC Bougey, Chief Chemist of General Motors, detailing the results of sponsored speed runs in 1936. Their aim: “To establish Worlds’ speed records with a view of utilizing results for advertising and sales promotion.” Over four testing periods, 19 speed records were set. Seven carbon copies of Robinson’s report exist; this one is bound in a manilla folder along with a facsimile log-sheet for Jenkins’ 24-hour run (Sept 21-23) and 16 captioned black-and-white snapshots.

As we look back in time at the history of transportation, we wonder what the future holds. What mode of transportation will be next to captivate the world with its promise of adventure?