Amazon.com - Essential titles for book collectors include
ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter and Nicolas Barker,
The Book: the Story of Printing and Bookmaking by Douglas C. McMurtrie,
Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft by Dard Hunter,
An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students by Ronald McKerrow,
A New Introduction to Bibliography by Philip Gaskell,
Bookbinding: Its Background and Technigue by Edith Diehl and
Encyclopedia of the Book by Geoffrey Ashall Glaister.
Consider, too,
Bookstore: The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & Co. by Lynne Tillman,
Collector's Progress by Wilmarth Lewis,
A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes (there is a transcript of the October 15, 1995 C-SPAN Booknotes Nicholas Basbanes Interview),
The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvey, an account of the plundering of academic library map collections by Gilbert Bland (hear a review of the book by critic Maureen Corrigan on the Thursday, September 28, 2000 Fresh Air),
Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion by Madeline B. Stern and Leona Rostenberg, and
The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Verse, Violence and the Art of Forgery by Simon Worrall.
See Also:
Archives & Manuscripts |
Books and Reading |
Children's Literature |
Electronic Texts & Primary Sources |
Images |
Librariana |
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
- AB Bookman's Weekly - Journal for the mail-order, second-had book trade founded in 1948 as Antiquarian Bookman and originally published by Bowker. It was purchased in 1953 by by Solomon and Mary Ann Malkin, who sold it in 1972. (See The Art of Terpsichore: The Collection of Mary Ann O’Brian Malkin and
Mary Ann Malkin, Journal Editor and Rare-Book Collector, Dies at 91, New York Times, August 14, 2005.)
- ABC de bibliophilie: définitions des termes du glossaire de bibliophilie - French book terms. "Préparé par des membres de la Confrérie de la Librairie Ancienne du Québec (CLAQ) sous la direction de Michel Villeneuve, libraire."
- Abbey Newsletter: Preservation of Library and Archival Materials - Ellen McCrady, Editor. Searchable and browsable by author and title. Examples of contents include NYPL To Dust Books, Bibliothèque Nationale: A Building Hostile to Preservation and Access, Hill Monastic Manuscript Library and Mold: The Whole Picture (three parts).
- Abstracts of International Conservation Literature (AATA Online) - "Comprehensive database of 100,000 abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage." (Getty Conservation Institute)
- Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei - Rome. Provides a list of Fellows. In the Historical Archives is Edizione elettronica dei Rendiconti e delle Memorie from 1849 to 1857.
- Alvin Lustig (1915-1955)
- Typographic and Book jacket designer.
- Booksellers & Booksearches
- AddALL: Book Searching and Price Comparison - Allows you to search and compare book price at 41 bookstores.
- aLibris - Used, rare, out-of-print
- Amazon.com
- Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) - Lists dealers by specialty and has a Search Page
- Advanced Book Exchange (ABE) - "Search 13,500 booksellers selling 80 million books."
- Antiqbook - Netherlands Antiquarian Booksellers' Network. "Unites more than 400 independent booksellers from all over the world."
- Barnes and Noble
- Best Book Buys - Bookstore comparison service searches 26 online bookstores
- Biblio
- Bibliopoly - Multilinqual online database of rare books for sale from the stock of leading and specialised dealers. See also Polybiblio
- BookFinder - "Compare prices on over 100 million books for sale."
- BookSense - National marketing campaign on behalf of the independent bookstores of America. Book Sense Bestseller List is based on sales from over 350 independent bookstores across America. Book Sense 76 Picks is a bi-monthly selection of eclectic new books chosen by independent booksellers.
- ChooseBooks - Merged with Zentrales Verzeichnis Antiquarischer Bücher (ZVAB). More than 10 million antiquarian books from over 1600 international dealers.
- DealTime, a comparison shopping engine for books, music and video,
- Ebay
- ISBN - "Quick way to compare the prices of any in-print and many out-of-print books at 14 online bookstores."
- Used Book Search - "Search 60 million used books worldwide."
- Amazon.com - Essential titles for book collectors include ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter and Nicolas Barker, The Book: the Story of Printing and Bookmaking by Douglas C. McMurtrie, Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft by Dard Hunter, An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students by Ronald McKerrow, A New Introduction to Bibliography by Philip Gaskell, Bookbinding: Its Background and Technigue by Edith Diehl and Encyclopedia of the Book by Geoffrey Ashall Glaister. Consider, too, Collector's Progress by Wilmarth Lewis or A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes. (There is a transcript of the October 15, 1995 C-SPAN Booknotes Nicholas Basbanes Interview.) The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvey, describes the plundering of academic library map collections by Gilbert Bland. Hear a review (in RealAudio) of the book by critic Maureen Corrigan on the Thursday, September 28, 2000 Fresh Air.
- American Antiquarian Society - Located in Worcester, Massachusetts, the AAS is a "learned society and national research library of pre-twentieth century American history and culture." There is access to their online catalog. They offer an annual
Summer Seminar (see Previous Summer Seminars). Other useful resources include
Bibliographies at the American Antiquarian Society,
Dating American Tract Society Publications Through 1876 from External Evidences: A Series of Tablesby S.J. Wolfe, cataloguer, a
Members Directory, and the
19th Century American Children's Book Trade Directory
- American Bibliography - Subtitled "a chronological dictionary of all books, pamphlets, and periodical publications printed in the United States of America from the genesis of printing in 1639 down to and including the year 1820," this 14 volume work by Charles Evans, was published between 1941 and 1959, and is considered the definitive history of the book in America. A supplement was published in 1970.
- American Book Prices Current (ABPC) - Among the articles is The Poetics of Exhibition Catalogues by D. W. Kummel, a lecture on the philosophy and theory of exhibition catalogues as literature delivered at the ALA in July 2000. There is a list of auction houses.
- American Printing History Association
- American Society Of Bookplate Collectors And Designers
- Americana Exchange - Articles, worldwide auction listings, calendar and Americana bibliographical database (the last item is a paid service).
- Animal, Vegetable and Mineral: Natural History Books by Ten Authors - Sheridan Libraries of the Johns Hopkins University.
- Annuaire Electronique International des Librairies de Livres d'Occasion - Pascal Chartier's directory lists over 3,000 book stores (in English or in French).
- Antiqbook - Provided by Netherlands Antiquarian Booksellers' Network (NAN), the site offers searchable databases, online catalogues, information [bio-bibliographic, auctions, exhibitions, directories, libraries, etc.], mailing lists, and free book search service. There are 4 searchable books and prints databases in the NAN Searchable Database.
- Antiquarian Book Dealers and Associations on the World Wide Web - Connectotel Production
- Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America - Site allows you to find dealers by
specialty,
search for a book, request a catalogue,
locate catalogues, both
online and
in print. There is much good information for
Collectors, including a Newsletter, a
Glossary , a list of dealers and
Book Collecting Links.
- Antiquarian Booksellers' Association International
- Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of Canada - Founded by Bernard Amtmann in 1966.
- Antiquarian Bookseller's Association of Switzerland
- Antiquarian Book Monthly - UK publication features "breaking news, a features digest and a ten day rolling fairs and auctions calendar."
- Archive of Watermark Images - Robert W Allison, Bates College.
- Arion Press - Limited edition books with original art, designed and published by Andrey Hoyem, San Francisco.
- L'art du Livre Arabe - Bibliothèque Nationale de France exhibition (9 October 2001 to 13 January 2002). There are sections on bindings, calligraphy, printing, papyrus, parchment & paper, illumination and illustration. This is site rich in images ranging from the medieval to the contemporary.
- Arts of the Book Collection - Yale University Library. Contents include Collections and Book Arts Links.
- Aspects of the Victorial Book - British Library
- Associazione Librai Antiquari d'Italia
- Auldbooks
- Back Issue Finder - "Marketplace for locating and selling hard-to-find, out-of-print and back issue periodicals including newspapers, magazines and comic books, as well as a wide variety of ephemera (paper collectible) items such as programs, postcards, posters and trading cards."
- Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature - University of Florida, Gainesville. "Contains more than 100,000 volumes published in Great Britain and the United States from the early 1700s through the current year. Its holdings of more than 800 early American imprints is the second largest such collection in the United States." You can browse by genre in the Digital Collection which contains approximately 5,000 items. There are over 700 digitized titles with hand-colored illustrations, including the following:
- Jack and Florie, or, The pigeons' wedding - By Harriet B. McKeever. See page 7.
- A frog he would a-wooing go - Illustrated by Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886).
- Alice's adventures in Wonderland - By Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)
- Bancroft Incunabula - Patrick Russell, cataloguer emeritus at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, has created a searchable database of over 400 incunabula titles. Related resources include Virtual Library Geschichte: Bereichs Historische Hilfswissenschaften: Handschriftenkunde / Kodikologie: Buchgeschichte, Catalogo Edizioni Antiche, The Infancy of the Art of Printing and Brandeis University Libraries Incunabula.
- Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - OPAC of the Bavarian State Library in Munich contains records of all works in the library which were printed between 1501 and 1840 and from 1982 onwards.
- Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - Yale University site provides a useful Guide to the collections and a Finding Aid Database which provides access to many archival and manuscript collections in the Beinecke as well as the Sterling and Divinity Library collections. In the Beinecke Rare Book Library Digital Collections you can view images of manuscripts, letters, photographs, drawings, engravings, paintings, objects. The library is particularly rich in American literature and Western Americana. Try a phrase search for Hilda Doolittle, William Faulkner, Gertrude Stein, Norman Holmes Pearson, Langston Huges, David Herbert Lawrence, Alfred Stieglitz, Maximilian Wied, W.H. Jackson, George Catlin, Edward S. Curtis, Hartley Burr Alexander, Alfred J. Miller, John James Audubon, Codex Borbonicus.
- Berg Collection - New York Public Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature "is one of America's most celebrated collections of first editions, rare books, autograph letters, and manuscripts." (The collection can be searched via NYP's online catalog: CATNYP.)
- Bernard Quaritch - Antiquarian booksellers, London
- Best Book Buys - Searches 22 online stores
- Bibliofind - Nine million old, used and rare books offered here for sale by three thousand booksellers around the world; provides Search Form and includes AB Bookman's for-sale listings.
- Bibliographical Society of Canada
- Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia - Provides full-text access to Studies in Bibliography, searchable or browsable by volume (vols. 1-52, 1948-1999) and author.
- Bibliographical Society (London) - Provides Tables of Contents for The Library, the Society's quarterly journal.
- Bibliographical Society of America - Has a good collection of links to bibliography and textual criticism Internet resources.
- Bibliography of Imprints of the German Speaking Countries in the Seventeenth Century (VD17) - "All German titles and all titles which have been printed or published in the former German speaking countries will be catalogued. Only printed music and maps are excluded." (Try a search for Nürnberg.)
- Biblioklepts - Christopher Reed's article on book theft from university libraries in March-April 1997 issue of Harvard Magazine. (Reed also wrote stolen ancient coins at Harvard in Picking Harvard's Pocket in the May/June 2000 issue.)
- Bibliopolis - "Electronic national history of the printed book in the Netherlands. It is a scholarly, interactive information system with which the researcher can gain insight into the state of affairs in the history of the book and access documentation."
- Bibliopolis: Domaine du Livre Ancien - Canadian site has an interesting collection of liens to other resources. (In French.)
- Bibliopoly - Beta version of multilinqual online database of rare books for sale from the stock of leading and specialised dealers.
- Biblioteca Ambrosiana - Milan
- Ambrosiana Catalogo on-line della Biblioteca
- Bibliotheca Canadiana: A Historical Survey of Canadian Bibliography - Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University Libraries
- Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana Chess & Draughts collection - Rich collection of chess and draughts books in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. With images from the collection (Chess and draughts).
- Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana / Vatican Library - Roma. Provides access to online catalog. You can search for and view images (Vedere il documento) in the Multimedia section. For example try a search (general infos) for Roma (over 1400 results) or medaglia (over 150 results). There is a portrait of Aldus Manutius Paulus Filius.
- Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana - Firenze
- Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense - Milano. Provides access to online catalogs
- Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana - Venezia. Provides access to online catalog. The Newsletter (in English) from 1998 to 2005, has information about the library in The Marciana Library Today in the Summer 1998 issue.
- Biblioteca Trivulziana
- Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon - Thousands of images from the library's magnificent collection of illuminated manuscripts and incunabula from the Fifth Century to the Renaissance can be accessed by clicking on Bases de Donnees and then connexion à la base Enluminures.
- BIBSOCAN - Internet Discussion Group on Bibliography - Bibliographical Society of Canada
- Bienes Center for the Literary Arts - This Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Special Collections and Rare Book Library site features online Exhibitions, (including ZYX: An Exhibition of Selected ABC Books from the Jean Trebbi Collection).
- Bird Press - Has a gallery of Books, Portfolios, and Prints by Thorsten Dennerline.
- Blissful Books and Bindings: the Susan Dwight Bliss Collection - Online exhibition of bindings from some of the 1,200 volumes relating to the fine arts, travel, and French and English history and literature housed in the Bowdoin College George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives. Includes a catalog of collection and a glossary of binding terms.
- Bloomsbury Book Auctions - London. Available online is the catalogue for the 26 September 2002 auction of Books from the Library at Donaueschingen, "the biggest private library to come on to the market in the 20th century". For additional information on the holdings of the Donaueschingen Court Library see Donaueschingen Digital, a German project coordinated by Klaus Graf.
- Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers - They have a Books, Maps and Manuscripts department.
- Book and Paper Group Annual - Non-juried anthology of papers pertaining to the conservation and preservation of works of art on paper, books and library and archival materials. Full-text of Volume 12 (1993), Volume 13 (1994), Volume 14 (1995), Volmue 15 (1996), Volume 16 (1997) and Volume 18 (1999). There are also Table of Contents for Volumes not yet available online. (The American Institute for Conservation.)
- Book Arts-L Archives - "Mailing list based at Syracuse University, and managed by Peter Verheyen. It currently claims over 1100 subscribers worldwide, among them practicing bookbinders, book-artists, marblers, papermakers, printers, collectors, curators in libraries, and people just interested in our wide and varied field."
- Books Arts Summer Workshop - Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
- Book Arts Web - Peter Verheyen's collection of links to a large selection of book arts related sites on the web, including galleries with images.
- Book Collecting Resources on the Web, Mostly - Chris Mays
- Book Collector - Founded in 1952 by Ian Fleming (two years before he published Casino Royale) and edited by John Hayward until his death in 1965. There's no access to the text but you can search the Index from 1952 to 2003. Indexes for individual years (volumes) are also retrievable. See, for example, Volume 11 (1962).
- Book History Online (Nederlandse Boekhistorische Vereniging) - Offered by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, BHO "is a database in English on the history of the printed book and libraries. It contains titles of books and articles on the history of the printed book worldwide. It is based on ABHB, the Annual Bibliography of the History of the printed Book and Libraries."
- Book Information Website - Cor Knops, Fine Press Book Association. (Originally developed by Ton Cremers.)
- Booklover's Repair Kit: 1st Aid for Home Libraries - By Estelle Ellis, Wilton Wiggins, Douglas Lee. Available at Amazon.com, which supplies photographs of the contents. The kit consists of the The Booklover's Repair Manual, 160p, illus., and the following: pH-neutral adhesive, document-cleaning pad, transparent mending tape, mounting and hinging tape, red cotton library tape, bone folder, art gum eraser, soft white eraser, Pink Pearl eraser, microspatula, dust cloth, silicone release paper, binder's board, archival mat board, Canson paper, cotton gloves, bamboo brush, china bristle brush, artist brushes, #2 and #4, knitting needle, plastic cutting board, bulldog clamps, and archival permanent glue stick.
- Book Sales in America - Gives dates and other details about used book sales run by libraries and non-profit groups.
- Book Trade Lives - British Library Sound Archive
- Bookbinding and the Conservation of books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology - Matt T. Roberts and Don Etherington (from Conservation OnLine).
- BookFinder - Anirvan Chatterjee's online bookstore search and shopping agent (new, used & antiquarian).
- Bookhad - Project established to "to provide support for nationwide research activities in the fields of book history and book design." There is a collection of links to relevant web sites.
- BookMakers International - College Park, Maryland, company sells supplies, tools and equipment for book conservation, paper conservation and hand bookbinding.
- Books & Book Collecting - Steve Trussel
- Books Go to War: the Armed Services Editions in World War Two - Virtual catalog of an exhibition about the history of the Armed Services editions held at the University of Virginia, April 20 to September 10, 1996.
- Bookwebsites - Links to over 120,000 book-related websites in 5,400 categories.
- Briar Press - "Community of letterpress printers, book artists, and printing enthusiasts."
- British Library - Their Turning the Pages provides full-text access to Leonardo's Notebook, Sforza Hours, Lindisfarne Gospels, Luttrell Psalter, Golden Haggadah,Blackwell's Herbal, Vesalius's Anatomy, Sherborne Missal, Diamond Sutra, and Sultan Baybars' Qur'an. Collect Britain is a collection of online "maps, prints and drawings, photographs and documents, [and] rare early sound recordings from around the globe." It promises to have "100,000 items by September 2004." They also offer a Database of Bookbindings and a Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts. Book Trade Lives, part of the British Library Sound Archives' Oral history National Life Story Collection is a "project to record the experiences of those who have worked in UK publishing and bookselling between the early 1920s and the present day. Interviews are being carried out with representatives from all levels and sectors of the trade, from invoice clerks and warehouse staff to wholesalers, editors, sales staff and executives." Their National Sound Archive is "one of the largest sound archives in the world." You can search the Sound Archive catalogue. There is a lengthy description, for example, of an interview with Charles Clark (1933 - ) conducted by Sue Bradley in 2002 consisting of 23 sixty-minute tapes. This is one of the many interviews in the NLSC: Book Trade Lives series (part of the larger National Life Story Collection) which consists of over 100 interviews with publishers and booksellers. "This project was begun in 1998. The purpose of the project is to record the experiences of those who have worked in UK publishing and bookselling between the early 1920s and the present day. Interviews are being carried out with representatives from all levels and sectors of the trade, from invoice clerks and warehouse staff to wholesalers, editors, sales staff and executives." Other interviews with descriptive summaries include Christina Foyle (1911-1999), Kate Pocock (1948 - ) (listen to excerpt), Thomas Joy (1904-2003) (listen to excerpt),
- Buyer's Market - a Selection of Recent Acquisitions - University of Virginia Library.
- C18-L: Resources fo 18th century studies across the disciplines - Virtual forum that works by circulating posted messages via e-mail to all subscribers. Selected Readings is a bibliography of eighteenth-century studies.
- CMI Archival Acid Free Boxes - MicroClimate archival containers are a clamshell design manufactured to customer supplied measurements. (See ExLibris Archives for May 2001 for various opinions on these boxes.) Ocker & Trapp Library Bindery, founded by founded by bookbinders Ralph Ocker and Herbert Trap, also makes Custom Enclosures and University Products offers "adjustable rare book storage boxes."
- California International Antiquarian Book Fair San Francisco, February 23-25, 2001.
- California Rare Book School - UCLA Department of Information Studies
- Cambridge History of of English and American Literature - Chapter 18 , by H. G. Aldis, is on the Book Trade and Chapter 19, by J. Bass Mullinger, is on the Foundation of Libraries.
- Campbell-Logan Bindery - Minneapolis
- Canadian Conservation Institute - With online catalogue.
- Canadian Directory of Special Collections - National Library of Canada.
- Carlo Alberto Chiesa (1926-1998) - Milanese bookseller (libraio antiquario milanese). See Obituary by Nicolas Barker, (London) Independent, February 16, 1998. "Chiesa did not deal just in grand books; he could see the delight of quiet humble ephemera. It was the same with people; he was hospitable to all, though his first love was for his wife and family, with whom he went climbing in the Dolomites every year."
- Carriage House Paper - Brooklyn, New York. "Professional hand papermaking studio and a major provider of papermaking supplies and equipment. Workshops are offered on all aspects of papermaking and paper art."
- Cary Graphic Arts Collection - Library on printing history located at the Rochester Institute of Technology offers a Digital Image Database and the Bernard C. Middleton Collection of Books on the History and Practice of Bookbinding
- Census of Italian 16th Century Editions - Editions printed in Italy between 1501 and 1600, in any language, and editions printed abroad in Italian.
- Center for Book Arts - New York
- Center for the Book in the Library of Congress - Provides links to Book-related organizations and programs and to Book Fairs and Literary Festivals.
- CERL Thesaurus - Database created by the Consortium for European Research Libraries (CERL) "contains forms of imprint places, imprint names, and personal names as found in material printed before the middle of the nineteenth century – including variant spellings, forms in Latin and other languages, and fictitious names. The file has been created as a reference tool for bibliographers and scholars of the history of the book."
- Chapitre - French used and rare books.
- Christies International - Has a Books & Manuscripts department. The Private Library of William Foyle sold for a total of $19 million in London in July 2000, setting an auction record for a European private library.
- Christina Foyle Obituary - Managing director of Foyle's, the celebrated Charing Cross Road bookshop. (From the Electronic Telegraph (UK), 12 June 1999.)
- A Collector's Progress, or, Why I have 500 Copies of the Same Book - Presentation by Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. to the 1996 Annual General Meeting of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 29 March 1996.
- Codices Electronici Ecclesiae Coloniensis (CEEC) - 85 digitized medieval manuscripts held by the Episcopal and Cathedral Library, Cologne.
- Colophon - Modern illustrated and Fine Press books.
- Colophon Book Arts Supply - 3611 Ryan Street SE, Lacey, Washington 98503 (360-459-2945)
- Color Printing in the Nineteenth Century - University of Delaware Library, Newark.
- Columbia University Libraries Archival Collections
- House of Books
- Kenneth Lohf Papers 1793-1992
- Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc. Papers [Records?] 1930-1979
- Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc. Papers [Records?] 1930-1979
- Online Finding Aid - "Correspondence afid catalogs of John Kohn and Michael Papantonio,proprietors of Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc., in New York City. Some early letters from the time when the two men were independent bookdealers and operated Collector^ Bookshop and Papantonio's Bookshop are included. There are many letters in the collection
from major universities and colleges and from famous collectors, such as C. Waller Barrett, Thomas W. Streeter,.Jacob Blanck, and Josiah K. Lilly. The collection is arranged chronologically."
Catalog record: "Bookstore in New York City with John Kohn and Michael Papantonio, proprietors. The two men were formerly independent bookdealers and operated Collector’s Bookshop and Papantonio’s Bookshop. Correspondence and catalogs of Seven Gables Bookshop, and some early letters from Collector’s Bookshop and Papantonio’s Bookshop. There are many letters in the collection from major universities and colleges and from famous collectors such as C. Waller Barrett, Thomas W. Streeter, Jacob Blanck, and Josiah K. Lilley. Also, miscellaneous correspondence and notes of John Kohn."
- Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts - "Specializes in the treatment of art and historic artifacts on paper"
- Conservation OnLine - Resources for Conservation Professionals. Has a collection of links to Lexical and Classification Resources consisting of "dictionaries, thesauri, classification schemes, and related matter primarily of use to those managing preservation libraries, imaging projects, etc."
- Cornell University Library: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
- Collections Overview
- Digital Collections
- Cornell University Archival Guides - Browse by subject or by title.
- Louis Agassiz Fuertes
- Ezra Cornell Papers
- Ezra Cornell a Nineteenth-Century Life
- Fiske Icelandic Collection
- From Dublin to Ithaca Cornell's James Joyce Collection
- Guide to the James Joyce Collection
- Carl A. Kroch Library
- Human Sexuality Collection
- Arthur H. and Mary Marden Dean Lafayette Collection, 1520 - 1849
- Paper, Leather, Clay, & Stone: The Written Word Materialized
- Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts in the Cornell University Library - Compiled by Robert G. Calkins, Cornell Library Journal
- Cotsen Children's Library - Princeton University collection is "one of the great concentrations of primary source material (20,000 items), principally in the form of illustrated books, but including prints, drawings, manuscripts, games, puzzles, hornbooks, and toys, among a great many other objects. These range from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries in a variety of languages from French and German to Farsi and Urdu."
- Czech Avant-Garde: European Art and Photography in Book Design, 1922-1940 - Exhibition in the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Pasadena, of books and journals from the collection of Zdenek Primus.
- Database of Book Bindings - British Library
- Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin: Einbanddatenbank - Database of book bindings of the 15th and 16th centuries at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
- DealTime - International book search engine and price comparison system which checks out prices, availability, shipping time and shipping costs of your book at over 40 online stores. Developed by Christopher Muenchoff and Christoph Janz, the database is searchable by title, author, keyword and ISBN, and includes audio books. Other bookstore comparison services include. (Formerly known as Acses and DealPilot.)
- Decorated and Decorative Paper Collection - "Selection of decorated and decorative papers from Europe, primarily Germany, France and Italy, produced between the 17th and 19th centuries. Representative samples include Western marbled paper, paste papers and decorative papers, such as Dutch gilt and lithographically or linoleum block printed paper. Some examples of Suminagashi are also included in the database." University of Washington Digital Collections.
- French curl on Wide comb pattern - Vintage 19th c. marbled paper
- Gold vein Overprinted on Turkish antiqued pattern - Vintage 19th c. marbled paper
- Bouquet pattern - Vintage 19th c. marbled paper
- Fantasy pattern - Vintage 19th c. marbled paper
- Nonpareil pattern - Vintage 19th c. marbled paper
- Denis Gouey Bookbinding Studio
- Design Museum - London. See Matthw Carter, Typography Designer and Irma Boom, Book Designer.
Descriptive Bibliography: An On-Line Tutorial - Stephen Ramsay, Department of English, University of Virginia.
- Die Deutsche Bibliothek - Their Book Museum and Special Collections has online exhibitions including 100 Jahre Buntpapiersammlung Seegers and Sammlung Bartsch
- Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts - British Library
- Digital Catalogue of Watermarks and Type Ornaments Used by William Stansby in the Printing of The Workes of Benjamin Jonson - David L. Gants, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia.
- Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture - University of Wisconsin Madison. E-Facsimiles include Temple of Flora, or, Garden of the botanist, poet, painter, and philosopher (1812) by Robert Thornton (with with the spectacular Night-Blowing Cereus; or, Cactus Grandiflorus) and The Decoration of Houses (1898) by Edith Wharton.
- Digital Scriptorium - Joint project of the Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley) and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University to digitize the two universities' medieval and early Renaissance manuscript holdings. Currently comprising a database of over 4,000 images, the project will eventually contain some 10,000 images. Has a new
Test Database search option. Sample images can be viewed by using the Display All Images for a Shelfmark. A search for the shelfmark Plimpton MS 034 retrieves images of a processional for female Franciscans. (Shelfmarks for Plimpton MS appear to range from 002 to 305.) To view descriptions of all manuscripts (warning: large file!) use Text Search Terms, leaving all options blank, and select Run.
- Digitalisierte historische Kinderbücher - German children's book digitization project. Books are listed by title and author. Among the 392 primarily German titles in the collection are a few in English:
A book of nonsense by Edward Lear, The Baby's Own Aesop with illustrations by Walter Crane, Edmund Dulac's Fairy Book, and A Day in a Child's Life by Kate Greenaway.
- Digitale bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse letteren (DNBL) - Digital Library of Dutch Literature. Searchable and rowsable by author (alle auteurs) and title (Beschikbare titels). The News page shows recently added texts. Titles of interest include:
- The Golden Compasses: The History of the House of Plantin-Moretus - A History and Evaluation of the Printing and Publishing Activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp in two volumes by Leon Voet, 1969.
- Een Beytie Hollansche / Dutch Compositions - By James Boswell. Edited by C.C. Barfoot and K.J. Bostoen, Academic Press, Leiden, 1995. "Seen off by Dr Johnson, James Boswell, not yet 23, on 6 August 1763 embarked at Harwich on 'the Prince of Wales packet-boat' for the Netherlands, where he landed, at Hellevoetsluis, the following day 'at twelve at noon'. After living for nine exciting months in London, where in a rakish existence he had partly managed to 'transform himself from a raw and romping boy into a high-bred man of pleasure' and had become the friend of Samuel Johnson, more than thirty years his senior, in August 1763 Boswell was on his way to Utrecht to continue his law studies, already begun in Scotland." (p. vii.)
- Het Achterhuis by Anne Frank, Uitgeverij Contact, Amsterdam 1947.
- Altijd acht gebleven. Over de kinderliteratuur van Annie M.G. Schmidt - Nederlands Letterkundig Museum en Documentatiecentrum, Den Haag, 1991.
- Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls - Stanford University Library
- Duke University Special Collections Library
- Dutch Antiquarian Booksellers' Association | Nederlandsche Vereeniging van Antiquaren NVvA
- Early Manuscripts at Oxford University - 2,000 high resolution digital images of Celtic and other manuscripts from the collections of a number of University of Oxford Libraries. (To see the images you must click on I accept the conditions.)
- Ebay: Books - Check the box that says search title and description. There is a section for Rare Books.
- English Short Title Catalogue - British Library. "Bibliographic records for all known British printed material before 1801, held by the British Library and over 2000 other institutions worldwide." See 30 October 2006 Press Release.
- Enluminures - French government database (base de données) has 16,810 online images of illuminated manuscripts. You can browse by author, title, subject, and type of decoration. One subject, for example, is Anges musiciens (angel musicians).
- Ernest Schaeffer, Inc. - "Equipment, materials and supplies for bookbinders and gold stampers." 73 Lehigh Avenue, Union, New Jersey 07083 (908-964-1280)
- ExLibris Archives - "Electronic news and discussion group for those interested in rare books and special collections."
- Esaupe: Sauvegarde du patrimoine - Association of libraries (bibliotheques) dedicated to safeguarding local history documents and manuscripts.
- Evans Early American Imprint Collection - "Titles relating to the history of seventeenth and eighteenth century America."
(Only a few titles are available in ths beta version.)
- First Books by American Writers: 1786-1984 - Georgetown University Library, 1997.
- Flora Danica Online - Danish National Library of Science and Medicine
project to digitize 3240 folio-sized pictures of wild plants in Denmark from
Flora Danica and provide a searchable database of plants. The Flora Danica
porcelain dinner set, made between 1790 and 1802, consisted of 1802 pieces, of which 1500 survive. You can browse the images by
plate number. Examples include
Digitalis purpurea (foxglove),
Dipsacus silvester (teasel) and
Delphinium Consolida (larkspur).
- Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association
- Fondazione Giorgio Cini - Venezia / Venice. You can search the online Photo library of the Institute of Art History "consisting of around 30,000 images of art works of various types in Veneto Museums."
- Fondation Martin Bodmer - Bibliothèque et Musée - Library and cultural museum at Cologny, on Lake Geneva. "Pour les archéologues, pour les historiens d’art, pour les papyrologues, pour les médiévistes, pour les spécialistes des littératures française, allemande, anglaise, italienne, espagnole, scandinave, slave et orientales, pour les historiens du droit et des sciences, pour les historiens du livre et de l’écriture, la Fondation Bodmer constitue une mine presque inépuisable de recherches et de découvertes." (Bernard Gagnebin)
- Forgery - Among the more well-known forgers are:
- William Henry Ireland
- T. J. Wise
- Henry Buxton Forman
- Edmund Backhouse
- Joseph Cosey
- Mark Hofmann
- Friends of Dard Hunter - "International organization with a diverse membership whose interests center around handmade paper and related arts and crafts."
- FYI France: Book - Dealers in France - Jack Kessler
- Gallica: Images et Texts du XIX Siècle Francophone - Vast resource from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France digitizes books and images from the 19th century.
- The Gentle Madness of Book Collecting - "Mini-conference for both expert and novice collectors," October 24, 2003, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 59 pp. (pdf). Consisted of six seminars:
Mormon Incunabula: The Infancy of Mormon Publishing (Larry Draper);
Back in the Saddle: Collecting Western Fiction (Russ Taylor);
The Top 50 Most Influential Books Ever Printed (Scott Duvall);
It's My Press and I'll Print What I Want to: Collecting Modern Fine Printing (Robert Maxwell);
Conservation and Preservation: The Art of Preventing Dilapidation (Mark Pollei); and
Strret Literature: Common Reading, Uncommon Times (Brad Westwood).
See also A Mormon Bibliography 1830-1930 by Chad A. Flake and Larry W. Draper has over 14,400 entries.
The Mormon History Association has an annual conference and Brigham Young University has created the
Mormon Literature Database, a "scholarly resource to literary writings by and about Mormons."
- George A. Smathers Libraries' Department of Special Collections - Hightlights from this University of Florida site include Fore-edge Paintings,
Eric Gill,
John Buckland Wright and the
P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History.
- Georgia Antiquarian Booksellers Association
- Getty Provenance Index Online Searchable Databases
- Getty Research Library Catalog - Search for such subject headings as:
Letterpress printing,
Artists’ books,
Calligraphy,
Illumination of books and manuscripts,
Scrolls
- Givens Collection of African American Literature - University of Minnesota Libraries, Twin Cities. Has a African American Literature Digital Images Database
- Glasgow University Library Department of Special Collections - Exhibitions include British Bookbindings: 16th - 19th Century and Graphic Design and Visual Culture in Europe 1890-1945: Private Press Books in Special Collections.
- Glory of Chinese Printing - Printing Museum of China
- Goreyography: the works of Edward Gorey - "Graphical galleria of gratuitous Gorey, a continuous choreography of calamitous characters. Goreyography is also a resource for the collector and aficionado of the works of Edward Gorey. Bibliographical and biographical, Goreyography strives to deliver a comprehensive collection of information about Gorey's enigimatic genius."
- Graphion's Online Type Museum
- Grolier Club - "Founded in 1884, the Grolier Club of New York is America's oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts." The online catalogue "includes records for the following: monographs published after 1800; serials; archival and manuscript collections; rare books and examples of fine printing acquired since 1983; French book auction catalogues from 1643 to date; and all American, English, and other European book auction catalogues published prior to 1900. Records for the remainder of the Library's collection of book auction catalogues, as well as bookseller catalogues, prints, ephemera, fine bindings, and early printed books, will be added in the course of the next few years" [16 April 2005]. Items of interest include the Mary Hyde Eccles: Papers, 1903-2002
Related information includes Eccles, Mary Hyde. Papers: Guide, Hyde collection finds home at Harvard. "One of world's finest collections of 18th century English literature goes to the Houghton Library." (Harvard University Gazette, March 04, 2004) and Johnson and Reynolds' Tour of Devon Re-traced by Mary Hyde [Mary Viscountess Eccles].
- Guide to the Karl Goedecke Papers (Laurel Book Service), 1932-1978 - Finding Aid for the Hazleton, Pa. book dealer's business records for Laurel Book Service. (Penn State Libraries).
- Guide to the microfiche collection of the Book Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic 1599-1800 - Elektronisch Tekst Centrum Leiden.
- Guide to the Pennsylvania German Broadsides and Fraktur Collection - Pennsylvania State University Special Collections Library. "Each item has a digital surrogate viewable on the Pennsylvania History Pictorial Collections webpage.
- Guild of Book Workers - "Areas of interest include bookbinding, printing, conservation, marbling, calligraphy, and papermaking."
- Gutenberg Bible - At least three are available online: Göttinger Universität, Keio University and the British Library.
- Gutenberg Homepage - Primarily in German. With information on the Gutenberg-Museum.
- Handmade Paper - Sources include Carriage House Paper, Brooklyn, New York, Papeterie Saint-Gilles, Les Éboulements, Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive, Québec and Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades. See also Handmade Paper / Büttenpapier, Dieter Freyer's collection of links to paper-making resources.
- H. Bradley Martin - There is 12 page article by Abby Tallmer in American Exchange on the H. Bradley Martin Sale 1989-1990. It is No. 2 of the Historical Auction Series (July 2003) and can be located by searching within A.E. Monthly (not the Live Auctions). You can also locate the article in the Google cache. Sotheby's handled the nine-part sale, held from June 1989 to June 1990, and it brought in $35,719,750. Other sources on the sale and collection include Bound for Auction: H. Bradley Martin's $30 Million Collection by David Streitfeld; Washington Post, June 6, 1989; Library of 10,000 Rarities To Be Sold at Sotheby's, by Rita Reif, New York Times, December 21, 1988, p. C34; The World of Books from Auction Houses to Garage Sales, the Choices are Infinite, Heidi L. Berry, Washington Post, April 19, 1990; The Shortsighted Estatecraft of Bradley Martin, by Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post, June 12, 1989; High Prices for Martin Bird Books, by Judd Tully, Washington Post, June 9, 1989.
- Hand Papermaking
- Handpress - Richard-Gabriel Rummonds provides information about handpress printing.
- Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center - University of Texas, Austin. Offers a Finding Aids to the HRC Manuscript Collection, with biographical sketeches and extensive information about the scope and contents of the collection. Provides access to UTNetCAT, a Web-browsable online catalog of the University of Texas at Austin, with access to "almost seven million items, including books, journals, Internet resources, microfilm, maps, music scores, audio and video recordings, manuscripts, and more."
- Harvard University Library Open Collections Program - Among the digitzed texts are:
- Unique collection of broadsides gathered by Gerard Bancker, "Provincial treasurer of New York, and to be sold for the estate of the late Jas. A. Bancker, New York : embracing the largest collection of pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary broadsides relating to New York City and State that has ever been offered for sale."
- Major André’s journal : operations of the British Army under Lieutenant Generals Sir William Howe and Sir Henry Clinton, June, 1777 to November, 1778
- Journal of a residence on a Georgian plantation in 1838-1839 by Frances Anne Kemble
- Hay-on-Wye - Official homepage for this picuturesque town in Wales with 34 independent bookshops.
- Heart of the Southwest: A Selective Bibliography of Novels, Stories and Tales Laid in Arizona and New Mexico & Adjacent Lands - By Lawrence Clark Powell. (Originally published in 1959 by Dawson's Book Shop.) Provided by the University of Arizona Library's Southwest Electronic Text Center, which has also digitized Powell's A Southwestern Century: A Bibliography of One Hundred Books of Non Fiction about the Southwest.
- Herbals & Early Gardening Books from the Doris and Marc Patten Collection - Catalog of the collection includes images, listing by subject, author and title; Special Collections, Hayden Library, Arizona State University.
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania - Publishes the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (PMHB). Access is provided to the PMHB Index for 2000-2004 and a Cumulative Index for 1952-1999.
- History of the Book in Canada -
- HoBo - The site formerly known as History of the Book @ Oxford is a "dedicated webspace for all History of the Book events and resources throughout the UK."
- House of Beadle & Adams and its Dime and Nickel Novels: The Story of a Vanished Literature - Full text of the book by Albert Johannsen, published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1950. Project of the Northern Illinois University Libraries DeKalb, Illinois.
- Hundred highlights from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek - National Library of the Netherlands. With index. See also their collection of Bindings (Buitenlandse boekbanden).
- Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens - San Marino, California.
- Illinois! Illinois! An Annotated Bibliography of Fiction - 2233 item bibliography of fiction about Illinois. It is arranged by five chronological chapters covering pre-statehood years through 1997. There are author, title, and subject indexes.
- Illustrated Garden: Rare Books from the Missouri Botanical Garden - Consists of over 100 digitized volumes..."350,744 pages and 12,357 botanical illustrations currently [January 23, 2006] online."
- Illustrations for The Art Deco Book in France - From Gordon N. Ray's 1985 Lyell Lectures
- Images from Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts - Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library; 100 medieval manuscript images arranged by country, author, call number or date.
- Impressions: 250 Years of Printing in the Lives of Canadians - Online exhibition on the role of printing in the lives of Canadians. Items exhibited are from the collections of the National Library of Canada and are grouped by themes. (See other NLC Digital Projects).
- In Aedibus Aldi: the legacy of Aldux Manutius and his Press - Brigham Young University
- Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) - Offers a Member Directory, a glossary of Book Terminology and Description Definitions.
- Information about the Book and Book Arts Community - Oak Knoll Books
- Institut d'Histoire du Livre - Joint project of the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, Musée de l'Imprimerie, Ecole des Chartes, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Sciences de l'Information et des Bibliothèques (ENSSIB), and Ecole Normale Superieure, Lettres et Sciences Humaines. Provides searchable databases of sales catalogs, book history web sites, book history workshops, calendar of book-related events, and a list of recent books. View a list of 317 Catalogue de ventes de livres anciens in the database of sales catalogs (select catalogue de vente in the genre pull-down menu). Dates range from the sale of the collection of the librarian Raphaelis Trichet du Fresne in 1662 to the sale of the library of M. Charles-Henri d'Autemarre Dervilli, chevalier de la Ligion d'Honneur in 1816.
- International Association of Paper Historians
- International Book Collectors Association - With a useful Guide to First Edition Identification by Glenn Larsen.
- International Dunhuang Project - "View details of over 20,000 pre-eleventh century manuscripts and documents from the ancient towns of the Chinese Silk Roads. Full search facilities - by language, form, library number and subject - and high-quality colour images of over 1,000 manuscripts." (British Library Oriental and India Office Collections, which also has a Japanese Section and a Korean Section.)
- International League of Antiquarian Booksellers - "The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers federates 20 National Associations of Antiquarian Booksellers. It speaks for 20 national associations, 30 countries, and 2000 leading booksellers throughout the world." The ILAB-LILA Database (Find a Book) provides full text-searching for author and title, description, publisher (date and place), edition (any or first), dust jacket, and binding.
- Interview with Roger E. Stoddard - By Daniel J. Slive, RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, Vol. 5, No. 2 Fall 2004.
- Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection - School of the Art Institute of Chicago. You can access the collection online (cover image and catalog description only). A few samples from the collection:
- NANO" stories in a blink Face to face; Flatman by Michael Miller, Sara Ranchouse Publishing, 2005.
- Grapefruit : a book of instruction and drawings by Yoko Ono, Simon & Schuster, 2000.
- A most curious invention by the Gaga Yogi by Robert Filliou, 1976.
- John Carter Brown Library - "One of the outstanding libraries of the world in the field of the history of the Americas, North and South, prior to ca. 1825, and of European history as it bears on the Americas..." With access to online catalog, Josiah.
- John Murray Archive - National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Archives of the publishing house established in 1768. "Among the circle of authors and correspondents (well over 16,000 in all) represented in the Archive are writers as diverse as Lord Byron, Jane Austen, Charles Darwin and David Livingstone."
- Judging a Book by Its Cover: Gold-Stamped Publishers' Bindings of the 19th Century
- Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog - Access to the holdings of Germany's university libraries - more than 45 million books and serials. Try the German version if you encounter delays.
- Kenneth W. Rendell - Historical letters and documents
- Klingspor Museum Offenbach - Museum for Modern International Book Art, Typography and Calligraphy
- Knops Boekrestauratie - Conservation & restoration of books and paper.
- Det Kongelige Bibliotek - Among the digital facsimiles of Medieval Manuscripts at the Danish Royal Library are 39 richly illustrated leaves from a Book of Hours with the title Heures de Charles de la maison de France, dernier Duc de Bourgogne. For example, for leaf 27, you can view the entire page (recto and verso) or view the illustration only (recto and verso). Digital images of Illustrated works consist of Astronomical Instruments of Tycho Brahe, Manuscripts from the Søren Kierkegaard Archive, Quatorze images de la Révolution française, (with print no. 6 showing Charlotte Corday assassinating Marat), 23 Portraits of H. C. Andersen (1805-1875) and Treasures of the Royal Library.
- Koopman Collection - "Unique collection of French literary works of the 20th century in special editions" in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek - National library of the Netherlands.
- Landmarks of American Nature Writing from Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley - "Catalogue of an exhibition of rare books, manuscripts, maps, engravings, and photographs related to the literature of nature written about Western Virginia from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries, on view in the Tracy W. McGregor Room, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, 27 April - 14 July 1997."
- Latin Place Names - "Contains most of the Latin place names contained in the imprint field of pre-1801 books in the catalogs of the University of Chicago, Yale University, the Huntington Library, and Brigham Young University, together with their modern English (AACR2R form) equivalent"; Bibliographic Standards Committee, Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries. See Also: Names of printing towns from the Cathedral Libraries Catalogue, the CERL Thesaurus and the Orbis Latinus (1909) by J. G. Th. Graesse.
- Leiden Centre for the Book
- Lewis Walpole Library - Department of Yale University Library with "significant holdings of eighteenth-century English books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, watercolors and paintings. A leading non-circulating research library for English eighteenth-century studies and the prime source for the study of Horace Walpole, it was bequeathed to Yale by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis, who devoted his life to collecting the letters and works of Horace Walpole, 1717-1797, and to editing the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence..."
- Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web - Project of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, "this site features links to online exhibitions that have been created by libraries, archives, and historical societies, as well as to museum online exhibitions with a significant focus on library and archival materials."
- Library Company of Philadelphia - Their searchable on-line catalogueWolfPAC, (named in honor of Edwin Wolf 2nd, 1911-1991, Librarian, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1953-1984) includes records for most of their Afro-Americana collection, and all of their 18th century British and American imprints. You can search for provenance in their notes field by looking for terms such as provenance, inscribed, bookplate, former owner or formerly owned in the MARC record.
- Library of Congress Catalogs - Includes the Online Catalog, the Z39.50 Gateway, and the Experimental Search System (ESS) (no longer being maintained).
- Library of Congress: American Special Collections
- Library of Congress Digital Collections - Has digitized historical children's books. See
Stories from Hans Andersen with illustrations by Edmund Dulac, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911 and
The song of sixpence picture book with illustrations by Walter Crane, London & New York, 1909. Others online titles in the Juvenile Collection include
The cheerful cricket and others (1907),
A Little pretty pocket-book (1787),
London Town (1883),
Jimmy Crow (1902),
Gobolinks, or shadow-pictures for young and old (1896), and
William Tell Told Again (1904).
- Library of Congress Information Bulletin - Library of Congress publication (with archives) has a number of articles of interest to book collectors including Rivers of America: Library Celebrates 60th Anniversary of Landmark Series, June 1997.
- Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room - With an Illustrated Guide
- Library of Congress Webcasts - Include
Nicholas Basbanes: Patience and Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places and Book Culture (11/08/2001; Menachem Schmelzer: The Royal Court Preacher and the Hebrew Book (08/11/2006); and
Timbuktu Manuscipts and the Efforts to Maintain the Desert 09/03/2003.
- Libweb: Library Servers via WWW - Thomas Dowling's list is updated daily and currently lists over 3,000 pages from libraries in over 90 countries.
- Lib-web-cats: Library Web Pages, Online Catalogs, and System Profiles - Over 4,000 libraries worldwide. Maintained by Marshall Breeding, Technology Analyst for the Heard Library at Vanderbilt University.
- Libri@ntichi: the european source for rare books - Italian search engine
- Il Libro Antico - Università degli Studi di Udine
- Lilly Library - Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Indiana University offers online exhibits including Fine Art of British Bookbinding and American History Documents
and also allows you to search the manuscript collection.
- Le livre de chasse de Gaston Phébus - Exposition virtuelle at the Bibliothèque nationale de France provides images from the manuscript, written between 1387 à 1389. Included are many scenes from the hunt, including the hunted (leopards, rabbits, deer, bears, boars) and the hunters (dogs, le veneur, le valet). Pages from the manuscript can also be viewed in the BNF's Le roi Charles V et son temps but the quality of the images is slightly inferior (compare wolves to wolves.)
- Livres Rare Books - Pascal Chartier of Lyon, France provides a useful International Electronic Directory of Second-Hand Bookshops.
- Maine Antiquarian Booksellers Association - Members are listed by individual bookseller, shop, town and specialty.
- Making of America - This digital library of nineteenth century books and journal volumes is "particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology" and is a good place to look for primary sources. This digitization project was undertaken at both the University of Michigan and Cornell University with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Search both collections; the Michigan collection consists of imprints between 1850 and 1877 and "currently contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles" and the Cornell collection, which covers the period of 1840 - 1900 "provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles." You can browse periodical titles at Cornell and Michigan. Titles include The art of book-binding, its rise and progress; including a descriptive account of the New York bookbindery, E. Walker & sons, 1850;
- Manuscript Society - See History in Your Hand: Fifty Years of the Manuscript Society by John M. Taylor (Google Books).
- Map History - History of Cartography - WWW-Virtual Library - Maintained by Tony Campbell, a former Map Librarian at the British Library in London, the site "is designed for anyone, whether specialist or surfer, who wants to learn more about non-current maps." There is a Site Index, a collection of links to Map Projects and a section on Thefts of early maps and books.
- Manuscripts in the Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature - Finding aid prepared by Sylvia Yu, Karla Vecchia and Teresa Basler, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. Robert Hill Taylor (1908-1985), "Princeton Class of 1930, placed his library collection on deposit in the Princeton University Library in 1972, and bequeathed it to the Library upon his death in 1985."
- Marine Biological Laboratory - Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In the Library's Special Collections you'll find the full-text of Development of the Squid (1880) by W. K. Brooks, Medusae from the Maldive Islands (1904) by H. B. Bigelow and plates from Natuurkundige Verlustigingen (1778), Martinus Slabber's landmark book describing marine invertebrate larvae, plates from Atlas of the Voyage of the Astrolabe and Wandtafeln of Rudolph Leuckart (1822-1898) (teaching charts).
- Marques d'impressor (Printers' devices) - University of Barcelona database of oved 600 printers' devices is searchable and browsable by printers' names. (Examples include Pedro Crasbeeck, Francisco Laso and Alessandro de' Vecchi.
- MATEO - Mannheimer Texte Online - Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim.
- Melville Press - "Fine press illustrated limited edition books"
- Memoria Digital Library - Provides addess to digitized Medieval manuscripts and Czech documents from the National Library of the Czech Republic. Contains over 30,000 records, including over 1500 digital documents. Try an advanced search for idNo XVI A 16 (Pražský misál), an 823 page manuscript, fully digitized.
- Milne Angling Collection - "One of the largest collections of angling literature in the United States. In the 1960s, Helena & Douglas Milne donated their collection of fishing books, periodicals, artwork and ephemera to the University of New Hampshire." Includes a helpful list of Fly Fishing Resources.
- Miniature Books - Online exhibition from the Cushing Library, Texas A&M University. Other exhibitions of interest to the book collector include Africa: Selections from the Rex B. Grey Collection, Autographs, Joy of Wood Engravings (Kent Kessinger), Fruits of a Research Collection and Selections from the A.W. Yeats Kipling Collection.
- Milton Texts at Emory University
- Monash University Library Rare Book Collection - Australian library has some interesting virtual exhibitions including AIDS with a catalogue; The Occult, with a catalogue;
Sexpectations: Single White Females, with a catalogue; and The Restoration: 1660-1700, with a catalogue.
- Morgan Library - Located in New York and originally the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan, this New York library and museum has an outstanding collection of illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts; early printed books; old master drawings and prints, early children's books, music manuscripts and Americana. Corsair, their online catalog, provides access to "over 200,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and art objects." Many records contain content description of letters, information on provenance, and description of bindings.
- Corsair - "Thousands of digital images from The Pierpont Morgan Library’s renowned collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts are now available in CORSAIR. The collection spans some ten centuries of Western illumination, and contains manuscripts from all the major schools, including some of the great masterpieces of medieval manuscript art. The images and accompanying descriptions are the product of an extraordinary collaboration between the Library and the Index of Christian Art to photograph, digitize, and describe all significant illustrations within the Morgan’s medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. CORSAIR currently offers more than twenty thousand medieval images, and the number is constantly growing." Search for the Farnese Hours, Rome, 1546 (MS M.0069) which has been described.
- Mosher Press - Developed by Phil Bishop and Scott Anderson, hosted by Millersville University. Most recent publication: Books Printed on Vellum in the United States: A Tentative List and Work-In-Progress.
- The Most of Special Collections - 21 categories of the most rare, important, peculiar, or deplorable items in the collections. (Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia Library.)
- Movable Book Society
- Le Musée de l'imprimerie de Lyon
- Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades
- Names - IN PROGRESS
- Marcus A. McCorison - President of the American Antiquarian Society from 1960 to 1991.
- Charles A. Ryskamp - Former Director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (1969-) and the Frick Collection (1987-)
- John Fleming
- Michael Papantonio
- National Art Library - "Major reference library and the Victoria and Albert Museum's curatorial department for the art, craft and design of the book."
- National Diet Library - Japan's national library, located in Tokyo. The Rare Books department section is unfortunately only available in Japanese, but it is well worth exploring just for the images. There are 100 items in an online exhibition of books from the collection, which includes Japanese items and a number of non-Japanese works from around the world. (See Maps 1, 2, 3 and 4.) Included in the exhibition are works (with images) by Redoute, John Gould, Salisbury as well as the title page from the Kelmscott Chaucer. A large number of images of Japanese prints are also included, with some scrolls in Shockwave (requires plug-in).
- National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) - Library of Congress. To find records in the Morgan Library collection, for example, search for Pierpont Morgan Library [as Author-Corporate Name, Phrase].
- New York Public Library Rare Books
and Manuscripts Division
- New York Antiquarian Book Fair
- Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site - By Richard Perez-Pena, New York Times, September 18, 2007 - "In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free." Articles related to book collecting and rare books include:
- Copy of Book of Mormon Is Auctioned for $105,000 by Lisa W. Foderaro and Michelle York, NYT, September 20, 2007. Discovered in an attic in Newark, New York, the book was sold in Geneva, New York by the Hessney Auction Compan
- Bibliophilia: Still No Cure in Sight by Nicholas A. Basbanes, April 14, 1991.
- Newberry Library - Chicago. Catalog covers material acquired since 1978, comprising about 10-15% of the collections.
- Nicholas Basbanes Interview - Transcript from October 15, 1995 Booknotes interview of the author of A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books.
- Notes on Rare Books - 543 columns by Philip Brooks appeared in the New York Times from September 18, 1932 to August 29, 1943. The series, Notes on Rare Books, actually began running on May 25, 1924. A search for notes on rare books as a document title in the subscription database ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2001) retrieves 954 documents.
- Nurse Romance Cover of the Week - University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. "Images and snippets of text from the more than 425 novels held in the UWM Libraries’ Special Collections."
- Oak Knoll Books - Specialists in Books About Books
- Octavo: Digital Rare Books - "Preserves rare books and manuscripts using advanced digital tools and formats."
- Paper & Book Intensive - "Held in the spring/summer in different regions of the country and attended by individuals who are passionate about the book arts, bookbinding, hand papermaking, conservation, and related fields."
- Paper Connection International - Providence, Rhode Island. "Importers and wholesale distributors of fine art paper and paper products to the trade only." (877-434-1234)
- Parkman Dexter Howe Library - George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesvile. "Comprised of thousands of books and manuscripts by New England authors and contains many early New England books. Parkman Dexter Howe began collecting New England literature after the death of his father, Henry S. Howe, who had begun building the Howe Library. In 1980, following Parkman Dexter Howe's death, the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida Libraries acquired the collection."
There is a fully-digitized ten volume catalog of the collection, edited by Sidney Ives, University of Florida, 1983-1994.
- Part I - The Collector and the Collections by Charles A. Rheault, George T. Goodspeed and Parkman Dexter Howe; A Descriptive Catalog of Early New England Books by Rober E. Stoddard (1983).
- Part II - Henry David Thoreau by Raymond R. Borst; Ralph Waldo Emerson by Joel Myerson (1984).
- Part III - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by David L. O'Neal and Mary T. O'Neal; Richard Henry Dana, Jr. by Kevin B. MacDonnell; Sarah Orne Jewett by Rosalie Murphy Baum (1986).
- Part IV - William Cullen Bryant by Motley F. Deakin; Emily Dickinson by Joel Myerson; Edwin Arlington Robinson by A. Carl Bredahl (1986).
- Part V - John Greenleaf Whittier by John Benedict Pickard (1987).
- Part VI - Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville by G. Thomas Tanselle (1989).
- Part VII - Thomas Bailey Aldrich by Roger E. Stoddard; Louise Imogen Guiney by Joan St.C. Crane; Robert Frost by John Lancaster (1990).
- Part VIII - James Rossell Lowell by Kevin MacDonnell; Amy Lowell by Carmen Russell Hurff (1992).
- Part IX - Oliver Wendell Holmes by Eleanor M. Tilton, edited by Sidney Ives and Carmen Russell Hurff (1993).
- Part X - Henry Adams, Amos Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott by Roger E. Stoddard; Harriet Prescott Spofford by Ruth Mortimer; Harriet Beecher Stowe by Michael Winship; and Parkman Howe Authors in Florida by Sidney Ives (1994).
- Philobiblon Club - Philadelphia'club for book collectors and booksellers. Some of the lectures given at the Club are available online including My Life With Books by Fred Schreiber, Is There a Future for Special Collections? by Daniel Traister and History of William H. Allen, Bookseller, 1918-1997 by George Allen.
- Pop Goes the Page: Movable and Mechanical Books from the Brenda Forman Collection - Exhibition at the Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia Library is organized by artist (Lothar Meggendorfer, Ernest Nister, Voitech Kubasta), genre (Space, Contemporary), format (Tableau, Pop Up, Rivet Books, Slats, Tabs, Cards) and series (Dean and Son, Showman, Bookano, Blue Ribbon Pleasure Books, Jolly Jump Ups).
- Pop Up World of Ann Montanaro - Exhibition of pop up books at Rutgers.
- Plantin-Moretus Museum - Antwerp museum dedicated to preserving the works of Christoffel Plantin, "printer-publisher in the second half of the sixteenth century and one of the greatest of all times." Has information on its collection.
- Preservation of Library & Archival Materials: A Manual - Edited by Sherelyn Ogden, this is the third edtion, available online in its entirety, published by the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts.
- La Preuve par les fleurons? Analyse comparée du matériel ornemental des imprimeurs suisses romands 1775-1785 - Silvio Corsini. This collection of printers' ornaments is organized by size. See also the Banque internationale d'ornements d'imprimerie / International Bank of Printers' Ornaments
- Princeton University Library Chronicle - Includes Biblia (1930-1938) & PULC (1939-1966 ) in pdf format.
- Princeton University Library Guide to Special Collections - "Oxford Companion style reference work presenting capsule summaries regarding holdings relevant to more than 250 topics." Developed by Steve Ferguson, the guide has an Index to all entries. You can search the MASC - Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections Database.
- Printer's Devices - Database maintained by Jeffrey A. Barr, Rare Book section of the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida.
- Private Passions, Public Legacy: Paul Mellon's Personal Library at the University of Virginia
- Professional Autograph Dealers Association
- Proyecto Dioscorides - Images from early medical and scientific books at the Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense (Madrid).
- Publishers' Bindings Online, 1815-1930: The Art of Books - University of Alabama, University Libraries, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. You can search by keyword or browse by subject.
- RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage - "Association of College and Research Libraries' journal covering issues pertaining to the world inhabited by special collections libraries and cultural heritage institutions." With Index for Volumes 1-10 (1986-1995).
- Rare Book School - University of Virginia educational institute, located at the Book Arts Press (BAP), a bibliographical laboratory supporting various programs concerning the history of the book and related areas. Offers course Reading Lists. Terry Belanger moved the Book Arts Press and Rare Book School to the University of Virginia from the Columbia University School of Library Service in 1992. In 2005 he was selected as a MacArthur Fellow.
- Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) - Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association and maintained by Steve Ferguson, Princeton. Site highlights include Your Old Books: Frequently asked questions about rare books and book values, and the Tables of content for all issues of Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship from 1986-1999. The RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee Resources for the Rare Materials Cataloger was developed for the 1997 workshop "Internet Resources for Rare Book Cataloging" by Eric Holzenberg, Librarian of the Grolier Club and and Laurence Creider, University of Pennsylvania Library. The page for the RBMS Exhibition Awards Committee lists winners of the The Katharine Kyes Leab & Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Awards back to 1986.
- Rare Book Review - "News magazine for the book world" edited by Crispin Jackson. (Original title: Antiquarian Book Monthly Review). One of the articles, Worcester source , by William Reese, describes the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.
- rec.collecting.books FAQ
- Regional Alliance for Preservation - With Collections Care--Books links
- Repositories of Primary Sources - Terry Abraham's listing of over "5,000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar."
- The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum - Atlanta, Georgia
- Rosenbach Museum & Library - Philadelphia museum of "rare books, manuscripts and fine and decorative arts, featuring a variety of exhibitions from its internationally known library and housed in a historic 19th-century mansion. The core of the library collection was assembled by Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1952), the greatest dealer of rare books and manuscripts of modern times."
- Royal Academy of Arts - You can search the catalogue. A search for binding retrieves over 200 results. Some examples from the collection:
- Robert Adam's Ruins of ... Spalatro (1764?) - Upper cover and spine of presentation binding,
- Selections from the poetry of Robert Herrick with drawings by Edwin A. Abbey (1882) - Upper cover of publisher's binding. Attributed to Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911)
- Jean Ingelow, The high tide on the coast of Lincolnshire (1885?) - Upper cover of publisher's binding
- St Bride Printing Library - "World-famous collections cover printing and related subjects: paper and binding, graphic design and typography, typefaces and calligraphy, illustration and printmaking, publishing and book-selling, the social and economic aspects of the printing, book, newspaper and magazine trades." Access to library catalogue is provided at Bookhad, a project established to "to provide support for nationwide research activities in the fields of book history and book design."
- Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels - Association of Austrian Booksellers sponsor the Schönste Bücher Österreichs award for the most beautiful Austrian books.
- Scottish Book Trade Index - Index of printers, publishers, booksellers, bookbinders, printmakers, stationers and papermakers based in Scotland, from the beginnings of Scottish printing to ca. 1850. In First Scottish Books are the digitized pages of Nine books printed by Chepman & Myllar. Provided by the National Library of Scotland.
- Scottish Chapbook Project - University of South Carolina
- SearchBiblio - Fast search and price comparison engine for used, rare, and out-of-print books.
- Serif - the Magazine of Type & Typography
- Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc. - Antiquarian book store located at 3. W. 46th St. in New York founded in 1946 by partners Michael Papantonio and John S. Van E. Kohn (1906 - December 18, 1976). It ceased operations in 1980. Another bookman associated with the firm is John Brett-Smith. Among their customers were H. B. Martin, Robert Taylor and Louis Auchincloss.
- Early American Bookbindings from the Collection of Michael Papantonio - New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1972.
- A history of British circulating libraries : the book labels and ephemera of the Papantonio Collection - by Charlotte A. Stewart-Murphy, Newtown, Pa. : Bird & Bull Press, 1992.
- A View Through the Transom by Hugh Macdonald, Windows, Texas Christian University Library Newsletter, Vol XI, No. 1, April 1999. "While in New York City in the late 1960's I had the privilege of working for two of the greatest bookmen of our time in the field of English and American antiquarian bookselling. They were Michael Papantonio and John S. Van E. Kohn whose partnership was called Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc."
- Seven Secrets of Collecting (And Then a Few More) by Sinclair Hitchings, an excerpt from a paper read at the Book Collectors' Workshop, sponsored by the Friends of the Dartmouth Library, on 7 May 1994, appeared in the Dartmouth Library Bulletin, November 1995. "When you entered the shop, on an upper floor of an office building, their offices were at your right. Just ahead in the central room was a table on which were spread some choice American first editions. To the left, somewhat more dimly lit, was the back room--the domain of Waller Barrett. John Kohn and Michael Papantonio presumably had offered their best customer a prime point of vantage on the premises, certainly a sound decision for their business or, perhaps, the arrangement was Waller Barrett's idea."
- In Certain Circles, The Printed Word Is A Major Investment - By Jonathan Kwitny, Wall Street Journal, (no date available but circa 1975). "In 1940, John S. Van E. Kohn, then sole proprietor of the Collectors Bookshop in Manhattan, sold a first edition of "The Marionettes," a little-known one-act play by William Faulkner. The price was $125. On February 27 of this year, Mr. Kohn, now vice president of the Seven Gables Bookshop in New York and acting on behalf of the University of Virginia library, bought the same book - one of four known remaining copies - at a New York auction. The sellers were the heirs of the woman who had purchased it from the Collectors Bookshop 35 years earlier. The price: $34,000."
- A search in Columbia University's online catalog retrieves a description of Seven Gables' archives: "ca. 80,600 items (175 boxes, 23 correspondence file boxes) from Seven Gables Bookshop (New York, N.Y.).
- Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc. Papers [Records?] 1930-1979
- Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc. Papers [Records?] 1930-1979
- Online Finding Aid - "Correspondence afid catalogs of John Kohn and Michael Papantonio,proprietors of Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc., in New York City. Some early letters from the time when the two men were independent bookdealers and operated Collector^ Bookshop and Papantonio's Bookshop are included. There are many letters in the collection
from major universities and colleges and from famous collectors, such as C. Waller Barrett, Thomas W. Streeter,.Jacob Blanck, and Josiah K. Lilly. The collection is arranged chronologically."
Catalog record: "Bookstore in New York City with John Kohn and Michael Papantonio, proprietors. The two men were formerly independent bookdealers and operated Collector's Bookshop and Papantonio's Bookshop. Correspondence and catalogs of Seven Gables Bookshop, and some early letters from Collector's Bookshop and Papantonio's Bookshop. There are many letters in the collection from major universities and colleges and from famous collectors such as C. Waller Barrett, Thomas W. Streeter, Jacob Blanck, and Josiah K. Lilley. Also, miscellaneous correspondence and notes of John Kohn."
- SHARP Web - Society for the History of Authorship Reading & Publishing site provides outstanding collection of links to resources on the history of publishing.
- Shepherds Bookbinding - London
- Shrink Wrap Project at Rutgers University Special Collections and Archives - Janice Stanitto, The Book and Paper Group Annual, Volume 12, 1993.
- Sinclair Hamilton Collection of Early American Illustrated Books - Princeton University.
- Site de libraires professionnels du livre d'occasion, anciens et modernes - M. Pascal Chartier. "589 librairies, 3 060 687 livres d'occasion, anciens et modernes." The Annuaire électronique is searchable by region, name and specialty.
- Skin Deep - Selections from J. Hewit & Sons bi-annual newsletter; includes introduction to the tanning process and procedures for identifying and treating various types of leather problems.
- Smithsonian Institution Archives
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries Digital Collections - Project to issue digital editions of science, technology and natural history rare books has so far produced Prodromus in Systema Historicum Testaceorum (1795), Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum (1578), Astronomiæ instauratæ mechanica (1602), Systema Saturnium (1659), Description Botanique du Chiranthodendron (1805) and Verzeichniss meiner Insecten-Sammlung (1796).
- Society of Bookbinders - UK
- Sotheby's
- Special Collections Web Resources - Developed by Andrea Bean Hough and now maintained by Julie Grob, Special Collections Librarian at the University of Houston.
- SPECTECH-L - "Forum for those interested in applying the capabilities of the Internet to the study and research of special collections materials." Hosted by the George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida. Has membership list.
- Stamperia Valdonega - Verona, Italy. Private press founded in Verona in 1948 by Giovanni Mardersteig.
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- St. Bride Printing Library - London
- Studies in Bibliography - Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia provides full-text access to the journal from 1948.
- Studio Bibliografico L'Arengario - Gussago, Italia
- Sublime Anxiety: the Gothic Family and the Outsider - Online exhibition of material from the Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Books, Department of Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. (Curated by Natalie Regensburg. )
- Swann Galleries: Auctioneers and Appraisers - New York
- Syndicat National de la Librarie Ancienne et Moderne - France's professional association of antiquarian booksellers.
- Talas - "Professional archival, bookbinding, conservation and restoration supplies." Located at 20 West 20th Street, New York, 10011 (212-219-0770)
- Texas Institute of Letters - See Inside the Harlan Crow library with the Texas Institute of Letters by Michael Merschel, April 18, 2008. See also Friends of the Library - Tour Harlan Crow Library, Dallas -
"The Harlan Crow Library is a two-story private, independent library on Mr. Crow's estate in Highland Park. During the past 30 years, Mr. Crow has assembled a collection of 8,000 rare books, 3,500 manuscripts, correspondence, paintings, photographs and sculptures that reflects 500 years of American history (among other subjects). Some of the library's gems include the 1493 Latin printing of Columbus's letter to the Spanish court announcing his discoveries, a deed to George Washington's Mount Vernon estate, a silver tankard created by Paul Revere, and correspondence from all U.S. presidents." and Friday night reception for annual meeting
to be at incredibly rich private library, Texas Institute of Letters January, February, 2008, Newsletter.
- Textes Rares - Textes et images du XVIe au XIXe siècles / Texts and pictures from the 16th to the 19th century.
- Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library - University of Toronto. Digital Collections include:
- Anatomia
- The Barren Lands
- Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides
- Canadian Printer & Publisher
- The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin
- Papyri
- Wenceslaus Hollar Digital Collection
- Thomas L. Gravell Watermark Archive - With information on Gravell, the Wizard of Watermarks.
- Tiny Tomes: the Charlotte M. Smith Collection of Miniature Books - Over 150 images with descriptive annotations from the University of Iowa Libraries
- Toronto Centre for the Book
- Tsukuba University Library Digital Collections - Japan
- 21 North Main - Used, rare, out-of-print and antiquarian books
- Treasures of Keio University - Natural history books, Gutenberg Bible & Incunabula, European Illustrated Books & Manuscripts, Medieval manuscripts, Japanese maps and Japanese wood-block prints. (Keio University Digital Research Library.)
- Turkey Press - Harry and Sandra Liddell Reese
- Twinrocker Papermaking Additives
- Type Design, Typography and Graphic Images - Nicholas Fabian. Great Type Designers includes samples of typefaces by Hermann Zapf, Edward Benguiat, Adrian Frutiger and many others.
- TypeBase - Dutch site has over 500 links to fine quality typographic websites around the world, selected by Donald Roos & Robert-Jan van Noort.
- University of Alabama MFA in the Book Arts Program
- University of Idaho Book Arts
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library - Colloquium Committee Lectures - Offers over 10 archived audio files of Lectures on librarianship in RealAudio including a 70 minute lecture on Further Adventures Among the Gently Mad by Nicholas Basbanes.
- University of Iowa Center for the Book
- University of Oxford Early Printed Books Project - "Foreign Books in Oxford Libraries."
- Unofficial Index to Ilse Schunke's Die Schwenke-Sammlung - Compiled by Michael Laird and Paul Needham, the Schwenke-Sammlung, is vast archive of rubbings of gothic bookbindings assembled by Paul Schwenke, and now preserved at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
- Verband Deutscher Antiquare E.V. - "Die Vereinigung von Buchantiquaren, Autographen- und Graphikhändlern."
- Used Book Search - Allows you to Search 25 million used books worldwide.
- Virtual Museum of the Printing Press - Luis Humberto Marcos, Porto, Portugal.
- Vivarium - "Digitized manuscripts, art, rare books, photographs, audio, video, and other resources from two Benedictine monastic and educational communities in central Minnesota." Among the digitized texts are The Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ According to the Authorized Version of King James I with Decorations by Eric Gill, Golden Cockerel Press, 1931 with original maize buckram and quarter pigskin binding by Sangorski and Al-Coranus S. Lex Islamitica Muhammedis Felii Abdallae Pseudoprophetae, Ad optimorum Codicum fidem edita ex Museo Abraham Hinckelmanni, D., Hamburg, Schultzio-Schilleriana,1694. The collection is browsable by collection type: manuscript illuminations (4864), original drawings & paintings (48), photographs (402) etc.
- Voyages: A Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition - Exhibitioon of books from the Smithsonian Libraries. Consists of three sections: Journeys Over Land and Sea, Journeys of the Mind and Journeys of the Imagination. (See also The Pleasure of the Rare Book: Treasures from the Smithsonian Libraries, Smithsonian Magazine, May 2001.)
- WGBH Forum Network - "Audio and video streaming Website dedicated to curating and serving live and on-demand lectures given by some of the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy makers and community leaders." Archived lectures include:
- The Literature of Collecting - Richard Wendorf, December 2, 2008.
- Boston Athenaeum History Essays - Stanley Ellis Cushing, curator, rare books, Boston Athenaeum and James Reid-Cunningham, chief conservator, Boston Athenaeum, November 19, 2008.
- Unnoticed: Secret Life of Type Faces - Richard Wendorf, April 28, 2005.
- Webpage of the Roycrafters
- Wells Book Arts Center - Wells College, Aurora, New York
- Westward Bound: An Exhibition Celebrating Book Arts in the West - J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah Exhibtion
- WHOLINK: Rare Books on Plague, Smallpox and Epidemiology - Full-text (in pdf format) of 13 titles in Latin, English, French and Italian published between 1518 to 1834. English titles include A discourse upon the Plague (1722) by Sir Richard Blackmore, A practical treatise of the plague (1720) by Joseph Brown, A scheme for Proper Methods to be taken (1721) by Sir John Colbatch.
- William L. Clements Library - University of Michigan
- William Gedney Photographs and Writing - This large collection, located at the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library at Duke University and completely digitized, has a Writings section, in which can be found "a series of three books devoted to precisely describing, through words and illustrations, the methods and materials used in creating handmade books. Gedney began making books and book dummies in the mid 1950s, soon after graduating from the Pratt Institute of Art. Years later, as an instructor at Pratt, Gedney taught a course in bookmaking." Bookbinding Notes Book 1, 1977-1982, Bookbinding Notes Book 2, 1978-1984, Bookbinding Notes Book 3, 1982-ca. 1983 and Book Projects, 1981-1984 are detailed, illustrated and useful resources.
- William Reese Company - New Haven firm offers a collection of Papers and Talks About Books and Book-Collecting given by Reese at Harvard, New York Public Library, the Grolier Club and the American Antiquarian Society.
- Wolfsonian-Florida International University Collection of Dutch Artifacts - "Includes extensive holdings in glass, textiles, furniture, and design drawings dating from circa 1880 to 1940, as well as an unrivaled collection of "Nieuwe Kunst" (Art Nouveau or "new art") bookbindings, and decorative and ornamental ephemera produced in the Netherlands between the 1890s and 1920s." See also Wolfsonian Collection
- Women in the Book Arts - Wellesley College Library
- World Biographical Index - Database created by K.G. Saur Publishing and the Braunschweig University Library, "based on the 4th edition of the World Biographical Index containing over 2 million short biographical entries for eminent individuals who lived in North and South America, Western and Central Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania." Available in German and English.
- WorldBookDealers - "Top antiquarian booksellers have come together under one banner to present over 200,000 expertly catalogued books." Provides "search engine, a wide selection of participating dealers' stock, dealer profiles, highlights of latest activities, acquisitions and catalogues, general news items and notices of events."
- Worldcat - Catalog of books and other materials in more than 9,000 member institutions and libraries worldwide has over 58 million bibliographic records. Open WorldCat program "makes records of library-owned materials in OCLC's WorldCat database available to Web users on popular Internet search, bibliographic and bookselling sites." Try a Google search for "find in a library" "savage beauty" and you'll locate a book at a library in your region about the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford. There is at least one alternate route. If you enter a nonsense title (try a combination of numbers and letters) on the search page at ABE Books you'll get this response No books match the given criteria. Find it at a local library. Clicking on this option will take you to an OCLC search page where you can search by title or ISBN.
- Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875 - Collection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle Wright's bibliography which attempts to include every novel published in the United States from 1851 to 1875. Project of the Indiana University Digital Library Program. There are currently 2,887 volumes included (2,109 unedited, 778 fully edited and encoded) by 1,394 authors. You can search the full-text. Wright "listed a total of 2,923 titles in adult fiction, including "novels, novelettes, romances, short stories, tall tales, tract-like tales, allegories, and fictitious biographies and travels, in prose" (from the introduction), and inventoried 18 American libraries for holdings. This compilation is part of his three-volume set listing American fiction from 1774 through 1900, and is still considered the most comprehensive bibliography of American adult fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries." There are at least two works of fiction with book collecting themes. The first is Robert Severne, His Friends and His Enemies (1867) by William Alexander Hammond, a novel of 369 pages. Chapter XI, starting on page 117, is summarized thus: "in which the hero and heroine meet for the first time, and in which the former indulges his bibliomaniacal propensity." The second is Scrope, or, The Lost Library: A Novel of New York and Hartford (1874) by Frederic B. Perkins.
