Collection Development Policy, Maryland History and Culture: Culture of the Book in Maryland [Draft]

Definitions and Historical Overview

Book culture encompasses all aspects of the creation, fabrication, distribution and reception of the printed word. Often described as the most important invention in the past 600 years, there is a growing interest in studying the impact of the printing press as an agent of change. From Maryland 's colonial era to the present, the culture of the book has played an important role in how people have acquired and acted on information. Books accompanied the first European settlers to the Chesapeake , and the printing press arrived in St. Mary's City in 1685. By the eighteenth century, Maryland had its own newspaper, the Maryland Gazette , published in Annapolis . The provincial capital also was home to a spirited intellectual culture headlined by the Tuesday Club, a witty group whose members included the printer Jonas Green and Thomas Bacon, Anglican priest and compiler of perhaps the finest piece of colonial American printing in the 1745 Laws of Maryland . Baltimore emerged during the Revolution as a source for printed discussion of the great issues of the day via pamphlet and newspaper, and the city's dramatic growth in the early 19 th century featured writers, publishers and intellectual leaders whose work gained national, and occasionally, international acclaim. A partial list might include John Pendleton Kennedy, Edgar Allan Poe, John H.B. Latrobe, Hezekiah Niles, John Stuart Skinner, and Fielding Lucas, Jr. Although eclipsed by Boston and New York , Baltimore continued to make noteworthy contributions to book culture as a thriving regional publishing center and a home for journalistic notables including Felix Agnus, Louise Malloy, Russell Baker and the celebrated H.L. Mencken. More recently, printed matter has faced increased competition from new media, but Marylanders still read voraciously and the state fosters a small, but lively community of papermakers, fine printers, artistic bookbinders and innovative publishers who are the inheritors of a long and distinguished tradition.

Scope of the Collection

Maryland Imprints, 1685-1850:

The era of the hand press produced the most distinctive examples of printing from Maryland . The advent of a national market made possible by the railroad, the invention of stereotyping, and the consolidation of the American publishing industry all combined to reduce the importance of works bearing Maryland imprints after 1830.

Primary Collecting Area:

• Formats: monographic works, pamphlets, broadsides, and printed ephemera
• Imprints from influential printers/publishers.
• Popular works that reached a mass audience.
• Copies with noteworthy associations, presentation copies, evidence of significant ownership.
• Works of state & local interest documenting important events or causes.
• Examples of printing outside of Baltimore.

Secondary Collecting Area:

• Stereotyped works bearing multiple imprints. Exception: imprints where a Maryland publisher/bookseller has organized the production.
• European Marylandia - works published in England and elsewhere by Maryland authors or concerning Maryland . Exceptions: prominent Maryland authors or works documenting important historical issues.
• Reprints of works by non-Maryland authors. Exception: notable titles such as Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia ( Baltimore , 1800) that were the first appearances of a title in the country or region.

Early Maryland Serial Publications:

.Examples: Hezekiah Niles' Weekly Register (1812- ) , Skinner's American Farmer (1819- ), gift books or annuals, almanacs.

Maryland Newspapers:

Examples, but not complete runs, of Maryland titles prior to 1876. Primary emphasis on examples of Baltimore papers in the News American family of titles. Important front pages. Examples of provincial papers also desirable.

Notable Achievements in Printing & Publishing:

Books and other printed materials that exhibit qualities of fine workmanship, expensive materials, high-quality typography and composition, notable design, innovation in illustration, and fine bindings by Maryland-based artisans and companies.

Primary Evidence of the Book Trades:

Materials documenting papermaking, type founding, printing, book binding, illustration, book selling, publishing. Books and other products of the book trades are the most obvious source for evidence of these activities, but a variety of research materials document the infrastructure of book culture. These include personal papers and business records, city directories, newspaper articles, maps, photographs, and objects.

Fine Press Books:

Products of printers inspired by the revival of the traditional book arts in the late 19 th century and continuing to the present day. Usually produced by an individual printer in small press runs.

Secondary Sources for Book Culture Studies:

Bibliographies, compilations, local histories, and industrial studies. Examples include the work of Elizabeth Baer, Lawrence C. Wroth, Joseph Towne Wheeler, Rachel Minick, Roger Bristol, Rollo Silver, Frank Shivers, Roy Hoopes, John McGrain, Henry K. Sharp.

Highlights of the Collection

Notable Maryland Imprints: William Park's Laws (1727), Thomas Bacon's Laws (1745), Poor Robin's Almanack (1766) - second book printed in Baltimore, Vallette's Deputy Commissary's Guide (1774) - first American engraved title page, Benjamin Banneker's Almanac (1792,1794) - first book published by an African American, John Hagerty's Bible (1812) - first use of "diamond" miniature type in U.S., Timber Merchant's Guide (1823) - second appearance of lithography in the U.S., Lucas' Progressive Drawing Book (1827) - landmark color plate book.