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CONTACT: Doug McElrath
(301)405-9210
dmcelrat@umd.edu

The Well-Dressed Book: Cloth Book Binding in the United States 1830-1920

An exhibition examing perspectives in nineteenth-century publishers' cloth bindings, through July 2008 in the Maryland Room Gallery, R. Lee Hornbake Library, at the University of Maryland

College Park, MD -

Visitors to the University of Maryland’s Hornbake Library in the spring of 2008 have an opportunity to experience, first-hand, the history and artistry of 19th-century book binding through the exhibit, The Well-Dressed Book: Cloth Book Binding in the United States 1830-1920. Assembled by a curatorial team from the Libraries and based on the holdings of Special Collections in Hornbake Library, this exhibit explores many aspects of 19th-century bindings. Who made these bindings, and how were they manufactured? How did the use of materials and designs change over time? Did books bound in Maryland look different from those made elsewhere? Do these 19th-century bindings preserve evidence of publishers’ marketing strategies?

The Well-Dressed Book exhibit opens a window to an era when the production of books was transformed from a craft to an industry. Before 1830, most books were individually bound in leather to suit the tastes and pocket book of the buyer. When publishers gradually supplanted the small print shop and book store as the principle agents in book production, there was a move to less expensive alternatives. Initial experiments with plain, starched cloth were soon followed by more lavish treatments as gilding and stamping techniques were perfected and eventually mechanized. Although designed and priced for the masses, these books often reflect the ornate tastes we now associate with the aptly-named Gilded Age.

http://www.lib.umd.edu/mdrm/gallery/bindings/exhibit.html

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