Explore the craft, innovation, and global influence in early handmade books through the natural materials—animal, vegetable, and mineral—that went into their making.
What makes a book ?
Early books were handwritten, printed, bound, and decorated using a wide variety of materials from the natural world. From essential ingredients like flax, leather, copper, and lead, to the unexpected, like wasps and seaweed, Nature of the Book shows what the innovative use of these varied and sometimes surprising resources can tell us, touching on questions of purpose, process, trade, and economy. It tells a story of both local resourcefulness and global influence essential to the Western book as we know it.
Ground Floor
National Museum of Natural History
1000 Madison Drive NW
Washington, DC
38.890476012809, -77.0282163
Nature of the Book
