Educational Programs | January 27, 2010

Book History Workshop

Registration has opened for the ninth annual Book History Workshop at Texas
A&M, scheduled for May 23-28, 2010.
Taking place in the Cushing Memorial Library & Archives at Texas A&M, this five-day workshop offers an intensive, hands-on introduction to the history of books and printing, with an emphasis on handpress-era printing and its allied technologies - typecasting, papermaking, bookbinding, and illustration.

One of the distinguishing elements of the workshop is its emphasis on experiential as well as academic learning.  Our days, divided into labs and more traditional seminar sessions, will involve both active projects and classroom discussions, using the Cushing Library’s collection as examples.  Studentswill cast type in a hand mould, set lines of type and prepare them for
printing, make paper, produce relief illustrations, and print on a period-accurate common press.

The workshop has traditionally attracted scholars, librarians, archivists, students, teachers, and collectors, as well as those pursuing personal interests in book history.

Past workshops have also featured an evening lecture by a scholar active in the field of book history; this year, we anticipate welcoming Daniel De Simone, Curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress.  To register, find out more, or see photographs from previous workshops, go to: http://cushing.library.tamu.edu/events/book-history-workshop, or contact Todd Samuelson at todd.samuelson@tamu.edu