On Friday morning we hosted a group of high school seniors from Enfield, some from an English class but most from a philosophy course taught by Kelly Mazzone (nee O’Connor), who took an M.A. from Trinity in History in 2007 (under direction of the late Jack Chatfield).

The students have been studying excerpts from Genesis, the works of St. Anselm, St. Tomas Aquinas, William Paley and Blaise Pascal, as well as passages from Milton and Dante. They seemed pretty excited and engaged when I laid out for them our editions of Paradise Lost (in ten books, 1668, and in twelve books, 1678, including a copy formerly owned by John Eliot), and several edition s of the Inferno.

Also of interest to them were our original leaf (and newly acquired facsimile of) the Gutenberg Bible, the first volumes of two of the major polyglot Bibles–Paris (1645) and London (1657)–and the 1611 first edition of the “King James Version,” not to mention two of our beautiful books of hours, and (in answer to, “what is your oldest book”?), our cuneiform tablet.

I think a few bibliophiles were born that morning–or at least, definitley quickened!

This morning a student and I visited Papermania in downtown Hartford–I’ve been meaning to go for years, and I definitely am glad I went. Well over 100 dealers “from Florida to Canada” (but mainly from the northeast) brought a great array of STUFF to the fair–lots of ephemera of course, and books, but also posters, postcards, photos, and all manner of artifacts from scientific instruments to pop culture bobbles and doodads…I especially liked a little stamping kit for creating musical scores.

My student bought one small thing for himself, and I bought several things for the library, and made a good many connections. Of particular interest is a collection and archive (3 boxes) related to the Boston scholar-printer Daniel Berkeley Updike, of the Merrymount Press, which will be delivered to the library soon; also a series of historical fiction for juveniles, and another batch of 19th century American almanacs for our growing collection.

One of the items I wanted to buy but didn’t (we’ll see!) was a large broadside of recipes, printed in Hartford and hand-colored:

During the 1st summer session (June/July) I am teaching AMST 851, a graduate course on “the world of rare books.” I have nine (9) students in all–four from American Studies, four from English, and one auditor from Simmons College’s LIS program.

A few of us were privileged to visit the home of one of our Trustees, who collects Americana before 1840. He laid out a table of some of his favorites and went around, book by book, telling each item’s story. He also told us how he began collecting as a child–first with coins and stamps, then on to books beginning in his teens.

The one item that sticks out in my mind was a little (but important) rare tract by Samuel Penhallow (1665-1726), published in Boston in 1726: The History of the Wars of New England with the Eastern Indians.  This copy was annotated with commentary by someone who knew a veteran of the wars–in some cases correcting the text. The Watkinson has a 19th-century reprint of this work, but not the original, and certainly not such an amazing copy!

In all the collection comprises over 600 items, which are neatly  shelved in several rooms.

[Posted by Sally Dickinson, Associate Curator]

I was invited to go on a field trip to New York with the Book History class at Trinity.  It was a beautiful fall day and proved to be inspirational in more ways than just a walk down Madison Avenue.  Our first stop was The Center for Book Arts.  It was a great opportunity for me to make contact with an organization that fosters creative work in making and reinterpreting the book.  I chatted with book artist Roni Gross as the class arrived and quickly looked at a collection of broadsides on poetry that was produced at the Center.  From my perspective as a curator and book arts devotee, it was extremely helpful to see historical presses and to participate in a printing exercise that Roni deftly guided us through.  She gave an overview of the history of printing before we dove into composing our names from monotypes for a group broadside.  We all got to pull a couple of prints from 2 working vandercooks, a type of press favored by artistic printers today.

Next stop was one of my favorite places in the city—The Morgan Library at the corner of 36^th and Madison.  When I want to see how things should be done in a rare book library, I often look to the Morgan as an example.  “Money is no object” seems to be their motto, which works for uncompromising displays of cultural artifacts and a world-renowned collection of rare books and manuscripts.  Several years ago the brownstone mansion had been renovated and expanded with a stunning modern addition.  It’s important to have low light levels on paper artifacts and to support the bindings of fragile books.  The architecture supported these requirements in an elegant way.  The modern, plexiglass display cases at the Morgan had hidden lighting inside a metal frame that made the books & manuscripts a focal point.   I was an architect in my former life and sometimes I find myself looking at the design of the cases more than the treasures inside!  The highlight of the visit was a seminar with curator Roger Wieck, who showed the class some of the remarkable medieval Books of Hours from the library’s collection.  I was also impressed by our students’ ability to interpret, under Wieck’s guidance, the text and images of the 15^th century manuscripts.