2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club: Report

February 27, 2026 in Announcements, Bembino, Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evience, Manuscript Studies, Theme of the Year, Visits to Collections

Report

2026 RGME Colloquium
at The Grolier Club

“Transformations and Renewals”
Examining and Celebrating
Treasures of the Grolier Club Library

Wednesday 11 February 2026
Hybrid, in Two Events:
Workshop
+
Roundtable

[Posted on 18 February 2026, with updates, now including a link to a Recording of the Roundtable]

New York, New York. Front entrance of The Grolier Club. Photo courtesy of The Grolier Club.

We celebrate the successful accomplishment of the 2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club of the City of New York on Wednesday 11 February. We give thanks to Jamie Elizabeth Cumby, Grolier Club Librarian who offered to give the Workshop which set the plan in motion, the contributors, the staff of the Grolier Club, RGME advisers, and members of the RGME Production Team supporting both the hybrid and in-person aspects of the pair of events.

The events comprised two parts:

1) “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop in the upstairs Council Room

2) “Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable with Lightning Talks, open to the public, in the downstairs Exhibition Hall.

For a description and the Program, please see:

2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club

Here we celebrate the Colloquium, describe its characteristics as accomplished, and, with permission, share some photographs. For their photographs inside the Club, we credit and thank the photographers: Mildred Budny, Hannah Goeselt, Justin Hastings, and Beppy Landrum Owen.

Entering The Grolier Club (11 February 2026). Photograph by Hannah Goeselt.

The Nature of the Event

This first hybrid event for the RGME in the Year 2026 — for which we have chosen the Theme of “Transformations and Renewals” for exploration across our activities and projects — brought the RGME to The Grolier Club of the City of New York, in central Manhattan, for a curated set of hybrid events on Wednesday 11 February 2026. In keeping with the RGME’s dedication to accessibility for events reaching a wider audience, these events were designed to be available both in person and online.

We gathered a generous team of specialists, collectors, and curators of books — all Grolier Club Members and mostly RGME Associates— to examine, reflect on, and celebrate selected treasures of the Grolier Club Library. On offer: reports and conversations about research discoveries, work-in-progress, and the joys of experiencing the materials directly and also sharing their stories.

Speakers and/or Panelists

Participants offered comments and/or lightning talks. Speakers made comments at the afternoon workshop over original materials, and Panelists gave lightning talks at the early-evening roundtable:

Jamie Elizabeth Cumby (Grolier Club Librarian)
“ ‘Show-Off-and Tell’: A Curated Selection from the Grolier Club Library”
Beppy Landrum Owen (also Oral History Project: Beppy Landrum Owen)
“ ‘That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. . .’
Lost Stories of the Making of the Bremer Presse’s 1934 (but 1935) Vesalian Icones anatomicae”
John T. McQuillen (Morgan Library & Museum, Associate Curator of Printed Books & Bindings)
“Blockbooks Dismembered”
Note:
Watch for the coming exhibition at the Morgan later this year:

“Late Medieval European Blockbooks: The First Printed Picture Books” (6 November 2026 to 16 May 2027)
Mildred Budny (Director of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
“A Medieval Missal Fragment from the Otto F. Ege Collection and its Provenance”
Note:
“Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books: Encountering and Reconstituting the Legacy of Otto F. Ege and Other Bibliocasts” (See 2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments)
Reid Byers (Reid Byers, Author)
“Secrets in Secrets in Secrets”
Note:
Reid Byers, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books (Oak Knoll Press and Le Club Fortsas, 2024)
Richard Kopley (Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus, Penn State DuBois, and Author)
“William Gowans, New York Bookman and Poe Family Boarder”
Note:
Richard Kopley, Edgar Allan Poe: A Life (2024)
Mark Samuels Lasner (Mark Samuels Lasner)
“A Gift from William Morris to the Grolier Club”
Note:
Wilhelm Meinhold, Sidona the Sorceress (Kelmscott Press, 1893), translated by “Francesca Speranza” / Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde, Lady Wilde—a novel drawn from the life of the Pomeranian noblewoman Sidonia von Borcke (1548–1620), accused of witchcraft and executed.
Mary Crawford (Co-Curator, current exhibition at the Grolier Club; Bio)
“From ‘By a Lady’ to Global Superstar: Curating 250 Years of Jane Austen”
Note:
Grolier Club Exhibition. “Paper Jane” (to 14 February 2026)
Online exhibition. Exhibition Gallery
Online curators’ tour. Tour of Paper Jane
Catalogue. Catalogue

Presider/Moderator for Roundtable

Anna Siebach–Larson

Book-Signings at Roundtable for Grolier Authors’ Publications

Reid Byers, Mary Crawford, Richard Kopley, and Mark Samuels Lasner

Beppy Landrum Owen prepares for her comments at the Workshop and Lightning Talk for the Roundtable. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

I. The “Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable
in the Grolier Club Exhibition Hall
(Hybrid, Live-Streamed)
6:00 to 7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Open to the public both in-person and online
Book-signings available

Overview

Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, a Princeton-based 501(c)(3) educational organization, visited the Grolier Club for an in-person/hybrid ‘Roundtable’. In lightning talks, several Club members discussed a curated selection of books, manuscripts, and prints on the RGME’s 2026 organizational theme of “Transformations and Renewals. Open to the public, this event offered offer book-signings for Club member guides who recently published works discussed.

Panelists for the Roundtable: Mildred Budny, Beppy Landrum Owen, John T. McQuillen, Reid Byers, Richard Kopley, Mark Samuels Lasner, and Mary Crawford

Presider: Anna Siebach–Larsen

The Panelists prepare

After the Workshop (see below), our panelists gathered for the “Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable with Lightning Talks in the ground-floor Exhibition Hall.

Here we see, at the front, beneath the display screen, and between the display cases for the current exhibition, the panelists take their seats in speaking order, from right to left.

2026 RGME-Grolier Colloquium Roundtable: Left-Hand Side with Podium. Photograph by Hannah Goeselt.

The RGME Executive Director introduces the Panel

2026 RGME-Grolier Colloquium Roundtable: Right-Hand Side with Podium. Photograph by Hannah Goeselt.

The Roundtable Presider introduces the Panelists

Anna Siebach-Larsen presides over the Roundtable. Photograph/Screenshot by Justin Hastings.

II. The “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop
in the Grolier Club Council Room
(Hybrid, Zoom Meeting)
2:30 to 4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Open to the public online;
In-person seats limited, for Grolier Members and invited RGME Guests

Overview

As a prelude to the Roundtable on “Transformations and Renewals”, Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and Grolier Club Members had a hybrid “Show-Off-and-Tell’ Workshop to examine, up close, the original materials (as book, manuscript, print) to be discussed further at the evening Roundtable in lightning talks. The curated selections comprised favorites from the Grolier Club Library which have given rise to detailed study and discoveries for them and their contexts.

Like our pair of hybrid workshops recently over original manuscript and printed materials in Special Collections at the Princeton University Library, held by our Associate Eric White at the 2025 RGME Colloquium on Fragments (see below), this hybrid workshop took place over original materials at the Grolier Club, guided by the Librarian Jamie Cumby (see also Jamie Cumby).

We shared experiences of delight and wonder, to celebrate the joys of learning from original materials at the Club and their relatives in other collections, especially in combination, to learn more about the rich range of the Grolier Club Library, and to give thanks for responsible access to it and for its curators. Open to the public online and to an invited audience in person (limited seating), this event was designed to be accessible widely by interactive Zoom Meeting.

Speakers (in order of presentation):
Jamie Elizabeth Cumby, Beppy Landrum Owen, John T. McQuillen, Mildred Budny, Reid Byers, Richard Kopley, and Mark Samuels Lasner

Setting the stage

Reid Byers prepares for the RGME Workshop in the Council Room. Photograph by Beppy Landrum Owen.

Preparing the Projection

Setting up the projection and internet connection for the Workshop and its audiences both onsite and online. Photograph by Hannah Goeselt.

Describing the genre, challenges, and accomplishments of BlockBooks

John T. McQuillen describes characteristics of BlockBooks. Photograph by Hannah Goeselt.

The Table Laid for Display of Original Materials

Original Materials from The Grolier Club Library, laid out for display and examination. Photograph by Hannah Goeselt.

Checking details

Mark Samuels Lasner examines a Favorite Book for the RGME Workshop in the Council Room. Photograph by Beppy Landrum Owen.

Closer Looks

Mark Samuels Lasner and Jamie Elizabeth Cumby examine materials for the RGME Workshop in the Council Room. Photograph by Beppy Landrum Owen.

The Long View as the Table is Set

Participation at the RGME Workshop in the Council Room. Photograph by Beppy Landrum Owen.

Comparing Notes

Conversations following the RGME Workshop in the Council Room. Photograph by Beppy Landrum Owen.

Hybrid Access

Conforming with our two organizations’ shared commitments to hybrid access for events which take place in person, the two parts of the Colloquium were granted hybrid functionality to reach our wider audiences.

Taking into account the policies, practices, and arrangements in place for hybrid access

1) to public events at The Grolier Club and
2) for the RGME’s visits to Special Collections (since 2024),

both sponsoring organizations agreed to share the responsibilities for such access by covering one each of the two different rooms to be used for the Colloquium. Accordingly,

The Grolier Club provided hybrid access for the Roundtable through its Eventbrite registration and YouTube live-streaming, for which recordings become available on its YouTube channel.
The RGME provided hybrid access for the Workshop through our RGME Eventbrite registration and RGME Zoom Meeting.

For the Workshop, we took care to bring exactly the same RGME Production Team, to operate in-person and online, that had worked so well together for the widely-admired pair of Workshops held (in two sittings) in Special Collections at Princeton last November for the 2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments. For this new venue for a hybrid RGME visit to original materials, we arranged to bring additional, event-specific, equipment following the technical rehearsal in January for the Workshop.

Background and Foreground:
An Approach with Grounding

The plan for hybrid access by the RGME for the Workshop at The Grolier Club was grounded on our experiences, techniques, and teamwork (on-site and online) as has been developed and honed for our series of In-Person Visits to Special Collections. These visits have progressed from collection to collection, both private and institutional, by using equipment on site and in our mobile travelling kit, adapting from venue to venue, as the approach and implementation improves resourcefully. So far:

RGME Visit to the Collection of Steven Lomazow, M.D., in affiliation with the Student Friends of Princeton University Library, in November 2024 (with an updated, hybrid, visit to the Collection by our Director in January 2026)
RGME Meeting in association with the Princeton Bibliophiles & Collectors for a Guided Tour of selected highlights from the Collection of Ronald K. Smeltzer (brought to the Princeton Public Library for an illustrated talk by Ronald Smeltzer on Émilie du Châtelet, Woman of Science) in April 2025
2025 RGME Visit to Vassar College, to examine manuscript materials at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and Special Collections of the Vassar College Library, in May 2025
RGME Visit to Special Collections at Princeton University Library, in association with the Friends of Princeton University Library, to examine a curated selection of “Fragments at Princeton” in Workshops in two sittings led by our Associate Eric White, as part of our 3-day hybrid 2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments in November 2025
and now the guided Workshop, led by the Grolier Club librarian and accompanied by selections and comments by Grolier Members and RGME Associates, for the 2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club in February 2026

Poster 3 for 2025 Autumn Colloquium. Workshops on “Fragments at Princeton”

In pursuing this generous goal for hybrid events, the RGME has striven to improve its methods, techniques, and travelling ‘kit,’ albeit with limited resources, as it continues to hold visits and other events at selected locations. Likewise it takes care to listen to feedback, suggestions, and requests by both in-person and online attendees, and respond as resourcefully as possible, as it works to grow its abilities for the purpose. Thus we thank our hosts, participants, and audiences, to learn and improve together, so as to offer a worthwhile experience of engagement as best might be.

Sometimes the process encounters circumstances beyond our control, despite careful, informed, and resourceful preparations. Such was the case for some parts of the plan here. (See Hybridities and Curiosities).

We commend all those in the Grolier Club and those members of the RGME Production Team who helped consistently before, during, and after the event, to shape the collaborative hybrid process and foster its collective experience, with the aim of a good, shared outcome.

Event Publications

The Recordings for both the Workshop and the Roundtable count as publications (or publications in progress) hosted respectively by the Grolier Club (Roundtable) and RGME (Workshop).

The RGME publications for the event, both digital and printed, including our website’s announcement and report (you are here), are set in RGME Bembino. The Posters, Program Booklet, and Colloquium Booklet can be downloaded freely as pdfs.

Program

The 4-page Program Booklet for both the afternoon Workshop and early-evening Roundtable

2026 RGME-Grolier Colloquium Poster 1. Set in RGME Bembino.

2026 RGME Colloquium at the Grolier Club: Program

Posters

Both Posters for this bipartite event can be downloaded:

Colloquium Booklet

The 64-page illustrated Colloquium Booklet offers a guide and souvenir for the event. You may download it here, in two formats according with your printing and viewing preferences.

2026 RGME Colloquium Booklet: Pages (as a series of individual pages on 8 1/2″ × 11″ sheets)
2026 RGME Colloquium Booklet: Foldable Booklet (laid out for printing on 11″ × 17″ sheets, ready for folding)

The Grolier Club, View of Exhibition “Paper Jane” (to 14 February 2025). Image: Grolier Club.

*******

Recording of the Roundtable

Follow this link for the Grolier Club’s Recording for the February 11 livestream of “Transformations and Renewals: The RGME and the Treasures of the Grolier Club Library.”

Transformations and Renewals: The RGME and the Treasures of the Grolier Club Library.”

Please note that the automated captions demonstrate some misrepresentations, such as by misspellings. We look forward to a corrected version, if possible.

We thank the Grolier Club for making this recording and making it available on the Club’s Vimeo account for wider access.

*******************

2026 RGME-Grolier Colloquium Poster 2. Set in RGME Bembino.

Questions? Suggestions?

Leave your comments or questions below
Contact Us

Join Us!

Join the Friends of the RGME

There is no charge to join our Friends. All are welcome. The Friends hold special meetings, competitions with prizes, and other activities, recognizing the wide range of interests among our audience, scholarly and more.

Register for our Events

RGME Eventbrite Collection

Donations and Contributions

Please make a Donation in Funds or in Kind for our nonprofit educational corporation powered principally by volunteers. Your donations and contributions are welcome, and can go a long way. They may be tax-deductible to the fullest extent provided by the law.

We look forward to welcoming you to the special visit to the Grolier Club, whether you can attend in person or online!

Front of The Grolier Club. Photograph (4 April 2008) [cropped] by participant/team W. C. Minor as part of the Commons:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan project, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grolier_Club.jpg.

Tags: Access to Collections, Blockbooks, Curated Workshops, Giving Thanks, Grolier Club Library, Grolier Club Members, history of printing, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, RGME Visits to Collections, The Grolier Club
No Comments »

2026 RGME Colloquium on “Transformations & Renewals” at The Grolier Club

January 27, 2026 in Announcements, Event Registration, Events, Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evience, Manuscript Studies, Visits to Collections

2026 RGME Colloquium
at The Grolier Club

“Transformations and Renewals”
Examining and Celebrating
Treasures of the Grolier Club Library

Wednesday 11 February 2026 (Hybrid, in Two Events)
Workshop + Roundtable

[Posted on 15 January 2026, with updates
Now see also the 2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club: Report]

Front Entrance of The Grolier Club. Photograph (4 April 2008) [cropped] by participant/team W. C. Minor as part of the Commons:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan project, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license., via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grolier_Club.jpg.

For the Year 2026, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence chooses the Theme of “Transformations and Renewals” for exploration across its activities and projects.

Our first hybrid event of the year brings the RGME to The Grolier Club of the City of New York, in central Manhattan, for a curated set of hybrid events on Wednesday 11 February 2026. In keeping with the RGME’s dedication to accessibility for events reaching a wider audience, these events will be available both in person and online. For registration for the different events and functionalities (in person or online), see below.

With registration beforehand (see below), the day’s events comprise:

a “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop in the afternoon
2:30–4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
1) online open to the public
2) in person privately with limited seating, open for Grolier Club Members and RGME invited guests
a “Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable in the early evening
6:00–7:30 pm EST
open to the public
1) online and
2) in person

We gather a team of specialists, collectors, and curators of books — all Grolier Club Members and mostly RGME Associates— to examine, reflect on, and celebrate selected treasures of the Grolier Club Library. On offer: reports and conversations about research discoveries, work-in-progress, and the joys of experiencing the materials directly and also sharing their stories. Join us!

2024 Beletsky logo of the Grolier Club of the City of New York.

Program

For information about the scope of the event, its Participants, its two parts as Workshop and Roundtable, and Registration for each part, see below. Both parts are hybrid, through the RGME for the Workshop and through the Grolier Club for the Roundtable.

The Program for both the afternoon Workshop and early-evening Roundtable can now be downloaded as a 4-page

2026 RGME-Grolier Colloquium Poster 1. Set in RGME Bembino.

Program Booklet, set in RGME Bembino.

2026 RGME Colloquium at the Grolier Club: Program

Posters

Both Posters for this bipartite event can be downloaded:

Colloquium Booklet

We offer the 64-page illustrated Colloquium Booklet as a guide and souvenir for the event. You may download it here, in two formats according with your printing and viewing preferences.

2026 RGME Colloquium Booklet: Pages (as a series of individual pages on 8 1/2″ × 11″ sheets)
2026 RGME Colloquium Booklet: Foldable Booklet (laid out for printing on 11″ × 17″ sheets, ready for folding)

Speakers and Panelists

Speakers with comments at the afternoon workshop over original materials and/or with lightning talks at the early-evening roundtable:

Jamie Elizabeth Cumby (Grolier Club Librarian)
“ ‘Show-Off-and Tell’: A Curated Selection from the Grolier Club Library”
Beppy Landrum Owen (also Oral History Project: Beppy Landrum Owen)
“ ‘That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. . .’
Lost Stories of the Making of the Bremer Presse’s 1934 (but 1935) Vesalian Icones anatomicae”
John T. McQuillen (Morgan Library & Museum, Associate Curator of Printed Books & Bindings)
“Blockbooks Dismembered”
Note:
Watch for the coming exhibition at the Morgan later this year:

“Late Medieval European Blockbooks: The First Printed Picture Books” (6 November 2026 to 16 May 2027)
Mildred Budny (Director of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
“A Medieval Missal Fragment from the Otto F. Ege Collection and its Provenance”
Note:
“Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books: Encountering and Reconstituting the Legacy of Otto F. Ege and Other Bibliocasts” (See 2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments)
Reid Byers (Reid Byers, Author)
“Secrets in Secrets in Secrets”
Note:
Reid Byers, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books (Oak Knoll Press and Le Club Fortsas, 2024)
Richard Kopley (Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus, Penn State DuBois, and Author)
“William Gowans, New York Bookman and Poe Family Boarder”
Note:
Richard Kopley, Edgar Allan Poe: A Life (2024)
Mark Samuels Lasner (Mark Samuels Lasner)
“A Gift from William Morris to the Grolier Club”
Note:
Wilhelm Meinhold, Sidona the Sorceress (Kelmscott Press, 1893), translated by “Francesca Speranza” / Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde, Lady Wilde—a novel drawn from the life of the Pomeranian noblewoman Sidonia von Borcke (1548–1620), accused of witchcraft and executed.
Mary Crawford (Co-Curator, current exhibition at the Grolier Club; Bio)
“From ‘By a Lady’ to Global Superstar: Curating 250 Years of Jane Austen”
Note:
Grolier Club Exhibition. “Paper Jane” (to 14 February 2026)
Online exhibition. Exhibition Gallery
Online curators’ tour. Tour of Paper Jane
Catalogue. Catalogue

Presider/Moderator for Roundtable

Anna Siebach–Larson

Book-Signings at Roundtable for Grolier Authors’ Publications

Reid Byers, Mary Crawford, Richard Kopley, and Mark Samuels Lasner

We look forward to welcoming you!

The Grolier Club, View of Exhibition “Paper Jane” (to 14 February 2025). Image: Grolier Club.

Registration for the 2 Hybrid Events

We give information for
I. the evening Roundtable first,
II. then the afternoon Workshop.

I. Hybrid Roundtable in the Grolier Club Exhibition Hall
6:00 to 7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Open to the public both in-person and online
Book-signings available

Registration through the Grolier Club

Grolier Club: Eventbrite

Overview

With Mildred Budny, Beppy Landrum Owen, John T. McQuillen, Reid Byers, Richard Kopley, Mark Samuels Lasner, and Mary Crawford

Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, a Princeton-based 501(c)(3) educational organization, will visit the Grolier Club for an in-person/hybrid ‘Roundtable’. In lightning talks, several Club members will discuss a curated selection of books, manuscripts, and prints on the RGME’s 2026 organizational theme of “Transformations and Renewals. Open to the public, this event will be live-streamed and will offer book-signings for Club member guides who have recently published works discussed.

Registration for the Roundtable
Virtual or In-Person Attendance

Public roundtable on “Transformations and Renewals” at 6:00-7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
[although the registration portal lists the time as “6:00-7:00”]
All are welcome to attend in both functionalities.

1) Virtual
“Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable (Virtual)

2) In-Person
“Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable (In-Person)

2026 RGME-Grolier Colloquium Poster 2. Set in RGME Bembino.

II. Hybrid “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop upstairs
preceding the Roundtable
2:30 to 4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
with Break at 3:15–3:30 pm

Open to the public online;
In-person seats limited, for Grolier Members and invited RGME Guests

Registration through the RGME

RGME Eventbrite Collection

Overview

As a prelude to the Roundtable on “Transformations and Renewals”, Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and Grolier Club Members will have a hybrid “Show-Off-and-Tell’ Workshop to examine, up close, the original materials (as book, manuscript, print) to be discussed further at the evening Roundtable in lightning talks. The curated selections comprise favorites from the Grolier Club Library which have given rise to detailed study and discoveries for them and their contexts.

Like our pair of hybrid workshops recently over original manuscript and printed materials in Special Collections at the Princeton University Library, held by our Associate Eric White at the 2025 RGME Colloquium on Fragments, this hybrid workshop will take place over original materials at the Grolier Club, guided by the Librarian Jamie Cumby (see also Jamie Cumby).

We gather to share experiences of delight and wonder, to celebrate the joys of learning from original materials at the Club and their relatives in other collections, especially in combination, to learn more about the rich range of the Grolier Club Library, and to give thanks for responsible access to it and for its curators. Open to the public online and to an invited audience in person (limited seating), this event will be accessible widely by interactive Zoom Meeting.

Speakers (in order of presentation):
Jamie Elizabeth Cumby, Beppy Landrum Owen, John T. McQuillen, Mildred Budny, Reid Byers, Richard Kopley, and Mark Samuels Lasner

Registration for the “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop
Virtual or In-Person Attendance

Hybrid Workshop at 2:30-4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
All are welcome to attend online; space is limited in person.

1) ONLINE (Open to the public)

- Workshop Online: Registration
  Note that, after you register, the RGME will send you the Zoom Link a day or so before the event. For security, the Zoom Link will be sent to you by the RGME, and NOT Eventbrite or Zoom.

2) IN-PERSON (Space is limited, by invitation)

- “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop IN PERSON for Speakers, Grolier Members, and Invited Guests: Registration
  In case of demand, we offer a Waiting List.

Willhelm Meinhold, Sidona the Sourceress (Kelmscott Press, 1893), Opening of Book I, Chapter 1, “Of the Education of Sidonia”. Photograph courtesy of Mark Samuels Lasner.

*******************

Questions? Suggestions?

Leave your comments or questions below
Contact Us

Join Us!

Learn about the RGME, its mission, and its activities

Who Are We?

Visit our Social Media:

our FaceBook Page (or Facebook Page)
our Facebook Group
our X/Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss)
our Bluesky nest @rgmesocial.bluesky.social)
our Instagram Page
our LinkedIn Group

Join the Friends of the RGME. (There is no charge.) All are welcome. The Friends hold special meetings, competitions with prizes, and other activities, recognizing the wide range of interests among our audience, scholarly and more.

Donations and Contributions

We look forward to welcoming you to the special visit to the Grolier Club, whether you can attend in person or online!

Tags: Edgar Allan Poe, Exhibitions, Grolier Club Library, History of Blockbooks, history of printing, History of Provenance, Jane Austen, Kelmscott Press, Manuscript studies, Otto Ege Fragments, Responsible Access to Collections, RGME Visits to Special Collections, Transformations & Renewals, William Morris
No Comments »

2025 RGME Autumn Symposium on “Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books”

August 24, 2025 in Announcements, Conference, Conference Announcement, Event Registration, Manuscript Studies, Visits to Collections

2025
RGME Autumn Symposium

Part 2 of 2 in the 2025 Symposia on
“Agents and Agencies
in the Shaping
or Re-Shaping of Books”

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books:
From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

Online Format
(Friday to Sunday 17–19 October)

[Posted on 20 August 2025, with updates]

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Typ 947, recto. Image via https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:6517512$1i.

The RGME continues with its integrated pair of 2025 Spring and Autumn Symposia, as Parts 1 and 2 for the year. The 2025 Autumn Symposium in October takes shape as Part 2 of 2. For Part 1 of 2, which took place in March, see:

2025 Spring Symposium on “Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books”

For the predecessors in 2023 and 2024, see:

2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia,
with the year’s Theme of “Structures of Knowledge”
2023 Pre-Symposium on “Intrepid Borders”
2023 Spring Symposium “From the Ground Up”
2023 Autumn Symposium “Between Earth and Sky”
2024 Spring and Autumn Symposia”,
with the year’s Theme of “Bridges”
2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College
2024 Autumn Symposium

In 2025, they respond to our Theme for the Year:

Our Spring Symposium as Part 1 of 2 for 2025 took place successfully in online format in March.

2025 Spring Symposium on “Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books”

We thank our contributors, organizers, advisers, sponsors, and hosts.

British Library, Royal MS 14 E. v, vol. 1, fol. 3r. Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The Interlinked Pair
of 2025 Symposia

Following the momentum of activities and enthusiasm in our 2024 Anniversary Year, the pair will draw upon the customary informal, but structured, approach of our events, symposia included. These symposia will take place online or in partly hybrid format.

“Agents & Agencies” for 2025

As principal focus, our 2025 Symposia consider the myriad aspects and impact of agents and agencies (human and other) in the creation, dissemination, use, abuse, re-creation, safe-guarding, and enjoyment of books across time and place.

I. Spring Symposium (Part I of 2)

“Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books:
From Author/Artist/Artisan to Library”

Friday to Sunday
28–30 March 2025 by Zoom

2025 Spring Symposium on “Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books”

This event explored the genesis and gestation of books, from first thoughts to processes of production leading to the finished product, and then to their owners and users.

For example, for the first stages, we could consider the author alone in his or her study, putting pen to page or thought to written word. Around him might, naturally, whether close at hand or in his memory or imagination, stand other books as examples or sources of inspiration, imitation, or perhaps plagarism.

The work of composing, copying, revising, and producing draft, fair, or final copies of the texts (with images where and as indicated) could be undertaken by more than one author, artist, and/or artisan. If so, would they work in tandem, sequence, or competition? Well, that might depend.

As the work progresses, there arrive further stages which create the issue or publication of the book, which then may enter the world in processes of dissemination, instruction, and incorporation within an individual or collective collection — or, it might be, from collection to collection, in one shape or another. The changed shapes could, of course, pertain to the book itself and/or the ownership.

British Library, Royal MS 14 E. 1, vol. 1, fol. 3r. Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Note on the Image. Frontispiece/headpiece for the first volume of the Speculum Historiale (or Miroir historial) by Vincent of Beauvais (1184/1194 – c. 1264) in the Old French translation by Jean de Vignay (circa 1282/1285 – c. 1350). Bruges, circa c. 1478–1480, for Edward IV (1442–1483, king from 1461–1470 and again from 1471-1483). On this page, at the front of Vincent’s text, above its opening columns of script, the author sits as scribe in a book-furnished study, framed within an architectural arcade and set within an elaborate border containing the king’s arms below.

See more:

2025 Spring Symposium on “Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books”

*****

II. Autumn Symposium (Part 2 of 2)

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books:
From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

Friday to Sunday, 17–19 October 2025
Online by Zoom

In the Autumn Symposium, we follow up the explorations of the Spring Symposium as we turn to consider the ‘afterlives’ of books once they reach their audience, whether through the marketplace or other modes of presentation and distribution. Such conditions may acquire a life of their own, as readers, annotators, users, owners, thieves, despoilers, and others had or took a hand in shaping or reshaping their destinies — that is, of the books, those agents, and book history.

As examples, we may point to readers who would reshape the pages by placing their comments, revisions, scribbles, or sketches upon them. So, too, forgers as well as plagarists might appropriate others’ work as their own, say by reshaping its structure, grafting on other pieces, or extracting parts to re-assemble and redistribute in other forms for their own purposes. And then there are outright hoaxes, by which inventions purport to represent an activity or creation which exists only or principally by that newly implemented form.

Appropriation of others’ work might also occur, for example, as leaves or scraps of books were extracted, cut into further pieces, perhaps refolded, and reused as coverings or parts of bindings for other texts (manuscript or printed), or for other repurposed materials. Call it recycling for the sake of the materials themselves, put to different uses.

A different form of reuse concerns the fragmentation of books for the purpose of extracting leaves or part-leaves to serve as specimens of script, decoration, illustration, and/or graphic design. That approach forms the subject of our 2025 Autumn Colloquium on Fragments. See:

the 2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments, taking place in November partly at Special Collections at Firestone Library at Princeton University.

Picking up the pieces of such fragmentation, that event is designed to showcase the legacy of such despoilers or ‘biblioclasts’ who dispersed the fragments of manuscripts and printed books far and wide and to celebrate the many initiatives to study and, in some measure, reconstruct the traces of that legacy. It considers such phenomena within the larger context of the ‘afterlives’ of books in many other forms as well.

The rôles of forgers, fakers, and frauds as agents in the production, re-creation, and distribution of books looms large in the history of books, perhaps from time immemorial. Our Symposium sets their activities or accomplishments into the context of “Agents and Agencies” as we examine the broad setting of books overall.

Speakers, Presiders, and Respondents

Participants who may speak, preside, or respond include (in alphabetical order):

Mildred Budny
Reid Byers
Meghan Constantinou
Jamie Cumby
Hannah Goeselt
Justin Hastings
Eve Kahn
Jennifer Larson
Steven Lomazow
Jack Lynch
Irene Malfatto
Beppy Landrum Owen
Anna Siebach–Larsen
David W. Sorenson
Janie Wright
N. Kıvılcım Yavuz

And others.

Program Overview (online by Zoom)

Day 1. Friday 17 October at 1:30 – 5:00 pm EDT (GMT -4)

Day 2. Saturday 18 October at 9:30 am – 5:00 pm EDT (GMT -4)

Day 3. Sunday 19 October at 10:30am – 12:00am EDT (GMT -4)

Program of Sessions

2025 Autumn Symposium on 17–19 October: Program

Poster

The 2025 Autumn Symposium Poster is available for download. You are welcome to copies to circulate, keep as souvenirs, and show your friends.

2025 RGME Autumn Symposium Poster

Symposium Booklet

We publish the 40-page illustrated Symposium Booklet, available in two formats for printing.

Consecutive pages (8 1/2″ × 11″)
Foldable booklet (11″ × 17″ sheets)

We give thanks to the contributors, photographers, collectors, advisors, editor, layout designer, and others who created the collective booklet.

British Library, Royal MS 14 E. v, vol. 1, fol. 3r. Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Thanks

We give thanks to the speakers, respondents, advisers, back-up support, and participants for contributing to the symposium and its 2025 series of Spring and Autumn Symposia.

*****

Registration

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-rgme-autumn-symposium-tickets-1236732924469

Registration is free. We encourage you to Pay What You Can by the option for Registration with a Voluntary Donation.

This year, the RGME has undergone setbacks with grants and funding, so that we ask your help. Any amount will give encouragement and contribute to recovering momentum. We thank you for your support.

Donations, which may be tax-deductible, help us to continue with our activities and sustain our mission for an organization principally powered by volunteers.

Please note that, after registration, the Zoom link will be sent as an email from the RGME a few days before the event. For security reasons, we do not distribute tickets or links through Eventbrite or Zoom.

To register for other RGME events, please visit the RGME Registration Collection.

RGME Events

For our activities planned for 2025, see:

2024 Activities and 2025 Planned Activities

*****

Questions? Suggestions?

Leave your comments or questions below
Contact Us

How to Join our Community

Visit our Social Media:

our FaceBook Page
our Facebook Group
our X/Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss)
our Bluesky nest @rgmesocial.bluesky.social)
our Instagram Page
our LinkedIn Group

Join the Friends of the RGME.

*****

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Typ 947, ‘verso’. Images via https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:6517512$1i.

Tags: Fakers and Forgers, History of Manuscripts, Manuscript Readers, Manuscript studies, Recreators of Manuscripts, RGME Symposia
No Comments »

2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments

June 27, 2025 in Announcements, Koller-Collins Center for English Studies, Manuscript Studies, Princeton Bibliophiles & Collectors, Rossell Hope Robbins Library at the University of Rochester, Visits to Collections

2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium
on Fragments

“Break-Up Books
and Make-Up Books:
Encountering and Reconstructing
the Legacy of Otto F. Ege
and Other Biblioclasts“

Friday to Sunday 21–23 November 2025
Hybrid and partly Online
Hybrid: In Person at Princeton and Online (Friday and Saturday)
Online: Zoom (Sunday)

*****

Colloquium Sponsors, Co-Sponsors, and Affiliates

Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Princeton University Special Collections
The Friends of the Princeton University Library
Student Friends of the Princeton University Library
Princeton Bibliophiles & Collectors
Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

Rossell Hope Robbins Library
and Koller-Collins Center for English Studies
at the University of Rochester

Bibliographical Society of America

Celia M. Chazelle
Barbara Hanselman
Barbara A. Shailor

**[Your Name Here]**

*****

[First posted on 5 January 2025, with updates. Now revised on 20 June 2025, 20 August 2025, 5 September 2025, and 29 October 2025, with changes in plan, co-sponsorship, host, and venues.]

Venue: In-Person, Hybrid, and Online

After an imposed change in venue from our initial plans, the Colloquium goes forward in online format, as planned from the beginning, with an in-person/hybrid component. Its dates remain the same, from Friday to Sunday 21–23 November. The changes allow us to turn to a new host, for which we give thanks. For the earlier version, see

https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2025-rgme-autumn-colloquium-at-the-university-of-waterloo/.

Online sessions will take place on Friday to Sunday. Sessions and Workshops will be hybrid on Friday and Saturday, with venues in different locations at Princeton University and nearby.

On Friday afternoon, our Associate Eric White, Curator of Rare Books, will hold a special set of Workshops on Fragments at Princeton in Special Collections at Firestone Library of the Princeton University Library. These workshops and reports on original materials return to a tradition of the RGME with Symposia and other events at Princeton University, before the Covid Pandemic. For example:

For the 2025 Colloquium, searching for an appropriate location for other parts of the Colloquium beside the Workshops at Special Collections on the Friday afternoon, we explored collaboration with colleagues and organizations for other venues in Princeton to enable a Friday morning session and the Saturday sessions, all in hybrid format. Step by step, with assistance from the Friends of the Princeton University Library and the Department of Art & Archaeology, which had co-sponsored many of our Symposia before the Covid Pandemic. We give thanks for the generous responses to foster the plan for a ‘home’ for this Colloquium.

In such a way, people who travel to Princeton for the Friday workshops and related celebrations might also participate in other in-person sessions on both Friday and Saturday, leaving one session on Sunday to take place in online format only. With this news, some participants and attendees prepared to come to Princeton for the event IN PERSON.

With help of many kinds, we are able to report a collaborative event worthy of the initial plan to which many participants responded so enthusiastically (albeit for a different host which changed its mind). Reviving and transforming the plan has, we hope, been worthy of the complex, multi-faceted subject of fragments which reaches widely into very many aspects of manuscript and related studies, the history of collecting, and the recovery and transmission of written sources from the past. For this collaboration, we give thanks.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Biblioclasts, Biblioclasts' Portfolios, Early modern printing, Fragmentology, History of Music, history of printing, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Fragments Reused in Bindings, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Music Manuscripts, Otto F. Ege, Scrapbooks and Albums
No Comments »

2024 Landmarks

March 3, 2025 in 2024 Grant, Anniversary, Events, Manuscript Studies, RGME Recollections, RGME Symposia, Student Friends of Princeton University Library, Visits to Collections, Workshops on "The Evidence of Manuscripts"

Landmarks

Achievements for the RGME Anniversary Year

Reflections on the Year’s RGME Visits
(In Person, Virtual, and Hybrid)
to Special Collections

2024 Spring and Autumn Symposia
2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College
2024 Autumn Symposium “At The Helm”
RGME Visit to the Collection of Steven M. Lomazow: Report

[Posted on 2 March 2025]

Private Collection, Photograph of Bridges in Paris, 1850s (enhanced). Image courtesy of David W. Sorenson.

Reflecting upon the many achievements of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence in its 2024 Anniversary Year, we celebrate the Landmarks in the journey, as well as the individual and collective steps of its full course.

For the Anniversary Year, our Theme was “Bridges”. Our funded Project for a major part of its accomplishments was “Between Past and Future”. See:

2024 Grant for “Between Past and Future” Project from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Research Libraries Program

With the completion of the year’s work for 2024, we observe that it brought many developments for the RGME, as we responded to the momentum of the events as they unfolded. Learning from them and gathering their momentum with follow-up events, we discovered that it was possible to create fresh approaches, returning participation, and new collaborations.

Let us focus on one of those sets of landmarks, to show how both the planned activities and their unexpected expansions could produce a remarkable series of visits to Special Collections of various kinds, whether in person, online, or both in hybrid format.

RGME Visits to Special Collections in 2024

The story unfolded in a series of steps, leading to specific events.

Spring and Autumn Symposium as a Pair,
with Follow-Up

Poster 2: Program for 2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar.

They centered upon the pair of 2024 Spring and Autumn Symposia, designed for the Project as an invited, hybrid, 3-day event in the Spring at Vassar College, and an online 1-day event in the Autumn as its follow-up.

The Spring Symposium took place as planned, while a few updates in the program adapted to circumstances, such as when a few speakers as short notice had to change travel plans and present in online format rather than in person. Our dedication to a hybrid format for the event maintained our commitment to our wider audience from the need to create online events in recent years, while we waited for the return of in-person events.

Spring Symposium “Between Past and Future”
April (hybrid)

That opportunity came in 2024, with the invitation to hold our Spring Symposium at Vassar College in April. The focus of the Symposium is manifested in its title,

“Between Past and Future:
Building Bridges between Special Collections
and Teaching for the Liberal Arts”.

Speakers from Vassar and other centers in the United States and the United Kingdom reported projects and initiatives for Special Collections dedicated to teaching with original sources in manuscript and other forms.

Our subjects were primarily medieval and early modern, in keeping with the new catalogue of such materials and the special exhibition on “Books of the Middle Ages & Renaissance” at the college. Thus collectively, with the Spring Symposium, were celebrated the acquisition of the Nicholas B. Scheetz Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.

Autumn Symposium “At The Helm”
October (online)

Enthusiasm for the Spring Symposium led, by participants’ requests, to extend the Autumn Symposium to 2 days instead. This symposium featured a set of curated virtual visits to Special Collections, both private and public.

Poster 2 for RGME 2024 Autumn Symposium. Set in RGME Bembino. Image: Coventry Patmore, Amelia: An iIyll (1878), title page, illuminated by Bertha Patmore. Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, University of Delaware Library, Musuems and Press.

Expanding the time-frame of the Spring Symposium, the Autumn Symposium considered materials from antiquity to the present day, medieval and early modern still included. The materials under consideration included manuscripts, printed books, and coins.

The virtual visits examined highlights of collections at Vassar College (both Special Collections and the Art Center) and the Universities of Delaware, Missouri, Rochester, and Waterloo, as well as private collections. Manuscripts showcased in the presentations included examples not only from them, but also, for example, from the Biblioteca Capitolare in Vercelli, Princeton University, and the RGME’s own Library & Archives.

Collectors speaking about their collections and the inspiration for them included our RGME Associates, Mark Samuels Lasner, Beppy Owen, and Reid Byers, who previewed his exhibition on “Imaginary Books” about to open at The Grolier Club. Its catalogue, we note with delight, is set in our own RGME Bembino (like our website), Reid’s choice for its font.

The enthusiasm for that event was remarkable. It had vivid presentations and discussions about them by curators, teachers, students (undergraduate and graduate), independent scholars, and others. We can sum up the atmosphere with the words of one presider, Librarian at the University of Missouri, that the Symposium celebrated, and brought home and alive, “the joy of education”.

This momentum called for its own follow-up. Accordingly, we turned to an invitation (since January) to visit a private collection. The nature of our year’s Project encouraged us to prepare the visit, if possible, before the end of our Anniversary Year.

In-Person/Online Visit
November (hybrid)

In November, the RGME visited the Collection of Dr. Steven M. Lomazow both in person and online. The scope of the collection and our visit to it, with thanks to the generosity of Dr. Lomazow and his wife Suze Bienaimee, are described in our announcement and report:

This visit in hybrid format represents a significant landmark for the RGME. With it, we return to our tradition of In-Person Visits to collections, such as Firestone Library and the Princeton University Art Museum for our 2019 Spring Symposium “The Roads Taken”.

Poster 1 2024 Autumn Symposium

With the invited 2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College, we have returned to In-Person Events, after having developed our multiple forms of Online Events in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic beginning in 2020.

The online 2024 Autumn Symposium “At the Helm” followed up the wonderfully successful Spring Symposium and carried forward its momentum by a set of curated virtual visits to Special Collections of various kinds, extending its range and covering many periods.

With the invited Visit to the Lomazow Collection, as a further follow-up for the curated visits of the 2024 Autumn Symposium “At the Helm”, we bring to the table the tradition of our online commitment to our wider audience.

Also, with this event came a new collaboration with the Student Friends of the Princeton University Library (SFPUL). We hope that it may continue into the future.

Culmination and Achievements

In certain ways, this hybrid visit in November represents a culmination for our 2024 Year of visits and virtual visits to see original materials attesting to the transmission of the written word across time and place. The inspiration and accomplishment of these goals formed the centerpiece for our 2024 Project “Between Past and Future”, designed to focus upon the strengths of Special Collections of many kinds for teaching and research in the Liberal Arts and other realms.

We give thanks to all our hosts, sponsors, contributors, participants, and audience for such instructive, illuminating, and enjoyable experiences.

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, as seen from Battery East. Photograph © Frank Schulenburg / CC BY-SA 4.0 via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Golden_Gate_Bridge_as_seen_from_Battery_East.jpg

Tags: 2024 Anniversary Year, 2024 Autumn Symposium, 2024 Project "Between Past and Future", 2024 Spring Symposium, Collection of Steven M. Lomazow, Vassar College, Visits to Special Collections
No Comments »

RGME Visit to the Lomazow Collection: Report

November 25, 2024 in Manuscript Studies, Reports, Student Friends of Princeton University Library, Visits to Collections

RGME Visit to
Dr. Steven M. Lomazow’s Collection of
American Magazines

Saturday 16 November 2024
(In-Person and by Zoom Meeting)

Follow-Up to the 2024 Autumn Symposium

by Dr. Phillip A. Bernhardt-House and Mildred Budny

[Posted on 25 November 2024, with updates]

An Invited Visit

On Saturday, November 16, 2024, the Research Group on Manuscript [and Other] Evidence had the rare opportunity to allow a small contingent of in-person visitors, as well as an online group of others joining via Zoom, to be given access to the extensive collection of magazines and other ephemera in the home of Dr. Steven M. Lomazow in West Orange, New Jersey. The announcement of the visit was circulated on social media, email circulars, word of mouth, and our website:

RGME Visit to the Collection of Steven M. Lomazow, M.D.

Visitors by Zoom came from both near and far. The distances ranged from Washington State, Colorado, and Minnesota, through New York, New Jersey, and Florida, to India.

The in-person attendees included the RGME Director and individuals from the Student Friends of the Princeton University Library (SFPUL), led by Co-Leader Jacqueline Zhou and accompanied by Kurt Lemai. This collaboration with the SFPUL for the first time was most appreciated, and would be of tremendous mutual benefit in the future.

Dr. Lomazow on Screen and in the Room. Photography by Mildred Budny.

A Born Collector

A spirited enthusiast for collecting, and part of a lineage that has done the same at least back to his grandfather’s time, Dr. Lomazow treated the online and in-person group over several hours to a small selection of his holdings, with invitations for requests. The holdings number over 80,000 individual pieces in total, and range across a comprehensive variety of subjects within the historic American press from the 18th century onwards.

His collection of American Magazines has been featured in exhibitions at the Grolier Club and online; he has been the subject of segments on CBS This Morning; and he has written several substantial publications on periodicals as a medium, which can be viewed at his website:

https://www.americanmagazinecollection.com/.

Pre-1800

Selections which the assembled audience enjoyed began with parts of Dr. Lomazow’s pre-1800 pieces. Highlights are

early printings of the Declaration of Independence,
the original publication of the United States Constitution for public consumption in gradually smaller typeface,
early engravings depicting the Boston Massacre by British troops and maps of the Pennsylvania territory,
and magazines published by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and John Peter Zenger.

Dr. Lomazow holds up ‘The American Chronicle’ for 1743-1744 to our audience on Zoom, as seen across the country onscreen by Annabelle House Fox.

Dr. Lomazow also has periodicals containing samples of the poetry of Phyllis Wheatley, the enslaved African-American woman brought from West Africa to Massachusetts. She had a book of poems (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral) published in London in 1773, was given manumission shortly after, and died at roughly the age of 31 on December 5, 1784. Wheatley first put the idea of Columbia, the Goddess of the United States, into print in a poem for George Washington, “To His Excellency General George Washington,” written in 1775. In stages, Dr. Lomazow was able to reconstruct the entire issue of a magazine containing her poetry by obtaining part of it from a cartography collector who wanted the map in the publication but not the poetry, and the map from an African-Americana collector who was not interested in said map but wanted the poetry! Given the nature of ephemera and publications of this type, such chance finds and selective collecting can yield beneficial results for those who are diligent as well as fortunate.

1800s

Other items in Dr. Lomazow’s collection of tremendous historical interest include publications in broadsheet format by William Lloyd Garrison on emancipation, which helped to launch the Abolitionist movement as it then became known in the early 1800s.

Literary works of the 1800s include several original printings of works by Edgar Allan Poe — such as the poems “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee,” and the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” — and the original American publications of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Sign of the Four” and of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, along with magazines containing stories by Samuel L. Clemens (including the 1852 “The Dandy Frightening the Squatter” from Carpet-Bag) and this author’s first appearance under his more famous sobriquet Mark Twain. One of the desired pieces that Dr. Lomazow does not have in his collection is the first printing of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” though he does have later editions of it.

The ‘gaps’ in the collection seem to be few and far between, given the sheer number and astonishing quality of the specimens, whether as individual issues, groups of issues, or bound volumes — and the collector’s zeal in hunting for the specimens to augment and strengthen the assembly.

1900s

The 19th-century philosophical, literary, religious, and political movement of American Transcendentalism is well represented in Dr. Lomazow’s collection, with a full series of The Dial, other periodicals edited by Margaret Fuller containing the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the original printing of Henry David Thoreau’s widely influential “Civil Disobedience,” which inspired the future activism of individuals ranging from Mahatma Gandhi to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2000s

Early twentieth-century literary magazines in Dr. Lomazow’s extensive holdings feature such titles as The Smart Set, which published the early works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dashiell Hammett, and had amongst its various editors H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. These editors also published the pulp magazine The Black Mask, which was where Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon was first printed.

Cover Stories

The collection has cover paintings by Norman Rockwell for The Saturday Evening Post, in both printed form as well as originals for them, and other hitherto-unknown magazine covers which Rockwell produced for the Canadian magazine Maclean’s. These items have been the subject of bibliographic works and exhibitions in their own right. Dr. Lomazow had a friendship both with Rockwell and his son in his later years (still living!). Likewise, he enjoys the illustrations and cover art produced by Maxfield Parrish and Alphonse Mucha, both of whose work features prominently in his collection.

Dr. Lomazow’s endless enthusiasm and bottomless reservoir of energetic fervor to share his collection were vividly manifest throughout our visit. Among many items that elicited further elaboration was the first cover photograph of one well-known model and actress, Lauren Bacall, which is only known to exist in the example from his collection. The uniqueness of this item caused it to be featured on the Late Show with David Letterman when Bacall appeared on it in the later 1990s. Several items from across the centuries shared with the audience on this visit were described similarly.

Cover of ‘Town and Country Magazine’ (1789). Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Wrappers & Volumes

An important aspect of periodical collecting that was highlighted by Dr. Lomazow at many points in the visit was that the paper wrappers which traditionally enclose issues of magazines are often not preserved, and are even discarded by some libraries and collectors (particularly on more recent publications) as being of no worth, when in fact they often contain exquisite examples of typography and calligraphy, engravings, and other valuable historical data, as well as being of value in themselves.

Examples among many are issues of ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’; ‘The Bee’ (1765), whose author has a pleasingly appropriate mellifluous name (William Honeycombe); and a publication whose very title inspired Dr. Lomazow to be sure to show our RGME visit: ‘The Manuscript’ (1837).

‘The Manuscript’ Magazine in original cover. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

True examples of the term “ephemera,” such wrappers (including some made of thin leather in 18th century publications!) proliferate in this extraordinary collection in such frequency that their uniqueness of preservation was almost diminished by how many examples of such preservation exist and were shared from Dr. Lomazow’s trove of treasures. Among the apt and worthwhile questions along the way, it was possible to wonder, for example, “If a publication was intended to have more than one issue, but only printed a single issue, is it a magazine/periodical?” Whatever the case, it is to be admired that these ‘solitary’ witnesses to the publication of individual serials also have a place in the collection.

Steven Lomazow shows a manuscript specimen to visitors both in person and online, with representatives of the Student Friends of the Princeton University Library, Jacqueline Zhou and Kurt Lemai. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Selections and Themes

From bookcases, boxes, and wall-displays were brought many examples of bound volumes or individual issues. By request, they included, for example, children’s magazines, botanical magazines, movie magazines, highlights of graphic design and calligraphy, and publications of momentous historical events. Indeed, the visit demonstrated Dr. Lomazow’s observation that his collections contain, or touch upon, “everything”.

Contents of the Children’s Magazine for February 1789.

The survival, assembly, and preservation under one roof in Dr. Lomazow’s collection of so many witnesses to the multifold production of magazines in the United States, in English and other languages, bridging very many subjects and interests, in publications large and small, in quality of production spanning a wide range from informal to highly polished, provide an extraordinary opportunity to examine specimens in their own right and their wider context.

The generosity of Dr. Lomazow and his wife Suze Bienaimee in welcoming the RGME both in person and in virtual company created an experience long to be praised.

Front Cover of American Periodicals: A Collector’s Manual and Reference Guide. An annotated catalog of a collection by Steven Lomazow, M.D. (1996).

Souvenirs

As souvenirs of the in-person visit, Dr. Lomazow presented a copy of his publication on American Periodicals, an important reference work, to each attendee. Each copy was inscribed for the recipient, and the company joined in the shared signing by adding a personalized inscription for each recipient’s copy. Thus these copies represent unique souvenirs, representing a co-ordinated set of guestbooks to remember the occasion.

Tip of the Iceberg

In an anniversary year filled with landmark events, stellar presentations, and no small amount of fun and fellowship along with learning and teaching, this visit by the RGME to an archive-quality collection that would be the envy of both museums and university libraries in Dr. Lomazow’s home was one not to be forgotten by those who were able to experience it. Dr. Lomazow observed that there is enough material therein to constitute at least another five such visits for highlights alone.

The presentation of materials in truly rapid-fire fashion, resonating with enthusiasm to consider as many specimens as possible, responding to requests and expressions of interest on the occasions, gave attendees the sense of wishing further to process and to savor the gravity of the materials being exhibited on the occasion in terms of their historical and literary significance alone, much less the conditions of their preservation.

While we certainly wish that such further visits may take place, whether in hybrid format or on Zoom, this particular occasion with its exceptional opportunity for the RGME to bring both in-person visitors and online attendees, in co-ordination for the first time with the Student Friends of the Princeton University Library, and to listen to Dr. Lomazow’s formidable knowledge about his collection and its ramifications will stand as not only noteworthy, but legendary.

An Afterword on Landmarks

Bridges

In keeping with the RGME’s Theme of Bridges for our 2024 Anniversary Year, we honor the wide scope of Dr. Lomozow’s collection of American Magazines and other materials with a show of famous bridges spanning a vast continent by their locations in Brooklyn and San Francisco respectively.

Spanning the Strait: The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, as seen from Battery East. Photograph © Frank Schulenburg / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

New York, Brooklyn Bridge viewed from Manhattan. Photograph (29 June 2009) by Suiseiseki, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Visitors Ahoy!
More to See!

Would you like to see the RGME have more visits like this to collections? Please let us know.

Please Contact Us or visit

our FaceBook Page
our Facebook Group
our Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss)
our Bluesky nest @rgmesocial.bluesky.social)
our LinkedIn Group
our Blog on Manuscript Studies and its Contents List

*****

Tags: 2024 RGME Anniversary, American Magazines, Friends of the Princeton University Library, Grolier Club, RGME Anniversary, RGME Visits to Collections, Steven Lomazow Collection, Student Friends of Princeton University Library
No Comments »

Visit to the Collection of Steven Lomazow, M.D.

October 3, 2024 in Announcements, Event Registration, Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized, Visits to Collections

RGME Visit to the
Collection of
Dr. Steven M. Lomazow

of American Magazines
and Other Sources

Saturday 16 November 2024

In-person visit,
with hybrid component
for an online virtual visit (by Zoom)

“I can read you like a magazine”
— Taylor Swift, Blank Space (2014)

[Posted on 1 October 2024, with updates]

The Periodical Collection of Steven Lomazov, St. Nicholas: Scribner’s Illustrated Magazine for Girls and Boys, Front Cover (November 1873), via https://www.americanmagazinecollection.com/st-nicholas-scribners-illustrated-magazine-for-girls-and-boys-2/.

By special invitation, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence prepares to visit the private collection of Dr. Steven M. Lomazow — neurologist, book-collector, member of The Grolier Club, author, bibliographer, raconteur, and curator of exhibitions from his collection assembled over half a century. By design, this in-person visit by the RGME to his home in West Orange, New Jersey, might gather other Princeton bibliophiles and students, as our organization combines interests, resources, and organizational skills with other groups in the Princeton area and beyond, according with our traditions for in-person and online events alike.

Mindful also of responsibility to our wider audience, as customary, the RGME will provide a hybrid approach to this occasion, with a virtual component for part of the curated visit, so that parts of our wider community might attend from a distance by Zoom allowing for discussion and feedback.

Grateful for the invitation, we look forward to the visit with its opportunity for a curated tour of an extraordinary collection for many interests assembled over more than fifty years.

The Plan on the Day

We aim to arrive at the Lomazow Collection about 11:00 or 11:30 am EST (GMT-5), mindful of traffic conditions between our base at Princeton (or elsewhere for other attendees) and the location of the collection. The online component of the visit might commence at about 12:30 pm, in time for the introduction to the collection.

First, Dr. Lomazow and his wife will host a welcoming repast catered at home from a renowned bagel shop. We would ask attendees for dietary requirements.

Next, Steven will give an introduction to the collection, the materials, and their discoveries. This account would set the stage by describing the collection, how it grew, what it contains, how widely it reaches into spheres of history, literature, popular culture, and more, and how it is arranged — by groups of materials and by their size, each in alphabetical order for ease of discovery and consultation.

Then we would be able to visit the different rooms, examine their original materials, ask questions, and enter into conversations about the varied aspects of these original sources and their contexts. Thus we might learn from the materials and from each other while engaging with the original sources. Whether in person or virtually, we might count those encounters in real time as Break Out Rooms for the visit, with tailored focus for specific items, genres, and subjects.

We would end at about 5:00 pm, although perhaps some of us might remain for discussion until about 7:00 pm. The span is subject to exploration governed by numbers and interests of attendees.

For transportation from Princeton and back again, we could explore alternatives. Depending on interest and timetables, some of us might wish to drive; depending on numbers, transportation might be arranged. Please let us know your preferences and watch this space for developments as the preparations advance.

What would you like to see? Given this generous opportunity, it might be difficult to single out specific magazines, dates, or genres, because the range of the collection is so extraordinarily varied, with something for almost everyone’s taste, and with very much for historical and cultural study. What might you choose?

The Collector

Steven Lomazow, M.D., is a board-certified neurologist in practice for 43 years.

His published works on bibliophilic and related subjects include series of reference works, celebrations of the collection, and monographs on presidential medical-historical subjects.

Looking forward to conversations with and feedback from our varied audience, both expert and general, Dr. Lomazow offers this special occasion with the RGME for opportunities to examine his varied collections and learn about them, in conversation with the knowledgeable collector. A variety of publications, in print and online, present the materials and reference perspectives on their context.

Books, Blogs, Catalogues, Exhibitions, and Virtual Exhibitions

- Magazines and the American Experience:
  Highlights from the Collection of Steven Lomazow, M.D.
  americanmagazinecollection.com

Magazine History: A Collector’s Blog Documenting and illustrating the history, importance and the joy of collecting magazines

American Periodicals: A Collectors’ Guide and Reference Manual (West Orange, New Jersey: Lomazow, 1996)

The Great American Magazine: Adventures in History. Selections from The Steven Lomazow Collection of American Periodicals (West Orange, New Jersey: Lomazow, 2014)

Steven Lomazow et al., Magazines and the American Experience: Highlights from the Collection of Steven Lomazow, M.D. A Catalogue published in conjunction with an exhibition held at The Grolier Club, January 20 – April 24, 2021 (New York: The Grolier Club, 2020).

“The exhibition is presented in two sections, beginning with a chronological history of American magazines from 1733 to the present. The second is devoted to a broad spectrum of genres which address the areas of popular culture that became a major focus of American magazines in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including American artists and humorists, the ongoing struggle of African Americans to achieve equality, a salute to our national game of baseball, and the development of radio, television, and motion pictures.”

Companion Virtual Exhibition at the Grolier Club: American Magazines

Also:

Steven Lomazow (with Eric Fettman), FDR’s Deadly Secret (New York: BBS Publications, 2009)

Fdr’s Deadly Secret: A supplement to our book dedicated to the understanding of the health of our thirty-second president

FDR Unmasked: 73 Years of Medical Cover-ups That Rewrote History (Amsterdam: Lugler Publications, revised edition, 2024). FDRUNMASKED.com

What is in Store?

Dr. Steven puts it succinctly. The collection contains

“Thousands of exquisitely rare and historically important items.

“The collection contains virtually every major magazine highlight ever published from the eighteenth century to the present and covers virtually every topic- literature, politics, technology (TV, Radio, Movies, Aviation etc). It also includes by far the largest collection of first issue pulp magazines (over 850) in existence. Any institution or individual that acquires it will immediately become one of the leading repositories of American popular culture. . . . There are hundreds of feet of shelves occupied by bound volumes and individual issues.”

— Magazine Collection for Sale (2011)

Many items are destined for exhibition and perhaps transfer to other institutions. This visit offers an in-depth opportunity to examine them on display in situ in the company of the collector, who has built an exceptional collection of a variety of genres, including American magazines from their beginnings, patriotic magazines in World War II, and more.

Registration

Registration is required for attendance, whether in person or online by Zoom. Numbers of attendees for the at-home visit are limited; in case of need, we will create a Waiting List.

Registration is free. We welcome voluntary donations for our section 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization equipped with slim financial resources and powered principally by volunteers with donations in funds and contributions in kind. Such donations help to sustain and foster our mission and activities. Your donations may be tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Please register through the RGME Eventbrite Portal, which presents all our Collections of events. Here are the ways to register for the visit in hybrid formats.

1) To attend In Person

In Person Visit to the Collection of Steven Lomazow M.D.

2) To attend Online by Zoom

Virtual Visit to the Collection of Steven Lomazow M.D.

After you register for online attendance, you will be sent the Zoom Link a few days before the event.

Questions or Suggestions?

Do you have special requests for materials you would like to see in the collection during the visit? Questions for the collector? Would you like to share your experiences with growing up with American magazines?

Please Contact Us or visit

our FaceBook Page
our Facebook Group
our Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss)
our Bluesky nest @rgmesocial.bluesky.social)
our LinkedIn Group
our Blog on Manuscript Studies and its Contents List

We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

Update: Having successfully accomplished the visit, we offer a report. See

RGME Visit to the Lomazow Collection: Report

Archives

Featured Posts

2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club: Report

Report

2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club

“Transformations and Renewals” Examining and Celebrating Treasures of the Grolier Club Library

Wednesday 11 February 2026 Hybrid, in Two Events: Workshop + Roundtable

The Nature of the Event

Speakers and/or Panelists

Presider/Moderator for Roundtable

Book-Signings at Roundtable for Grolier Authors’ Publications

I. The “Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable in the Grolier Club Exhibition Hall (Hybrid, Live-Streamed) 6:00 to 7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Overview

The Panelists prepare

The RGME Executive Director introduces the Panel

The Roundtable Presider introduces the Panelists

II. The “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop in the Grolier Club Council Room (Hybrid, Zoom Meeting) 2:30 to 4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Overview

Setting the stage

Preparing the Projection

Describing the genre, challenges, and accomplishments of BlockBooks

The Table Laid for Display of Original Materials

Checking details

Closer Looks

The Long View as the Table is Set

Comparing Notes

Hybrid Access

Background and Foreground: An Approach with Grounding

Event Publications

Program

Posters

Colloquium Booklet

Recording of the Roundtable

Questions? Suggestions?

Join Us!

Learn about the RGME, its mission, and its activities

Register for our Events

Visit our Social Media

Join the Friends of the RGME

Register for our Events

Donations and Contributions

2026 RGME Colloquium on “Transformations & Renewals” at The Grolier Club

2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club

“Transformations and Renewals” Examining and Celebrating Treasures of the Grolier Club Library

Wednesday 11 February 2026 (Hybrid, in Two Events) Workshop + Roundtable

Program

Posters

Colloquium Booklet

Speakers and Panelists

Presider/Moderator for Roundtable

Book-Signings at Roundtable for Grolier Authors’ Publications

Registration for the 2 Hybrid Events

I. Hybrid Roundtable in the Grolier Club Exhibition Hall 6:00 to 7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Registration through the Grolier Club

Overview

Registration for the Roundtable Virtual or In-Person Attendance

II. Hybrid “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop upstairs preceding the Roundtable 2:30 to 4:30 pm EST (GMT-4) with Break at 3:15–3:30 pm

Registration through the RGME

Overview

Registration for the “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop Virtual or In-Person Attendance

Questions? Suggestions?

Join Us!

Donations and Contributions

2025 RGME Autumn Symposium on “Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books”

2025 RGME Autumn Symposium

Part 2 of 2 in the 2025 Symposia on “Agents and Agencies in the Shaping or Re-Shaping of Books”

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

Online Format (Friday to Sunday 17–19 October)

The Interlinked Pair of 2025 Symposia

“Agents & Agencies” for 2025

I. Spring Symposium (Part I of 2)

“Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books: From Author/Artist/Artisan to Library”

II. Autumn Symposium (Part 2 of 2)

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

Speakers, Presiders, and Respondents

Program Overview (online by Zoom)

Program of Sessions

Poster

Symposium Booklet

Thanks

2026 RGME Colloquium
at The Grolier Club

“Transformations and Renewals”
Examining and Celebrating
Treasures of the Grolier Club Library

Wednesday 11 February 2026
Hybrid, in Two Events:
Workshop
+
Roundtable

I. The “Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable
in the Grolier Club Exhibition Hall
(Hybrid, Live-Streamed)
6:00 to 7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

II. The “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop
in the Grolier Club Council Room
(Hybrid, Zoom Meeting)
2:30 to 4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Background and Foreground:
An Approach with Grounding

2026 RGME Colloquium
at The Grolier Club

“Transformations and Renewals”
Examining and Celebrating
Treasures of the Grolier Club Library

Wednesday 11 February 2026 (Hybrid, in Two Events)
Workshop + Roundtable

I. Hybrid Roundtable in the Grolier Club Exhibition Hall
6:00 to 7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Registration for the Roundtable
Virtual or In-Person Attendance

II. Hybrid “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop upstairs
preceding the Roundtable
2:30 to 4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
with Break at 3:15–3:30 pm

Registration for the “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop
Virtual or In-Person Attendance

2025
RGME Autumn Symposium

Part 2 of 2 in the 2025 Symposia on
“Agents and Agencies
in the Shaping
or Re-Shaping of Books”

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books:
From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

Online Format
(Friday to Sunday 17–19 October)

The Interlinked Pair
of 2025 Symposia

“Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books:
From Author/Artist/Artisan to Library”

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books:
From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium
on Fragments

“Break-Up Books
and Make-Up Books:
Encountering and Reconstructing
the Legacy of Otto F. Ege
and Other Biblioclasts“

Friday to Sunday 21–23 November 2025
Hybrid and partly Online
Hybrid: In Person at Princeton and Online (Friday and Saturday)
Online: Zoom (Sunday)

Princeton University Special Collections
The Friends of the Princeton University Library
Student Friends of the Princeton University Library
Princeton Bibliophiles & Collectors
Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

Rossell Hope Robbins Library
and Koller-Collins Center for English Studies
at the University of Rochester

Bibliographical Society of America

Celia M. Chazelle
Barbara Hanselman
Barbara A. Shailor

**[Your Name Here]**

Reflections on the Year’s RGME Visits
(In Person, Virtual, and Hybrid)
to Special Collections

Spring and Autumn Symposium as a Pair,
with Follow-Up

Spring Symposium “Between Past and Future”
April (hybrid)

Autumn Symposium “At The Helm”
October (online)

In-Person/Online Visit
November (hybrid)

RGME Visit to
Dr. Steven M. Lomazow’s Collection of
American Magazines

Saturday 16 November 2024
(In-Person and by Zoom Meeting)

Visitors Ahoy!
More to See!

RGME Visit to the
Collection of
Dr. Steven M. Lomazow

of American Magazines
and Other Sources

In-person visit,
with hybrid component
for an online virtual visit (by Zoom)