Episode 18. “Women as Makers of Books”

May 5, 2024 in Anniversary, Book, Design, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Episodes for The Research Group Speaks, Research Group Speaks (The Series)

“The Research Group Speaks”
Episode 18
“Women as Makers of Books”

Saturday 14 December 2024
1:00–2:30 pm EST (GMT-5) by Zoom

Jaclyn Reed, Hannah Goeselt, Linda Civitello,
Mildred Budny, and Others

[Posted on 3 May 2024, with updates]

London, British Library, Harley MS 4431, fol. 4r.Christine de Pisan sits at work writing in an interior accompanied by a dog. France (Paris), c. 1410 – c. 1414. Image via https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/06/christine-de-pizan-and-the-book-of-the-queen.html.

London, British Library, Harley MS 4431, fol. 4r.Christine de Pisan sits at work writing in an interior accompanied by a dog. France (Paris), c. 1410 – c. 1414. Image via https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/06/christine-de-pizan-and-the-book-of-the-queen.html.

By its focus upon the agency of women in and for books, this Episode offers a pendant at the end of our 2024 Anniversary Year for the Episode which opened the year.

Then, in January, scholars, teachers, and writers spoke about their interests, long-term work , and current projects concerned with the writings of women authors across a long span of time. Reflecting women’s roles, opportunities, constraints, and resourcefulness, the writings cover a wide range of spheres, subjects, approaches, and styles. The works range from literary creations to recipes for cookery.

Now, in December, the same speakers from that Episode return to offer reflections, presentations, or responses on the subject of women who contributed in one or more ways to the production of books in various forms during a range of periods across history. Other speakers and respondents join them, along with our audience engaging in the discussion with questions, comments, and observations.

For the January Episode, Mildred Budny was the presider. For the December Episode, Justin Hastings will preside.

We thank all our contributors, presiders, and attendees.

Lewistown, Pennsylvania, Old Stone Arch Bridge spanning Jack’s Creek. Built by Philip Diehl in 1815. Photograph by KAATMAAN (August 2011) via Wikimedia Commons via CC BY-SA 3.0 License.

A Bridge for, or across,
Our 2024 Anniversary Year

In keeping with the Theme of our Anniversary Year, Bridges, this Episode brings the opportunity to round out the year by means of a bridge across the RGME’s year with a return or expansion upon the theme of women responsible for contributions to the making of books. Now, we think of them not only as writers of texts, as at the beginning of the year in Episode 15, but also, or instead, as makers of the images, scripts, bindings, and/or other materials which make up books themselves as carriers of knowledge, art, expressions,  explorations, and manifestations of human aspirations.

Genres and Styles

Womens’ contributions to the “making of books” also extend to manuscripts or other forms of presenting the written word in material form. These makers chose to work in spheres ranging from calligraphy to illustrations and the designs which governed the layout or production of the works themselves.

Periods under consideration might range widely across centuries and cultures.  Examples include the Arts and Crafts Movement which flourished in Europe and North America circa 1880–1920, the Art Nouveau Movement of circa 1890–1910, and the Art Deco Style of the 1910s to 1930s.

Update:
Since we began to plan this Episode, more of our events in our 2024 Anniversary Year address the subject.

For example, in October, online by Zoom:

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, HD-83 (W)-PET FOL. Élisabeth Sonrel, Les Saisons. Études Décoratives (Paris, 1901), front cover (lithograph).

The Year Round
in Chromolithographic Engravings

As a case in point, we offer a sample of illustrations of the Seasons, personified as graceful women shown full-length within landscapes, by Élisabeth Sonrel (1874–1953), painter and illustrator active in France in the Art Nouveau Style. Gathered in book form as Les Saisons. Études Décoratives (1901), the full-page inscribed and colored engravings printed by chromolithography provide a suite of four illustrations depicting Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter: Printemps, Été, Automne, and Hiver.

As emblems of our Episodes 15 and 18 to start and end our Anniversary Year, we show here the scenes or pages for Printemps and Hiver.

Printemps / Spring

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, HD-83 (W)-PET FOL. Élisabeth Sonrel, Les Saisons. Études Décoratives (Paris, 1901), Printemps (chromolithograph). Image Public Domain via https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10546204w/f10.item.

Hiver / Winter

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, HD-83 (W)-PET FOL. Élisabeth Sonrel, Les Saisons. Études Décoratives (Paris, 1901), Hiver (chromolithograph). Image via https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10546204w/f13.item#.

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Subjects and Makers as Examples

Our case-studies for examination include agents who created a variety of materials relating to, and contained within, books.

Examples include authors, artists, calligraphers, and designers.

1) Authors as Shapers of Books

Developing her subject for our Episode 15 in January this year, Jaclyn Reed would consider, among other contemporary authors, the creative approach by Ali Smith (born 1962) to her novel How to Be Both (2014). Its publication in two versions in each printing present the two different parts, or narratives, in alternate orders, resonating with the title of the work and bringing it into being.

2) Manuals for Makers of the Arts of Books

Hannah Goeselt would describe a different subject than the cookery specimens showcased in her presentation for Episode 15 by focusing upon aspects of the revival of manuscript illumination in the British Isles in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as part of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In particular, Hannah addresses the instruction manuals for the Art of Missal Painting.  Artists include:

Dallas, Texas, Bridwell Library, Ashendene Song of Songs (1902), illuminated by Florence Kingsford and bound by Katharine Adam. Title page and opening of text. Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections. Collection of Reproductions of Medallions by Phoebe Anna Traquair: Song School St. Mary, 1897, fol. 5r. igital Image: Copyright The University of Edinburgh. Original: Copyright The University of Edinburgh. Free use.

3) Creators and Transmitters of
Recipes, Recipe Collections, and Cookbooks

Expanding by request upon her contribution for Episode 15, Linda Civitello “would like to talk about how women preserved recipes in different forms”. These forms comprise, for example,

  • manuscript cookbooks for their families;
  • commercial cookbooks in the Early Republic (circa 1780–1830), which were morality and lifestyle manuals;
  • commercial cookbooks;
  • index cards when typewriters became available at the end of the nineteenth century;
  • etc.

Linda notes that, as an informed guide to the impact of such processes, “Lucy Maynard Salmon (1853–1927) has written an excellent essay about what happened when recipes switched from family cookbooks to index cards.”

Resources online include

  • Early American Cookbooks: a “carefully curated collection of 1450 cookbooks published in the United States between 1800 and 1920. All of the titles in the collection are in the public domain and are available in full-text on the HathiTrust Digital Library. Browse the titles, read them online, and search through the contents of each book. Search across all 1450 titles to find a particular ingredient, recipe name, or anything else and go directly to the results in the full text.”

The first cookbook printed in America was American Cookery by Amelia Simmons (vital dates unknown), published in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1796.

Amelia Simmons, American Cookery (1st Edition), cover, published by Hudson & Goodwin (1796), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

P.S. Linda’s own signature recipe, created for the 2024 RGME Anniversary Year and its Spring Symposium at Vassar College (her and the RGME Director’s Alma Mater), is circulated in a 1-page recipe in printed form and by pdf on our RGME website:

Contents of the Goody Bags, with Stories and Baked Goodies created by Linda Civitello. Photograph by Hannah Goeselt.

P.P.S. Did you know that the RGME has an interest in collecting favorite recipes? There is a Recipe Competition, with Prizes.

4) Serial Skillers
(#notatypo)

By request, if time allows, Mildred Budny might briefly describe her long-term interest in several women who successfully combined their work as authors, editors, and producers of magazines or series of publications.  Examples in England and the United States include Hannah More (1745–1833) with Cheap Repository Tracts and Mary Mapes Dodge (1831–1905) with Saint Nicholas Magazine for children.

Mildred Budny holds the Lomazow copy of “The Little Red Hen” in its first appearance for an American audience. Photograph by Suze Bienaimee.

The former was the subject of our Director’s senior essay at Vassar College. The latter came to attention in our 2024 Anniversary Year first because one of our Associates mentioned “The Little Red Hen” as a model for our Director’s sometimes thankless work for the RGME over the years, and then because of our invited In-Person/Hybrid Visit to the Collection of Steven M. Lomazow in November 2024. Then it was possible to meet in person some early issues of the magazine in which the story first appeared in print in English (from the author/editor’s Dutch grandmother), together with a signed letter by the editor herself.  As Editor-in-Chief of RGME Publications, our Director looks at examples of initiatives for promoting education in other times.

Justin Hastings will preside for the Episode.

There is, as always, scope for our audience to engage in the discussion with questions, comments, and observations. We hope to see you there.

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Do you have favorites among women who make , or have made, books (and their accompaniments in text, image, and more) in one or another way?

We encourage you to join the conversation and celebration.

To Register for the Episode:

Registration is free. When you register, we are grateful for Voluntary Donations for our nonprofit educational organization, powered principally by volunteers.

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