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.

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:

• 2026 RGME Colloquium at the Grolier Club: Poster 1
• 2026 RGME Colloquium at the Grolier Club: Poster 2

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

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

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

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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.