![During a 1987 event at the California Center for the Book, Lawrence Clark Powell (center) beams over the publication of his talk at the Library of Congress, a tribute to books titled Next to Mother's Milk. He is flanked by Center for the Book Director John Cole (left) and Tyrus Harmsen of Occidental College.](images/cfb_1.jpg)
During a 1987 event at the California Center for the Book, Lawrence Clark Powell (center) beams over the publication of his talk at the Library of Congress, a tribute to books titled Next to Mother's Milk. He is flanked by Center for the Book Director John Cole (left) and Tyrus Harmsen of Occidental College. - Joe Friezer
The Center for the Book will be 25 years old in October 2002. This is the third in a series of articles that summarizes its activities during its first quarter-century.
Encouraging the historical study of books and libraries has been one of the Center for the Book's missions since it was established in 1977.
Since then, approximately one-third of the center's 104 publications (55 books and 49 pamphlets) have been on historical topics; the most recent publications are A Handbook for the Study of Book History in the United States (2000) and Library History Research in America (2000), which was published in cooperation with the University of Texas Press. The center's Web site (www.loc.gov/cfbook) contains information about these publications and others designated below in "Book and Library History Highlights, 1977-2001." The Web site also provides links to organizations throughout the United States and the world that promote the study of books, the book arts, reading, libraries and print culture.
Future book and library history projects include: co-sponsorship on April 11-13, 2002, of a conference on the "History of Libraries in America," to be held at the Library Company of Philadelphia; and the publication of two books: Books, Libraries, Reading and Publishing in the Cold War, in cooperation with the University of Texas Press, and Perspectives on American Book History, cosponsored with the University of Massachusetts Press and the American Antiquarian Society.
Book Historians Meet in Williamsburg
On July 19-22, the Center for the Book participated in the ninth annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), which was held in Williamsburg, Va. More than 250 academics, librarians and students of book history participated. The conference sponsors were the American Studies Program and the Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary, the Virginia Center for the Book and the Library of Virginia.
Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole served on the local arrangements committee, introduced luncheon speaker Brian Lamb and participated in two panel sessions. The first panel, a roundtable discussion on the importance and preservation of book trade and publishing archives, addressed a topic in which the Center for the Book has been involved for many years, most recently through its co-sponsorship of an October 1996 symposium at Columbia University (see Information Bulletin, Feb. 10, 1997).
The second panel session, organized by Sharon Shaloo, coordinator of the Massachusetts Center for the Book and chaired by Mr. Cole, was on "Book History and Public Humanities Programming." The presentation provided examples of successful promotion projects and introduced SHARP members to the Center for the Book "idea." Speakers and their topics were: Sidney Berger of the California Center for the Book, on "The California Center for the Book at UCLA: A Model Partnership;" James Wald of the Hampshire College Center for the Book, on "The College and the Community;" Beth Luey of the Arizona Center for the Book, on "Mapping Regional Literary Heritage: The State Literary Map;" James L.W. West III, of the Penn State Center for the History of the Book, on "What If All of (Your Community) Read the Same Book?;"and Ms. Shaloo, on "Literary Value and Popular Taste in State Literary Awards."
From left: The center's publication Books in Action (1984) celebrated a book series (1943-1947) that introduced thousands of U.S. service members to the pleasures of reading; The Book (1980), by Barbara W. Tuchman (center, right), a member of the center's first national advisory board, eloquently describes the importance of books in history; The History of Books (1987) by Center for the Book consultant Alice D. Schreyer was a pioneering work in a newly emerging scholarly field.
Book and Library History Highlights, 1978-2001
An asterisk indicates a Center for the Book publication.
Feb. 14, 1978. The Center for the Book hosts its first book history program: a lecture by Mirjam Foot of the British Library.
April 13-14, 1978. The center hosts a meeting to discuss the contributions it "might make to the study of books and printing." In addition to specialists from the Library of Congress, participants include 15 scholars, librarians, publishers, collectors and editors.
Dec. 15, 1978. The center hosts a planning meeting for "Books and Society in History," a pioneering history-of-the-book conference that will be held in June 1980, sponsored by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
January-June 1979. Historian Elizabeth L. Eisenstein is the center's first resident scholar.
May 30-31, 1980. The center and the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division sponsor a conference honoring Lessing J. Rosenwald, "The Early Illustrated Book." *
Oct. 25-26, 1984. The center and the Geography and Map Division sponsor a conference on "Images of the World: The Atlas Through the History." *
Dec. 7, 1984—June 2, 1985. "Books and Other Machines," a Center for the Book exhibition tracing the history of the book from the 15th century to the personal computer, is on view in the Library's Great Hall. The curator is Center for the Book consultant Alice D. Schreyer, and the exhibition coincides with the publication with the center's new study, Books in Our Future.*
![Elizabeth Eisenstein, the Center for the Book's first resident scholar, in 1979](images/cfb_3.jpg)
Elizabeth Eisenstein, the Center for the Book's first resident scholar, in 1979
Oct. 18-19, 1985. In cooperation with the University of Chicago and the newly created Illinois Center for the Book, the center sponsors a conference in Chicago on "The Book in 19th Century America." *
Oct. 29-31, 1987. In cooperation with the School of Library Service of Columbia University, the center sponsors a symposium on "Libraries and Scholarly Communication in the United States: The Historical Dimension." *
May 2-3, 1989. The center and the Library's European Division sponsor a symposium on "Publishing and Readership in Revolutionary France and America." *
Oct. 13, 1990. At the State Library in Salem, Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon opens "Uncle Sam in the Oregon Country," a 30-panel historical exhibition organized by the center and its affiliate, the Oregon Center for the Book.
Jan. 29, 1994. The American Printing History Association presents the center with its annual institutional award, recognizing the center's outstanding services "in advancing understanding of the history of printing and its allied arts."
July 14-16, 1994. The center hosts the second annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP).
Sept. 12-13, 1995. The center hosts more than 20 historians to discuss possible approaches to a collaborative, multivolume history of libraries in the United States.
June 27, 1998. The center hosts a program at the Library of Congress marking the 50th anniversary of the American Library Association's Library History Round Table.
Oct. 23-26, 2000. The center organizes the first two days ("Interpreting the Past: Libraries, Society & Culture") of the Library of Congress Bicentennial symposium "National Libraries of the World: Interpreting the Past, Shaping the Future."
Nov. 1-2, 2001. With the Folger Institute, the center sponsors the conference "Transactions of the Book" at the Folger Shakespeare Library.