Since 1972, the Book Arts Press and Rare Book School have offered more than 600 public lectures on a wide variety of bibliographical topics.
Rare Book School
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4.2(13 reviews)
446 episodes
Updated Weekly
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Podcast Overview
Since 1972, the Book Arts Press and Rare Book School have offered more than 600 public lectures on a wide variety of bibliographical topics.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
8/5/2015
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70
Podcast Authority
BetaGoodBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality85
Social0
YouTube86
Engagement50
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Recent Episodes
June 16, 2026
Heather O'Donnell: "They Can’t Buy It and They Can’t Take It" (2026 Sue Allen Lecture)
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗦𝘂𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻 𝗟𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝑵𝑩: 𝘋𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘶𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 45:31, 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦. 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘘&𝘈 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥. Rare Book School is founded on a shared commitment to “responsible stewardship of the historical record in all its richness and many forms,” a mission made more urgent by the present instability of our national institutions, from the Library of Congress to the Smithsonian to the National Endowment for the Humanities. This talk highlights a number of resourceful women in American book history, some celebrated and some whose names we’ll never know, who found ways to preserve and share aspects of the historical record outside the established institutions of their own day. Whether barred from full participation in professional fields and private clubs on account of their sex, or simply focused on historical material deemed unworthy of serious attention, these women took the work of cultural preservation into their own hands in creative and surprising ways, to our collective benefit. In 2026, what practical and strategic lessons can we draw from the communities these women built? 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: Heather O’Donnell has been an antiquarian bookseller for more than twenty years. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Yale, and was a member of the Princeton Society of Fellows before joining the book trade. In 2011, she founded Honey & Wax Booksellers, dealing primarily in literature, with an emphasis on the material history of printing, bookselling, and collecting. A graduate of Rare Book School and member of the Grolier Club, Heather helped launch the ABAA Gender Equity Initiative and Mentorship Program, and co-founded the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize for young women collectors. She currently serves on the faculty and board of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS-Minnesota), the Council of the Bibliographical Society of America, and the Yale Library Associates Trustees. She is a member of the American Antiquarian Society, and writes about book history for the 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴.
June 16, 2026
Elizabeth Canning: "Women’s Libraries & Their Afterlives" (2026 Kenneth W. Rendell Endowed Lecture)
Elizabeth Canning delivered Rare Book School's 2026 Kenneth W. Rendell Endowed Lecture, "Women’s Libraries & Their Afterlives," on 10 June, 2026. Women’s book collections appear in a wide range of forms: as catalogued libraries; as groups of surviving books linked by inscription and family use; or as volumes dispersed but still traceable through the historical record. In some cases, a woman’s library may never have existed as a traditional collection. Women’s commonplace books record reading lives—and can produce something like a library in manuscript form. Considered together, these collections are not always bounded or stable. Some are large and well-documented; others survive only in small clusters or scattered traces. Drawing on examples ranging from the seventeenth century through the early nineteenth century, this lecture examines how these different modes of creation and survival complicate familiar ideas about what a library can be. Looking for such associations—and for the ways book collections are formed, dispersed, and remade—offers insight into how women and girls lived with books, and into the limits and possibilities of collecting these materials. 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: Elizabeth Canning is a collector of early modern books and manuscripts, with a focus on how women used books to shape their intellectual, social, and professional lives. Her collection brings together printed and manuscript materials that document women as authors, readers, and participants in the book trade, with particular attention to evidence of ownership and use. Canning has studied book history at Rare Book School, London Rare Book School, and the Harvard Extension School, and holds a BA in English from Reed College. She serves on the board of the Book Club of Washington, where she helped launch a scholarship program supporting Washington students at Rare Book School. Her writing has appeared in the 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 of the Book Club of Washington and the 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴, and she has presented on book collecting at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair and early midwifery books at Bastyr University.
June 16, 2026
Douglas Fordham: "Aquatint Travel Books and the Haptic Picturesque" (2026 Kress Lecture)
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗞𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 When London viewers opened elegant folio books like Oriental Scenery or The Costume of China they were not just engaging with visual and cultural difference. They were also seeing an image process that was quite familiar. Polite interest in picturesque sketching meant that many Britons had experience drawing outlines, “dead coloring” shadows, and adding enlivening watercolor touches. This three-stage process also occurred in aquatint printmaking; a finely etched outline was made, broad washes of tone were added, and then strategic watercolor flourishes completed the print. This lecture frames that familiarity as the “haptic picturesque,” which surely sounds like an oxymoron for those who think of the picturesque as a purely visual encounter. Aquatint travel books, which were at their height between 1780 and 1830, took the familiar process of “tinted drawings” to distant lands. These luxury books enabled metropolitan viewers to imagine themselves sketching an Indian market or a Chinese temple. They constructed an empire of imaginative projections. As a term, the haptic picturesque unsettles rigid categories between periphery and center, and it suggests that landscapes of sense and sensibility were also landscapes of tactile sensation. 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 Douglas Fordham is Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia where he currently serves as Department Chair. As a historian of art and the British empire, Fordham is interested in a wide range of visual arts from the seventeenth century to the present in the Anglophone world. He is a co-editor of 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 (2007) which helped to place empire at the center of the study of British art. His first monograph, 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴’ 𝘞𝘢𝘳: 𝘈𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺 (2010) examined the relationship of imperial politics to artistic organization in eighteenth-century London. His second monograph, 𝘈𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘴: 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 (2019) considered how the newly discovered medium of aquatint printmaking conditioned the representation of cultures beyond Europe circa 1800. Douglas has worked with the Fralin Museum of Art and the Kluge-Ruhe Collection of Aboriginal Art on a number of exhibitions including Boomalli Prints & Paper: Making Space as an Art Collective (2022). His most recent article, “English Graffiti and the Printed Image,” will appear shortly in the journal 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺
446 total episodes available
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