Unless otherwise specified, all meetings will be held between 5:30-7:30 P.M. at

THE ROSENBACH MUSEUM AND LIBRARY

2008-2010 Delancey Place

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Tuesday, November 10: Jordan B. Smith, “The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity”

Jordan B. Smith presents a new account of how rum was invented, made, sold, and consumed, and how that history connected Philadelphia to other parts of the Atlantic world. He'll introduce you to a commodity that transformed how things were made and consumed in large part due to its ubiquity and affordability. Moreover, he argues, rum’s emergence as the quintessential Atlantic commodity tied together myriad innovations to inspire a broader reimagining of what commodities were and how they were made. This talk builds on Jordan’s book, The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025).

Jordan B. Smith teaches early American and Atlantic history at Widener University, where he is an associate professor of history and the pre-law advisor. Jordan received his BA in History from Carleton College and his MA and PhD from Georgetown University. His essays have appeared in Early American Studies, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, and Commonplace.

If you wish to attend, send us a note at philobiblonclub1893 at gmail dot com.

    • October 13, 2026: Stacey Peeples (Pennsylvania Hospital Museum), “The New Medical Museum at Pennsylvania Hospital, Including the Historic Library and Surgical Theater.”

    • November 10, 2026: Jordan Smith (Widener University), “The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity”

    • December 8, 2026: Members’ Show and Tell

    • January 12, 2027: Cellia Caust-Ellenbogen (Swarthmore College), Jack McCarthy (Project Director, Poquessing Trail of History), John Pollack (University of Pennsylvania), “What Was Purvis Reading? The Books of A Great Abolitionist” from the Byberry Library Company at Byberry Friends Meeting

    • February 9, 2027: Christian Lehmann (Bard High School Early College), “Dickens and the Classics”

    • March 9, 2027: Christine Neulieb and Feliza Casano (Lanternfish Press), “Publishing the Rare and Strange: A Conversation with Lanternfish Press”

    • April 13, 2027: Alexander Ames (Rosenbach Museum & Library), “Starstruck: Mercedes de Acosta, William H. McCarthy, Jr., and the Making of the Rosenbach's Once-Secret Archive of Queer Hollywood's Golden Age”

    • May 11, 2027: David Gary (American Philosophical Society), “The Material Foundation of a Federalist Statesman: Rufus King's Library and the Intellectual World of the Early American Republic”

  • For more information, visit 2024-25 Season Meetings or click the underlined titles of presentations above.

  • Meetings were held in person, for the first time following the pandemic, in the Main Auditorium of the Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia.

    • December 13, 2023: Steven Rothman and Lynne Farrington, The Past and Future of the Philobiblon Club

    • January 17, 2024: Mark Fischer, Plain Wrapper Press: A Half-Century of Fine Press Publishing Renewed 

    • February 21, 2024: David Seltzer, Visual Culture Below Surface: Notes from the Underground: Travel Essays on World Subways

    • March 13, 2024: Ditta Baron Hoeber, Some of My Two Hundred and Seventeen Books 

    • April 10, 2024: Janelle Rebel, Bibliographic Performances & Surrogate Readings 

    • May 8, 2024: Michael Winship, The Origins and Background of Bibliography of American Literature (BAL)

    • October 11, 2022: Mark Samuels Lasner, Aubrey Beardsley, 150 Years Young

    • November 15, 2022: Jerry Singerman, The World on a Windowsill: An Inquiry into the History of Plants

    • December 13, 2022: Jim Green, David M’Keehan, Bookseller in the West

    • February 14, 2023: Margery Sly, In Her Own Right:  A Century of Women’s Activism, 1820-1920

    • March 14, 2023: Mitch Fraas, Building a Market: Quaritch and Philadelphia Collectors at the Turn of the Century (cancelled)

    • October 12, 2021: Eric Pumroy, “Poggio Bracciolini, Phyllis Goodhart Gordan, and the formation of the Goodhart Collection of fifteenth-century books at Bryn Mawr College” 

    • November 9, 2021: Samantha Hill, "Participatory Models of Cultural Collecting and Exhibits in Memory Institutions"

    • December 14, 2021: Cancelled

    • February 8, 2022: Oliver St. Clair Franklin, "From Analogue to Digital--The Changing Color of Afro-American Book Collecting"

    • March 8, 2022: Zoe Abrams (moderator), Members discussion, "How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected the Book World"

    • April 12, 2022: Michael Winship, “The Checkered Career of The Narrative of James Williams, An American Slave (1838): A Bibliographical History of Its Publication and Reception”

    • October 27, 2020: Rebecca Baumann, "Why I Love Trash: On the Joys of Collecting Smut"

    • November 10, 2020: Cancelled

    • December 8, 2020: Member Show & Tell

    • January 12, 2021: Remembering Tom Whitehead

    • February 9, 2021: Julie Nelson Davis and Arthur Tress,  "Introducing the Arthur Tress Collection of Japanese Illustrated Books at the University of Pennsylvania"

    • March 8, 2021: William Noel, "What's Happening with PACSCL and Why It Matters"

    • April 13, 2021: Beth Hessel, "Sustaining a Vibrant & Relevant Private Library in a Public City: Pandemic and Beyond"

    • May 11, 2021: Will Fenton, "Ghost River: From Colonial Past to Native Present"

    • October 15, 2019: Roger S. Wieck, "The Sacred Bleeding Host of Dijon"

    • November 13, 2019: Alexander Ames, “Herman Melville, American Voyager”

    • December 10, 2019: Ann R. Hawkins, "Writing Romance"

    • February 11, 2020: Held at Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries; Nicholas Herman, "Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries from Philadelphia Libraries," exhibition tour and opening lecture

    • March 10, 2020: Meeting cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

    • April 4, 2020: Meeting cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

    • May 12: Meeting cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

    • October 9, 2018: Mark Dimunation, "To Each Generation its Own: Building and Reimagining the Nation's Rare Book Collection"

    • November 13, 2018: Sibylla Benatova, "A Blessing and a Curse: A Collection of Bulgarian Children's Books, 1940-2018" and "A Book a Day Program: A Foreigner's Eye on American Education"

    • December 11, 2018: Annual Members' Meeting

    • January 8, 2019: Heather O'Donnell, "Owning It: Thoughts on Aspiring Collectors"

    • February 12, 2019: Zoe Abrams, "What's New in Antiquarian Bookselling?" 

    • March 12, 2019: David McKnight, "'A Day in the Life': Reflections on the Life of Frances Steloff, Doyenne of Modernist Bookselling"

    • April 9, 2019: Jessica Kuronen, "I Opened a Brock-and-Mortar Bookstore and It Didn't Kill Me"

    • May 14, 2019: Brian Cassidy, "Bookselling in the Woke Age"

    • October 10, 2017: Rebecca Romney, "Collecting Women: The Inaugural Year of the Honey & Wax Prize"

    • November 14, 2017: Georgianna Ziegler, "A Rare Book Tale"

    • December 12, 2017: Margaret Stetz, "Carolyn Wells (1862-1942): Booklover and Bookmocker

    • February 13, 2018: Laura Aydelotte, "The Philadelphia Playbills Project"

    • March 13, 2018: Marianne Hansen, "The Ellery Yale Wood Collection of Children's Books and Young Adult Literature"

    • April 10, 2018: Lisa Unger Baskin, "Forward Into the Past"

    • May 8: 125th Anniversary of the Philobiblon Club, held at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Book and Manuscript, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

    • Christina Lyons, "The Find of a Lifetime: How a Bibliophile from Philadelphia Helped Shape the History of World War II"

    • October 18, 2016: Lisa S. Roberts, "Pop-Up Books: The Epitome of Design, Craft, and Art"

    • November 15, 2016: Henry Voigt, "What's on the Menu?"

    • December 13, 2016: Annual Members' Meeting

    • January 10, 2017: Jack Lynch, "How Samuel Johnson Wrote the First Dictionary"

    • February 14, 2017: Daniel Traister, "A Rare Book Tale"

    • March 14, 2017: Georgianna Ziegler, "A Rare Book Tale"--cancelled due to inclement weather, rescheduled for 2017/2018 season

    • April 4, 2017: snow date

    • May 9, 2017: Terry I. Seymour, Dealer's Catalogues: A Critical Source" 

    • October 13, 2015: Frank Hoeber, "Against Time: Letters from Nazi Germany, 1938-1939"

    • November 10, 2015: Caroline Schimmel, "Far From Friends, and a Flush Toilet" 

    • December 8, 2015: Mehdi El Hajoui, "Collecting the 'Spectacular-commodity': the Internationale Situationniste and its Aftermath"

    • January 12, 2016: Annual Members' Meeting

    • February 9, 2016: Ronald Smeltzer, "Emilie Du Châtelet (1706–1749): Scientific Publications, Love Affairs, Conflicts with the French Academy . . . the Tragic Ending"

    • March 8, 2016: Janine Pollock, "The Library of the Wizard Earl"

    • April 12, 2016: Laura Aydelotte, "Who Owned This Book? Tracking Past Ownership with the Provenance Online Project"

    • October 14, 2014: George Koppelman and Daniel Wechsler, Shakespeare’s Beehive

    • November 11, 2014: Lynne Farrington,"Up on my back, and I will take you thither": Harold Mason and the Centaur Book Shop and Press 

    • December 9, 2014: David Szewczyk, Learning to Love Appraisal Work: The Case of the College of Physicians

    • January 13, 2015: Annual Members' Meeting

    • February 10, 2015: Julie Nelson Davis, Turning Dogma into Comedy: The Cult of Shingaku ("Mind Study") and the Popular Illustrated Book in Late Eighteenth-century Japan

    • March 10, 2015: Bradley Duncan, Power to the Vanguard: Original Printed Materials from Revolutionary Movements around the World, 1963-1987

    • April 14, 2015: Alexander Ames, Wisdom Through Pious Living: Penmanship, Sprituality, and Pennsylvania German Manuscript Traditions

    • May 12, 2015: Cary Sternick, Peck's Bad Boy 

    • October 8, 2013: Simran Thadani, “Calligraphotechnia: The Art and Science of Early Modern Writing (in Print)” 

    • November 12, 2013: Nick Malgieri, Collector (on his culinary collection)

    • December 10, 2013: Rachel D'Agostino talk rescheduled due to weather

    • January 14, 2014: Rachel D'Agostino, "Carrying the Message: What the Paper Bag Can Teach Us about Technological Innovation, Visual Culture, and the Rise of Consumerism"

    • February 11, 2014: Holly Mengel, "UN-Hidden Treasures of the Archives: Discoveries of the PACSCL Hidden Collections Project"

    • March 11, 2014: David McKnight, "Yesterday and Today: Reflections on the Print History of a Recent Cultural Phenomenon: The Beatles" (Hosted by the Kislak Center For Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Penn Libraries)

    • April 8, 2014: Annual Members Meeting

    • May 13, 2014: Cornelia S. King, "The Making of That’s So Gay”

    • October 9, 2012: James Voekel, “The Alchemical Quest and the Rare Book Collection at the Othmer Library of Chemical History”

    • November 13, 2012: Daniel Traister and Samuel Streit, "Circulating a Copy of Thomas Gray’s ‘Poems’ (1775) in 1775-1776”

    • December 11, 2012: Annual Members' Meeting

    • January 8, 2013: no meeting

    • February 12, 2013: Joel Fry, "The Bartram Library of Books”

    • March 12, 2013: Gus Spector, “Wish You Were Here - Early 20th Century Philadelphia History as Documented by Postcards”

    • April 9, 2013: Jean-François Vilain, "From Boyfriends to Books: The Journey of a Collector"

    • May 14, 2013: Cary Sternick, “The Henry Altemus Company”

    • October 11, 2011: Roger Hellyer, “The First Ordnance Survey Map”

    • November 8, 2011: Lois Black, "The Lehigh University Libraries: A Journey Through Time"

    • December 13, 2011: 2011 Club Members, “Members’ Meeting”

    • January 10, 2012: Leslie Tullis, "The Franklin-Hall Partnership: An Economic Analysis"

    • February 14, 2012: Philip A. Metzger, "Christmas (almost) Every Day: Discoveries in the Moravian Church Archives, Bethlehem, Pa.”

    • March 13, 2012: Marcy J. Dinius, "Radical Types: Lundy’s Genius, Walker’s Appeal, and Garrison’s Liberator”

    • April 17, 2012: Iren Snavely, "Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, the Bookman Governor”

    • October 12, 2010: Thomas Kinsella & Donald Farren, “Willman Spawn, 1920-2010”

    • November 9, 2010: John Andries, "Haverford , Descartes, and the Libri Affair

    • December 14, 2010: Michael Winship, “The Rise of Bookstores in the 19th-Century United States”

    • January 11, 2011: Samuel Streit, "Sic Transit Gloria: Or 250 Years of Special Collections at Brown University"

    • February 8, 2011: Kenneth Carpenter, “Ben Franklin’s Way to Wealth”

    • March 8, 2011: “Members Get Acquainted Meeting”

    • April 12, 2011: Christopher Stray, “The Wooden Spoon: rank (dis)order in Cambridge and the U.S. since 1753”

    • October 13, 2009: Jack Sosiak, "Collecting Antique Maps of the 16th & 17th Centuries”

    • November 17, 2009: Club Members, “Members Get Acquainted Meeting”

    • December 8, 2009: Ken Finkel, “It’s All Scrapple: The Sale and Aftermath of Thomas Eakins’ ‘The Gross Clinic’”

    • January 12, 2010: Werner Pfeiffer, “Book-Objects & Artist Books”

    • February 9, 2010: Lana Finley, “George Lippard’s Revolutionary Occultism”

    • March 9, 2010: Howard L. Schwartz, “The History of the Microscope from a Book Collector’s Prospective”

    • April 13, 2010: Rachel Sagner Buurma, “END: The Early Novels Database”

    • October 14, 2008: Jeremy Markowitz, "The Jay T. Snider Collection, featuring the History of Philadelphia"

    • November 11, 2008: Dr. Lee Peachey, "The 17th Century Shell books of Martin Lister; or, Hooked on a Book by Mister Lister"

    • December 9, 2008: Club Members, "Special Members Get Acquainted Meeting"

    • February 10, 2009: Steve Rothman and Lynne Farrington, "Comic Books in a University Library" (held at the University of Pennsylvania Van Pelt-Dietrich Library)

    • March 10, 2009: Larry P. Alford, "Temple University Libraries: Overview and Reaching Three Million Volumes"

    • April 21, 2009: Brooke Palmieri, "'What the Bees Have Taken Pains For': Francis Daniel Pastorius, The Beehive, and Commonplacing in Colonial Pennsylvania"

    • May 12, 2009: Thomas M. Whitehead, "John T. McIntyre: Philadelphia Playwright and Novelist"

    • October 9, 2007: Aaron Bauer, "Studies in Herpetological History: Antiquarian Books in Biological Research in the Age of Information Technology"

    • November 20, 2007: Michael F. Suarez, S.J., "Beyond Connoisseurship: Late-18th and Early 19th Century Satirical Prints and the Circulation of Political Rhetoric"

    • December 11, 2007: Glenn Benge, "Bosch and His Books: A Mnemonic 'Garden of Delights'"

    • February 12, 2008: "Special Members Get Acquainted Meeting"

    • March 18, 2008: Willman Spawn and Thomas Kinsella, "John Quincy Adams and the Hague Binder"

    • April 8, 2008: David McKnight, "The Trouble with Modern: Collecting Canadiana in the Twentieth Century"

    • May 13, 2008: Daniel Raff, "Wholesaler: A Love Story"

    • October 10, 2006: Carla Carpenter, "The Book from a Mad Collector's Perspective"

    • November 14, 2006: Andrea Krupp, "Early Bookcloth: 1823-1840"

    • December 12, 2006: Eric Pumroy, "Of Partridges, Pear Trees, and Illustrated Books"

    • January 9, 2007: Corey Field, "David L. Goodie"

    • February 13, 2007: Michael LaRue, "Practical Mysticism for Ordinary People: Understanding Prayer Books as Bibliographic Artifacts"

    • March 13, 2007: Susan Brynteson, "Yaddo: Its History and Ambiance as a Haven for Artists"

    • April 17, 2007: Daniel Traister, "Dead Books"

    • October 11, 2005: James N. Green, on early American color printing

    • November 8, 2005: Ronald Smeltzer, on graphic scientific illustration

    • December 13, 2005: Nancy Nitzberg, on Hebrew books

    • January 10, 2006: No meeting planned

    • February 14, 2006: John Pollack, on Penn's Benjamin Franklin exhibition

    • March 14, 2006: Sue Ann Prince, on APS's Benjamin Franklin/Dashkova exhibition

    • April 4, 2006: Ted Stanley, on papyrus conservation Egyptian conservators in Alexandria and Cairo

    • May 9, 2006: Peter Stallybrass, on the Library Company's Benjamin Franklin exhibition

    • October 12, 2004: General membership meeting and dinner (no speaker)

    • November 9, 2004: Bill Joyce, "Curator's Choice: A Ramble through Penn State's Special Collections Library"

    • December 14, 2004: Mark Samuels Lasner, "Oscar Gives Himself Away: Reading Wilde's Presentation Copies" (Nancy Nitzberg's talk on Hebrew Books as Diverse International Artifacts, originally scheduled for December 14, has been rescheduled for the 2005-2006 season)

    • January 11, 2005: Janice Fisher, "I'm Still Married to a Book Collector: A Decadal Update"

    • February 8, 2005: Craig Martin, "In Search of 'Christopher North': A Literary Tale of Hope, Despair, Love and (Gasp) Failure, Ending Somewhat Tragically in a Collection of Old Books and Manuscripts"

    • March 8, 2005: Tricia Treacy, "The Limited Edition Books of Pointed Press"

    • April 12, 2005: Page Talbott & Rosalind Remer, "'Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World'-The Making of an Exhibition"

    • June 14, 2005: University of Delaware Library Visit, arranged by Mark Samuels Lasner

    • October 14, 2003: Harris Hollin, "Hand Colored Books"

    • November 11, 2003: Shannon Mattern, "Publicity, Posturing, and Politics: The Design of Seattle's New Public Library Building"

    • December 9, 2003: Don Cresswell, "Francis Carpenter’s Picture of the First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet: An Explanation"

    • January 13, 2004: Steve Ferguson (Princeton University)

    • February 10, 2004: Jennifer Milligan, "Books are History: The Archive vs. the Library in Nineteenth Century France"

    • March 9, 2004: Arthur Kiron (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

    • April 20, 2004: Melissa Homestead, "'However repugnant it may be to loyalty to learn that such a Rebel book can find a publisher and readers in the North': The Publishing History of Augusta Jane Evans' Confederate Novel Macaria in the North during the Civil War"

    • October 8, 2002: Lynne Farrington, "The Case for Serendipity"

    • November 12, 2002: Mark Samuels Lasner, "Pursuit of the Rare: Three Early Beardsley Collections"

    • December 10, 2002: Margaret D. Stetz, "Beatrix Potter and the Aesthetic Book"

    • January 14, 2003: Daniel Traister, "Who is John Galt?"

    • February 11, 2003: Dr. Jan Fergus, "Provincial Reader and Fictions: Some Conclusions"

    • March 11, 2003: Jay Snider, "Collecting Without Bookends: My Ever Expanding Life as a Collector"

    • April 8, 2003: Maud Burnett McInerney, "Caxton's Trojan War and the Ethics of Translation"

    • October 16, 2001: Peter Stallybrass, "Dressing Adam and Eve: Text versus Image"

    • November 13, 2001: Joseph Farrell, "The Bookman's Lexicon, the Author's Body, and Ancient Roman Texts"

    • December 11, 2001: David Holmes, "A Spring, Not a Pump: Collecting Kenneth Grahame"

    • February 12, 2002: Michael Gamer, "Falling off Parnassus (A Della Cruscan Improvisation)"

    • March 12, 2002: David Szewczyk, "Cathy & David Go Adventuring Among Madrid's Book Collectors, Auctions, Bookshops and Bookstalls"

    • April 9, 10, 11, 2002: Nicolas Barker, The Club did not hold a meeting in April. Instead members were requested to attend the Rosenbach Lectures at the U. of Pa. There it was Nicolas Barker giving a continuation of his Panizzi Lectures, specifically:

    • "Things Not Revealed: The Mutual Impact of Idea and Form in the Transmission of Poetry, 1500-2002"

    • May 14, 2002: Thomas Kinsella and Willman Spawn, "Can You Tell a Book by its Binding?"

    • October 10, 2000: Mike Peich, "The Aralia Press"

    • November 14, 2000: J. B. Post, "Copyright Litigation for Fun & Profit"

    • December 12, 2000: Linda J. Langham, "Virginia's Pages: On Collecting Woolf's Books and Letters"

    • February 13, 2001: Don C. Skemer, "Archeology of the Medieval Book"

    • March 13, 2001: Thomas R. Adams, "The Philadelphia Book World of the 1940s and 1950s"

    • April 17, 2001: Jenny Thompson, "With Pen and Penknife: Author Portraits in Philadelphia Manuscripts"

    • May 2, 2001: Bob Kieft, "On the Library of Haverford College"

    • October 12, 1999: Henry Morris, "Theodore Bachaus, D.S.E.: A San-Serriffean Literary Legend"

    • November 9, 1999: Enid Mark, "An Artist in the Book-World; or, The ELM Press: Not Just Another Private Press"

    • December 14, 1999: Barbara Traister, "A Sixteenth-Century London Physician and His Books"

    • February 8, 2000: Michael Benjamin, "African Americana: What's It Worth? The Musing of an African American Bibliophile"

    • March 14, 2000: Kenneth Finkel, "Philadelphia Philanthropy and Collections: Corrupted Content"

    • April 11, 2000: Hugh Amory, "An Eighteenth-Century American Rare-Book Club: the Prince Collection"

    • May 9, 2000: Philip Bishop, "The Mosher Books in Some of Their Graphical Aspects"

    • October 13, 1998: James O'Donnell, "From Papyrus to Cyberspace: Why Books Are in No Danger"

    • November 10, 1998: Evelyn Tribble, "Citation and Its Discontents"

    • December 8, 1998: The talk originally scheduled for this date was CANCELLED because of the recent death (November 20, 1998) of Club President George Allen. On this date, the Club presented A Celebration of George Allen

    • February 9, 1999: Daniel Traister, "Dead Books"

    • March 9, 1999: James Tanis, "Leaves of Gold: A Glimpse of Manuscript Illuminations in the PACSCL Libraries"

    • April 13, 1999: Mirjam Foot, "Form and Content, Form and Use"

    • May 11, 1999: Warren MacDougall, "Thomas Dobson's Secret Scottish Backer Revealed"

    • October 14, 1997: William Stoneman, "'The Same Purposeful Instinct': Reflections on The Scheide Library"

    • November 11, 1997: James N. Green, "Readers and Reading in Colonial Philadelphia: Thomas Bradford's Circulating Library"

    • December 9, 1997: Peter Stallybrass, "Fingers in Books"

    • February 10, 1998: Melissa J. Homestead, "'Uncle Tom in German and in Court': Harriet Beecher Stowe's Copyright Suit against Philadelphia Publisher F.W. Thomas"

    • March 10, 1998: Andrea Immel, "William Hogarth and the Spirit of John Newbery's Children's Books"

    • April 7, 1998: Samuel A. Streit, "The Browns of Rhode Island: Collectors and Benefactors Extraordinaires"

    • May 9, 1998: William Helfand, "The Artist Looks at Disease and Death"

    • October 8, 1996: James N. Green, "'The cowl knows best what will suit in Virginia': Parson Weems on Southern Readers"

    • November 12, 1996: Archibald C. Elias, Jr., "Jonathan Swift's Annotated Copy of His own Contests and Dissensions, with Other Pamphlets from His Library"

    • December 10, 1996: Michael T. Ryan, "Reflections on Best Sellers: Some Thoughts in Season Meetings"

    • February 11, 1997: George Allen, "Seventy-seven Years in the Book Business: Allen's Bookstore, 1918-1996"

    • March 11, 1997: James Tanis, "A Baker's Dozen: Twenty-Seven Years of Bryn Mawr Acquisitions"

    • April 8, 1997: Ruth Hughes, "The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk"

    • May 13, 1997: Elliott Shore, "The German Society of Pennsylvania: History Resurgent"

    • October 10, 1995: Janice Fisher, "I Married a Book Collector: One Woman's Poignant Story"

    • November 14, 1995: Cynthia Buffington, "Hey, Gang--Let's Put on a Book Store!"

    • December 12, 1995: Fred Schreiber, "My Life With Books: How One Thing Leads to Another"

    • February 13, 1996: Daniel Traister, "Is There a Future for Special Collections?--and Should There Be?"

    • March 12, 1996: Bruce McKittrick, "From Cloak to Cabinet: The Emergence of Rare Books in France"

    • April 9, 1996: Amanda Hall, "Selling Eighteenth-Century Pulp Fiction: Amanda Hall Talks Trash"

    • May 7, 1996: Jocelyn Konigsmark, "Confessions of a General Antiquarian"

    • October 11, 1994: Roger L. Brooks, "The Curious Shelf Numbers in Matthew Arnold's Books"

    • November 8, 1994: William H. Loos, "Revelations and Reunion: The Recent Adventures of the Manuscript of Huckleberry Finn"

    • December 13, 1994: Per V. Sundgren, "Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Printing in Sweden"

    • February 17, 1995: James N. Green and Steven Rothman, "The Wolf Years: Oral History from the Edwin Wolf Memorial Project" (The Fourth Annual Edwin Wolf 2nd Memorial Lecture)

    • March 14, 1995: Allan Gotthelf, "Aristotle, the Renaissance, Early Printing, Biology (and Phyllis)"

    • April 11, 1995: William M. Lese, "Is it Rare of Valuable: or Merely Old?"

    • May 9, 1995: George Allen, "Finding Documents in Berchtesgaden: Fifty Years Later" (at the University of Pennsylvania Faculty Club)

    • October 12, 1993: Karen Lightner, "Beatrix Potter and Philadelphia: or, How the Free Library of Philadelphia Came to Own the Largest Collection of Beatrix Potter's Work Outside Great Britain"

    • November 9, 1993: Frank G. Harrington, "In Praise of Dick Ellis"

    • December 16, 1993: Brian Stilwell, "The Work of the Book Arts in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (Prefaced by remarks by Daniel Traister; held at the Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania, and joined by the Friends of the University of Pennsylvania Library. Accompanying an exhibition in the Kamin Gallery of books from Stilwell's collection, "Fine Books in France and Germany Between the Wars.")

    • January 11, 1994: Roger L. Brooks, "A Complicated Provenance: The Collector's Dream"

    • February 8, 1994: S. Robert Teitelmann scheduled to speak. Meeting cancelled because of inclement weather and rescheduled to May 10, 1994.

    • March 8, 1994: James Tanis, "Images of Discord: Backing into an Exhbition"

    • April 12, 1994: David Klappholz, "The Caliph and California"

    • May 10, 1994: S. Robert Teitelman, "Transfer-Printed Designs on Anglo-American Patriotic Poetry,1790-1820" (The Third Annual Edwin Wolf 2nd Memorial Lecture, rescheduled from the cancelled February meeting.)

    • October 13, 1992: Stephen Zietz, "Printed Ephemera"

    • November 10, 1992: Joel Gardner, "The Edwin Wolf 2nd Oral History Project"

    • December 8, 1992: Louise Jones, "The Bertha Stricker Coles Papers"

    • January 12, 1992: Mary S. Leahy, "Seymour Adelman"

    • February 9, 1992: Philip Lapsansky, "Aboard William Still's Underground Railroad: An Adventure in Black Publishing" (The Second Annual Edwin Wolf 2nd Memorial Lecture)

    • February 11, 1992: Members' Preview at the Rosenbach Museum & Library of the exhibition, "Some of Our Best Friends: Books Selected from the Collections of Members of the Philobiblon Club," February 12 through May 9, 1993 (A catalog of exhibitors and their books was issued in the Centennial keepsake distributed at the May dinner.)

    • March 9, 1993: Cynthia Buffington, "Philadelphia, 1893: City of Fellowships"

    • May 6, 1993: Centennial Dinner meeting of the Philobiblon Club, 1893-1993, at the Union League of Philadelphia. Speakers: George Allen, "The Centennial History of the Philobiblon Club"; Fred Stoller, "Book Club Congratulations" (Rowfant Club); Leslie A. Morris, "The Widener Family and A.S.W. Rosenbach"; Nicolas Barker, "Lessing Rosenwlad and the First Printing of Homer." (Keepsake distributed: "The Centennial of the Philobiblon Club of Philadelphia, 1893-1993")

    • October 8, 1991: Jerry B. Post, "Decorative Views of Philadelphia"

    • November 12, 1991: George Layne, "Dr. Kirkbride's Entertainments: The Historical Collections of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital" (Dinner at the Franklin Inn Club; meeting at the Library Company of Philadelphia.)

    • December 10, 1991: Rosalind Remer, "Preachers and Peddlers: Philadelphia Book Distribution Networks in the Early Republic"

    • January 14, 1992: Emma Lapsansky, "Words, Words, Words: Are Spoken Ones as Good as Written Ones?"

    • February 11, 1992: Brian Stilwell, "The Gregynog Press" (John Frances Marion, "The Search for Rebecca Gratz," originally scheduled for this date, cancelled due to illness.)

    • March 10, 1992: Karen Nipps, "Embarrassed Circumstances and the Rewards of Widowhood: The Life and Printing Career of Lydia Bailey" (The Edwin Wolf 2nd Memorial Lecture)

    • April 14, 1992: Maxewell Whiteman, " The Levy Brothers: A Portrait in Halftone"

    • October 2, 1990: Steven Rothman, "Christopher Morley" (The Club hosted visitors from the Stanford University Library.)

    • November 13, 1990: Frederick E. Maser, "Christina Rossetti: High Priestess of the Pre-Raphaelites"

    • December 4, 1990: C. William Miller, "The Irresistible Challenge: Franklin and the Emergence of German Language Printing"

    • January 8, 1991: Robert F. Looney, "Collecting Maugham"

    • February 12, 1991: Jacob Gruber, "Professional Voyeurism: The Pleasure of Reading Richard Owen's Correspondence"

    • March 12, 1991: Cornelia King, "Sports Culture: Anglers, Angling and Angling Prints"

    • April 9, 1991: John S. Baky, "The Rhetoric of Memory: Collecting Imaginative Representations of the Vietnam War"

    • October 10, 1989: Jefferson Moak, "Nineteenth-Century Mapmaking in Philadelphia"

    • November 14, 1989: Richard Foster, "My Fifty-Eight Years Among Medical Books"

    • December 12, 1989: Edwin Wolf, 2nd, "The Vapid Vagaries of a Collector"

    • January 9, 1990: James Tanis, The Tale of a Cow"

    • February 13, 1990: N. Claudette John, "Research Uses of the CIGNA Archives"

    • March 13, 1990: Edwin B. Bronner, "Learning on the Job: Twenty-Eight Years in the Quaker Collection at Haverford"

    • April 17, 1990: Paul Mosher, "The Myth of Information and the Future of the Book"

    • October 11, 1988: Madeleine Stern and Leona Rostenberg, "Books & Booksellers: Old and Rare" (Initial distribution of Madeleine Stern's Nicholas Gouin Dufief of Philadelphia: Franco-American Bookseller, 1776-1834, Philobiblon Studies in Philadelphia Booklore, no. 1.)

    • November 15, 1988: Albert Saifer, "Philadelphia Bookselling in the 1930s: A Personal View"

    • December 13, 1988: David J. Holmes, "Joseph's Coat with the Canvas Seams: D.H. Lawrence and the Centaur Press"

    • January 10, 1989: David Szewczyk, "Printing in America Before the Bay Psalm Book"

    • February 14, 1989: Ron Lieberman, "Collecting the Keystone: A Bookseller's Reflections on Pennsylvania Books & Collectors"

    • March 14, 1989: George Allen, "Stanley Wemyss, Biblioklept, Bibliopole, Bibliographer"

    • April 11, 1989: Christopher W. Lane, "Delusions, Illustions, and Confusions: A Brief History of Geographic Misconceptions and Legends on Maps"

    • October 6, 1987: Howell J. Heaney (in honor of Ellen Shaffer), "Beatrix Potter at The Free Library of Philadelphia"

    • November 10, 1987: James N. Green (in honor of Edwin Wolf, 2nd), "Benjamin Franklin and Mathew Carey"

    • December 8, 1987: Charles E. Rosenberg (in honor of Whitfield J. Bell, Jr.), "Medical Books for Philadelphia Laymen in the Eighteenth Century"

    • January 12, 1988: Christine A. Ruggere (in honor of Rudolf Hirsch), "Early Book Illustration"

    • February 16, 1988: Leslie A. Morris (in honor of A.S.W. Rosenbach), "British Books for American Collectors, 1920-1930"

    • March 8, 1988: Kenneth Finkel (in honor of Nicholas B. Wainwright), "Then and Now, Before and Again: Selecting Historical Perspective"

    • April 19, 1988: Ruth E. Fine (in honor of Lessing J. Rosenwald), "James McNeill Whistler: The Gentle Act of Making a Collection"

    • October 14, 1986: Lois Olcott Price, "Connoisseurship of Cockles: The Conservation Center at Work"

    • November 11, 1986: Keith Arbour, "The Oath of a Free Man"

    • December 9, 1986: John Marion, "In Pursuit of Count Rumford"

    • January 13, 1987: Sydney P. Marland, III, "A Niche in Commercial Mapmaking: Donnelly Cartographic Services"

    • February 10, 1987: Michael J. Durkan, "Beloved Books that Famous Hands Have Made: The Yeats Family and the Cuala Press"

    • March 10, 1987: Anthony W. Ridgway, "My Own Ridgway Library: A Scavenger Hunt"

    • April 21, 1987: Thomas M. Whitehead, "Richard Williamson Ellis: Printer/Book Designer"

    • October 8, 1985: Frederic B. Farrar, "Colonial Newspapers: Read All About It"

    • November 12, 1985: Roger W. Moss, Jr., "In Pursuit of Philadelphia's Architects: The Compilation of the Biographical Dictionary of Philadelphia Architects"

    • December 10, 1985: Jill Gates Smith, "Women in Health Care Delivery: A History of Women, Medicine and Photography"

    • January 14, 1986: Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., "Everett Tomlinson, 1859-1931, and Historical Tales for Juveniles"

    • February 11, 1986: Marie E. Korey, "The Distinguished Library of Moncure Biddle"

    • March 11, 1986: John F. Peckham, "Adventures in Printing: Harold Hugo at The Meriden Gravure Company and Some Philadelphia Imprints"

    • April 8, 1986: (Originally scheduled speaker replaced by Brian Stilwell, "Modern Fine Printing: A Collector's View")

    • October 16, 1984: Ellen S. Dunlap, "Reflections Upon Having Been Transported from Texas to Philadelphia; or, How to Put a Covered Wagon in Reverse"

    • November 13, 1984: Elizabeth Read Foster, "Editing the Proceedings of Parliament: The Grand Design"

    • December 11, 1984: Burton Van Name Edwards, "The Early History of the Card Catalogue"

    • January 15, 1985: George Hess, "Artisty on Wood-On the American Civil War" (Seheduled, but speaker withdrew due to a conflict. As a substitution the Club presented a showing of the 1938 film Fast Company, produced from the Marco Page's-pseudonym for Philadelphia's Harry Kurnitz-first novel on rare books and murder, followed by a lively discussion.)

    • February 19, 1985: Karl Buchberg, "Paper Conservation"

    • March 19, 1985: Richmond Williams, "New Directions in Collecting Business History"

    • April 16, 1985: Kathleen Reed, "Black Comedy in the Parlements: Censorship in 18th Century France"

    • October 27, 1983: George Allen, "History of the Philobiblon Club"; Robert G. Cheshier, "History of the Rowfant Club"; Gordon Marshall, "Runners-Up: Selecting Materials for 'Germantown and the Germans'"; Dan Tyler Moore, "Literary Frauds" (A joint dinner and meeting with touring Rowfant Club members at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

    • November 22, 1983: Jean Soderlund, "The Peace Collection at Swarthmore College"

    • December 13, 1983: Donald Cresswell, "Viewing the American Revolution through Drawings and Prints"

    • January 17, 1984: Keith Arbour, "Christo et Ecclesiae: Fathers and Sons: Cotton Mather and his Books"

    • February 21, 1984: Richard DeGennaro, "Information Technology and the Traditional Library"

    • March 20, 1984: William Earle Williams, "John G. Bullock: Photographer"

    • April 24, 1984: Stephen Ferguson, "A Bibliographical and Antiquarian Tour of the Princeton University Library"

    • October 26, 1982: Daniel Traister, "American Printing History Association"

    • November 16, 1982: John Ballinger, "Bibliomysteries"

    • December 14, 1982: Georgianna Ziegler, "Horace Howard Furness and the Theater Collection of the University of Pennsylvania"

    • February 15, 1983: Don Yoder, "Books of the Pennsylvania Germans"

    • March 15, 1983: Max Whiteman, "Forgers and Academics: The Career of Baron Weisberg"

    • April 26, 1983: Robert Nikirk, "Book Auctions in England: The Early Years"

    • October 20, 1981: David J. Holmes, "Reconstructing Hardy's Library"

    • November 7, 1981: Club visit to the Winterthur Museum Library and the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library (Via bus)

    • November 17, 1981: Clinton Sisson, "Building the Common Press"

    • December 15, 1981: Edwin Wolf, 2nd, "Books as Physical Objects"

    • February 16, 1982: Edward C. Carter, II, "Benjamin Henry Latrobe"

    • March 16, 1982: David A. Fraser, "William Penn and the Quaker Underground Press"

    • April 20, 1982: Charles Rosenberg, "Medicine for the Masses: William Buchan's Domestic Medicine"

    • October 21, 1980: John J. Walsdorf, "On Collecting William Morris: A Private Collector's View"

    • November 18, 1980: Dorothy Porter Wesley, "Collecting Afro-American Historical Material"

    • December 16, 1980: John Francis Marion, "Rediscovering the Academy of Music"

    • February 17, 1981: Brian Stilwell, "Eighteenth Century Book Arts"

    • March 17, 1981: Elisabeth Woodburn, "American Farming and Gardening Books"

    • April 21, 1981: C. William Miller, "The Angry Road to Common Sense"

    • October 16, 1979: Frank G. Harrington, Jr., "The Eastern College Collection of American Book Designer Bruce Rogers"

    • November 20, 1979: Frederick R. Goff, "Lessing Rosenwald as a Book Collector"

    • December 18, 1979: Kenneth Finkel, "Collecting Early Philadelphia Photographs"

    • February 19, 1980: Joe and Beth Krush, "Children's Books Today"

    • March 18, 1980: Steven Rothman, "Collecting Christopher Morley"

    • April 15, 1980: Terry Belanger, "Lunacy and the Arrangement of Books"

    • October 17, 1978: Peter Strickland, "Sotheby's Comes to Philadelphia"

    • November 21, 1978: Betty Bright Low, "The Anatomy of an Exhibition"

    • December 12, 1978: Claude-Anne Lopez, "That Rascal, William Temple Franklin"

    • February 20, 1979: Frans Dykstra, "Collecting Gold Rush Manuals"

    • March 20, 1979: David M. Robb, "Life and Times of the Book of Kells" (Scheduled to meet at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but held at the Franklin Inn Club)

    • April 17, 1979: Edwin Wolf, 2nd, "Rosenbach"

    • October 18, 1977: Charlene Garry, "Private Press Books in England"

    • November 15, 1977: Rudolf Hirsch, "The Emergence of Title-Pages in the Fifteenth Century"

    • December 13, 1977: John A. Lester, "Literature and Locality" (Originally scheduled for March 21, 1978, Lester exchanged speaking dates with McGehee, below)

    • February 21, 1978: Joseph E. Molloy, "Reminiscences for Book Sales and Book Auctions in Philadelphia"

    • March 21, 1978: C. Coleman McGehee, "Collecting Miniature Books" (Rescheduled from December 13, 1977, due to a death in the family)

    • April 18, 1978: Roger W. Moss, Jr., "The Evolution of Book Collecting at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia" (The Athenaeum of Philadelphia)

    • October 19, 1976: Brian Smith, County Archivist of Gloucestershire,"The Anatomy of an English County Archives and Library"

    • November 16, 1976: John Freas, "A Personal View of Book Illustration"

    • December 14, 1976: Grace N. Perkinson, "Collecting Emily Dickinson"

    • February 15, 1977: John J. Beer, "From Alchemy to Chemistry: The UNIDEL Collection in the History of Chemistry"

    • March 15, 1977: George R. Allen, "Reminiscences of a Philadelphia Bookseller" (Sessler's Book Shop; this talk was actually given on April 19, 1977 at Sessler's)

    • April 19, 1977: E. Newbold Smith, "Collecting Naval Prints" (Replaced by George Allen's talk)

    • October 22, 1975: Will Carter, on type design and private presses

    • November 18, 1975: Caroline Robbins, "My Education from Libraries"

    • December 16, 1975: Edwin B. Bronner, "Pacifists during the War of Independence"

    • February 17, 1976: Richard J. Boyle, "American Art and the Revolution"

    • March 16, 1976: Wolfgang Milde, "Treasures of the Library at Wolfenbüttel"

    • April 20, 1976: Curt F. Bühler, "An Unexplored Heritage: Incunabula Offered to Collectors in Mid-Twentieth Century" (Meeting announced for Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania, but held at the Franklin Inn Club)

    • October 15, 1974: Thomas M. Whitehead, "Steindruck"

    • November 19, 1974: Robert S. Fraser, "An Evening with George Cruikshank"

    • December 10, 1974: W. Graham Arader, III, "Maps of Pennsylvania during the Revolution"

    • February 18, 1975: J. Terry Bender, "Manuscripts, Monks, and Monasteries"

    • March 18, 1975: Elizabeth Read Foster, "A Library for Parliament in the Seventeenth Century," a presentation in honor of Charles W. David

    • April 15, 1975: C. William Miller, "Franklin's Oddest Book," (Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania)

    • October 16, 1973: John Dreyfus, "Sir Emery Walker"

    • November 20, 1973: David M. Robb, "The Art of the Illuminated Manuscript," (Rare Book Room, Free Library of Philadelphia)

    • December 11, 1973: Robert E. Spiller, "Philobiblon: The First Eighty Years" (Spiller's history of the Club was published two months later by the Club and distributed to members at the February 19, 1974 meeting)

    • February 19, 1974: Robert Looney, "Thomas Doughty, Printmaker"

    • March 19, 1974: Ralph B. Sargent, "Shakespeare: The Man" Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence M. C. Smith. [Experiences in Collecting Maps] (At their home, School House Lane) (This originally scheduled meeting was cancelled due to Mr. Smith's illness)

    • April 15, 1974: Seymour Adelman, [No advertised title] (Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania)

    • October 17, 1972: Ruth J. Dean, "Adventures of a Lover of Manuscripts"

    • November 21, 1972: Emerson Greenaway "The Black Art; or, A Shady Pastime"

    • December 12, 1972: Robert E. Spiller, "The Impossible Dream: Adventures in Editing Literary Texts, 1928-1972"

    • February 20, 1973: Philip George, "Healthy Cripples"

    • March 20, 1973: Maxwell Whiteman, "The Union League of Philadelphia: A Bibliographical History" (Lincoln Memorial Room, Union League)

    • April 19, 1973: Walter Muir Whitehill, "History of the Club of Odd Volumes" (Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania)

    • October 19, 1971: Edwin Wolf, 2nd, "Great American Book Collectors Before 1800"

    • November 16, 1971: Peter J. Parker, "Some Thoughts on Manuscript Preservation"

    • December 14, 1971: Manuel Kean, "The Chase: Problems of an Iconographist"

    • February 15, 1972: Rudolf Hirsch, "Lost in Libraries: An Ungrolieresque Tour in Europe"

    • March 21, 1972: Fritz & Trudi Eberhardt, "Bookbinding: An Art and a Craft. Franklin Inn Club"

    • April 18, 1972: Robert H. Taylor, The Ill-Informed Collector" (Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania)

    • October 20, 1970: Howell J. Heaney, "Thomas W. Streeter: Collector"

    • November 17, 1970: L. Sprague de Camp, "Celebrated Pseudobiblia"

    • December 15, 1970: Emerson Greenaway, "The Metropolitan Library of Tomorrow"

    • February 16, 1971: Samuel Maitin, "Take a Book Apart"

    • March 16, 1971: Charles Blockson, "Black History: Past and Present"

    • April 20, 1971: Richard S. Wormser, "Fiction is Stranger Than Truth" (Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania)

    • October 21, 1969: Arthur T. Hamlin, "The Libraries of Florence--Lessons From the Flood"

    • November 18, 1969: Richard W. Foster, "Adventure in Medical Books"

    • December 16, 1969: David E. Cooke, "The High Cost of Color in Children's Books"

    • February 17, 1970: Walter M. Merrill, "William Lloyd Garrison Today"

    • March 17, 1970: Charles E. Rosenberg, "Medical Printing and Medical Practice" Philip George, "Lively Cripples" (originally scheduled for this date, cancelled and rescheduled to 1972-1973 season)

    • April 21, 1970: Michael von Moschzisker, "Free Press and Fair Trial" (Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania)

    • October 15, 1968: Carl Zigrosser., "The Appeal of Prints" (Fine Arts Building, University of Pennsylvania)

    • November 19, 1968: David A. Fraser, "Smatterings on Colonial Philadelphia Bibliophiles--Gotten Largely By Osmosis"

    • December 17, 1968: Henry Morris, "Papermaking, Printing & Plumbing"

    • February 18, 1969: Morris L. Cohen, "Philadelphia Lawyers and Their Libraries"

    • March 18, 1968: Henry Faul, "The Lying Stones of Dr. Beringer"

    • April 18, 1968: Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, "The Ebony Cabinet" (Faculty Club, University of Pennsylvania)

    • October 17, 1967: Willman Spawn, "Adventures With Early American Bindings" (Rosenwald Lecture Room, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania)

    • November 21, 1967: Norman H. Strouse, "A Tribute to Mabel Zahn"

    • December 19, 1967: W. B. McDaniel, 2d., "The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and Its Library's Historical Collections" (College of Physicians)

    • February 20, 1968: David Wallace, "John Rogers, Laureate of Home"

    • March 19, 1968: Lester S. Levy, "Young America's Music: A Cavalcade of History

    • April 16, 1968: E. P. Gangewere, "Fore-Edge Paintings--A Fascination"