Click here for a link to a New York Times article about the Grolier Club.
Click here for a link to the Grolier Club’s website.
According to the Grolier Club’s website, while a private club, their library welcomes researchers to explore their collection of more than 100,000 volumes on “the art and history of the book.” Their collection covers bibliographies, histories of printing and graphic processes, type specimens, and fine and historic examples of printing, binding, and illustration.
The Grolier Club Library collections of book catalogues are among the most comprehensive in the US, and these, along with the papers of important bibliophiles, bibliographers, and antiquarian book dealers, have long been recognized as an important resource for collectors and scholars in book history.
Of course, statutesandstories believes that the American Antiquarian Society would have an earlier stake to this claim.
The American Antiquarian Society, founded by patriot printer, Isaiah Thomas, dates back to 1812.
The American Antiquarian Society library contains approximately 60,000 books and pamphlets printed before 1821. According to the AAS website:
The AAS library today houses the largest and most accessible collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, music, and graphic arts material printed through 1876 in what is now the United States, as well as manuscripts and a substantial collection of secondary texts, bibliographies, and digital resources and reference works related to all aspects of American history and culture before the twentieth century. AAS was presented with the 2013 National Humanities Medal by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
Click here for a link to their website: https://www.americanantiquarian.org