Library of Congress, Dan DeSimone,
the Rosenwald Collection, and
writing among friends
Thursday, January 8, 2009
The Chesapeake Chapter of the American Printing History Association joined with the Washington Rare Book Group to start the new year with a well organized, illustrated talk by chapter member Dan DeSimone (complete with PowerPoint accompanied by the real books). DeSimone is curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection of the Library of Congress. He talked about and displayed books on calligraphy and lettering from that collection. To say the very least, it covered most all of the biggies.
Leslie Overstreet, President of the Washington Rare Book Group, introducing our speaker, Dan DeSimone.
Dan DeSimone delivering his talk with dozens of informative illustrations, this one from Sigismondo Fanti, Theorica et practica de mondo scribendi, Venice, 1514.
Three goals of the letterwriting trade according to DeSimone were standardization, readability, and simplicity of execution.
Some of the books he referred to in selecting his examples included:
The Practice of Letters by the Hofer College of Writing Manuals
2000 years of Calligraphy which is a collaborative catalog of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Peabody Institute, and the Walters Art Gallery
Calligraphy: 1535 - 1885 by Stanley Morrison
Luminario by A.S. Osley
and the February 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Magazine which brought a chuckle from the crowd.
Dan spoke to a full room which looked out into the picturesque main Library of Congress reading room which added a nice aura to the occasion.
One of the tables of books filled by Dan DeSimone for our viewing. The treasures included works from the likes of Tagliente, Arrighi, Verini, Dürer, Tory, Mercator, Nendorffer, Palatino, Cresci, Cassanova, and de Beaulieu.
Another wonderful table of books on calligraphy and lettering.
Members of the Washington Rare Book Group looking over the goodies from the Rosenwald Collection.
Peter Bain showing his well honed good book looking form.
Tray Nichols getting down on the book's level a bit.
Peter Bain and Dan DeSimone talking over book and calligraphy details.
Jackie Colburn and Greg Robison.
Chris Sweterlitsch and Jim Wilder.
Mike Denker (left) is president of the Chesapeake Chapter of the American Printing History Association.
Leslie Overstreet (left), President of the Washington Rare Book Group.
Chris Manson left, probably finding a way to invoke a bit of Fractur into the discussion.
About 25 of us went to dinner at the Hunan Dynasty restaurant, but for some strange reason it never occured to me to take any photos.
Chapter member Jackie Coleburn set up the lunch in our own private room and the food was excellent. Chapter member Stuart Bradley, Railway Station Press (shown above talking with Jill Cypher, Lead Graffiti) is also a member of the Amalgamated Printers Association. He had produced a bookmark celebrating Abraham Lincoln's upcoming birthday and passed out a sample to each. Jill Cypher & Ray Nichols, contributed exhibition brochures for members who couldn't attend the December meeting at the Hornbake Library, University of Maryland viewing The Well-Dressed Book.
We were encouraged to become Library of Congress readers and a group of us took them up on it. Now to find the name of that Arrighi book that Dan showed.
After the meeting ended and we had our reader's cards, three of us got a behind-the-scenes tour from chapter member Jackie Coleburn. The tour included the main entrance (shown below) with a good description of many of the details related to why a library exists (which included many book publishers whose names were embedded in the ceiling), along with visits to the main reading room (what an incredible place to look at books), and the rare book reading room.
The exuberance in designing the Library of Congress is sometimes beyond imagination. It is hard to imagine a time when you would approach the construction of such a monumental building and not cut a corner anywhere. I imagine, though, if you asked them back then, they would probably complain that there wasn't enough money to do it right. If that was so, "Holy cow."
A nice added touch at the end was standing in the main entrance and looking at the figures lining the staircase. They represented main industry categories. This is the one for printing. You can see the press in the background and the book the figure is holding has typography on it along with the two books in the lower left.
Simply a WOW day.
