Community Conversation
Thursday, April 11th from 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Join us to tour the Grolier Club and learn about its current exhibition, Judging a Book by Its Cover.
The Grolier Club’s international membership has its home at 47 East 60th Street, where book collectors, booksellers, librarians, and other book professionals have converged to research books and revel in bibliophily since the building's opening in 1918. The Clubhouse holds various rooms for members' use, a library, two exhibition galleries, and walls covered in bookshelves, prints, and works of art celebrating the history of books and collecting. During her "Books and Crannies" tour, Grolier Club member Eve Kahn will guide us through the warren of charming idiosyncrasies on every floor.
Judging a Book by Its Cover highlights selections from seven centuries of the Grolier Club's collection of bindings, largely donated and built by the Club’s members over the course of its 140-year history. The exhibition explores the history of decorated bindings, book bindings as three-dimensional art objects, what makes a binding collectible, and the Club's investment in commissioning fine bindings through the present day. Highlights from the 15th century to the present are on view, including a silver filigreed and jeweled miniature Book of Hours (1673); a gilt maroon goatskin binding from a Vatican bindery, presented to Cardinal Basadonna (1674); and a bright green silk and floral embroidered binding created by May Morris, daughter of William Morris (ca. 1888). Judging a Book by Its Cover is curated by Grolier Club member H. George Fletcher, the former Astor Director for Special Collections at The New York Public Library and former curator at The Morgan Library & Museum.
Following the tour, we will gather at a nearby space to connect with colleagues.
Please note: Space is limited, so if you’ve secured a spot but then find you’re unable to join, please let us know so we can open your spot to someone on the waitlist.
Where ?
Grolier Club, 47, East 60th Street, Manhattan Community Board 8, Manhattan, New York County, New York, 10022, United States