Use this box to search within all of Rare Books' collections.
Special collections related to the history of printing, bookbinding, and allied trades and technologies can be found in a variety of formats and might be in surprising places, so please discuss specific research queries with a member of staff. The collection includes exemplars of books published from 1472 to the present: many are in their contemporary bindings. In addition, there are reference works related to various technologies, discrete collections of publishers’ bindings, and records of subscription libraries and of printing companies.
Archival Collections:
Farmers' Library of Wheatland, N.Y.
Constitutions, membership lists, minutes of the board of trustees, catalogs of books, treasurer's accounts, and other papers of a subscription library in Wheatland, N.Y., 1805-1873. RBSCP also holds the actual volumes from the Farmers’ Library, search the UR catalog for “Farmers' Library (University of Rochester).” This collection provides a snapshot of reading practice in a rural community during the period. The companion print collection includes some volumes with vernacular binding repairs.
Leo Hart Printing Company and Leo Hart Printing Company Addition
Business records, correspondence, printing samples, ephemera, and documents related to company owners from this Rochester company founded in 1905.
John P. Smith Printing Company
Ledgers and labor records, printing samples, ephemera, and documents related to the broader Rochester printing industry, 1873-1949.
Correspondence, manuscript essays by and about Elbert Hubbard, printed ephemera relating to Roycroft enterprises, including its print shop. A companion print collection of around 375 Roycroft Press titles may be found in the Library Catalog classed with the call number ZZ6000.
Print / Rare Book Collections:
Books on papermaking, typography, bookbinding, and more may be found by searching in the Library catalog. Examples of specific printers’ and typographers’ works, types of bindings, and local imprints may also be found in this way. The most famous printers and presses of the last 400 years are represented in the collection, including the Frobens, the Estiennes, the Plantin Press, the Aldine Press, Baskerville, Bodoni, and Pickering. The collection is strong in the great private presses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Kelmscott, Doves, Ashendene, Vale, Eragny, Golden Cockerel, Roycroft, and Grabhorn.
Book Salesmen’s Samples
Around 50 exemplars of salesmen’s canvassing books or “dummies” with specimen pages and plates, conditions, promotional material, and sometimes subscription leaves. These are mainly classed together with a call number beginning Z473.9.
Books with fore-edge paintings
RBSCP holds around 50 examples of books with decoration painted on their fore edge. These are mainly classed together with a call number beginning ND2370.
Broadsides Collections
Several distinct collections of printed materials illustrate typographic and graphic style and more across centuries. For example, Poetry Broadsides, created by 20th Century small presses, depict printing innovations as well as references to earlier typographical styles. A variety of databases provides access to these collections: ask a staff member for assistance.
Victorian Edition Bindings Collection
More than 1,300 publishers' bindings from 1825-1920. Search the library catalog for the title, author, book designer, or the call number prefix "ZZ6010." Many additional publishers' bindings are found throughout the collection.
