Research Guides: Women and Books in Special Collections: Bookmaking

Bookmaking and Design

INSERT ALT TEXT HERE — Ellen Gates Starr using a book binding tool called a brass wheel, n.d., Ellen Gates Starr papers, Sophia Smith Collection, SSC-MS-00151, Record ID 2190.

Women involved in bookmaking and design can be researched in multiple collections in Smith College Special Collections. This list is intended to help you start your research, but is not comprehensive.

Collections and books are briefly described below. For more extensive information for archival collections, read the "Scope and Contents" and the "Biographical / Historical" notes in the finding aid. For books, read the "Notes" section in the catalog record.

Ellen Gates Starr Papers

SSC-MS-00151

Labor organizer; religious writer; settlement house worker; and founder, Hull House, Chicago. The collection includes correspondence with Jane Addams pertaining to the founding of Hull House, as well as photographs and biographical information about Jane Addams. There is also extensive family correspondence and her writings on book binding and religion. Correspondents include Vida D. Scudder, Archibald MacLeish, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Thornton Wilder, Thomas J. Cobden-Sanderson, Alice Hamilton, and Sidney Hillman. The collection includes photographs of the Hull House bindery.

Claudia Cohen collection of decorated papers

MRBC-MS-00454

Claudia Cohen is a Seattle based-book binder. The collection consists of dozens of sheets of decorative papers collected by Cohen.

Portia Pratt Dahl papers

Bookbinder, Smith College Class of 1914. Papers include documents related to Dahl's work as a bookbinder from her student days in Paris, France and her workshop in Boston, Massachusetts. The collection also includes leather samples, drawings, and a bill of sale related to bookbinding tools.

Finison Collection

A collection of late 19th-century and early 20th-century American decorated bookbindings assembled by Harvey and Myrtle Finison (Northampton, MA) between the 1950's and 1980's. Over 130 American and English designers are represented, including Sarah Wyman Whitman and Margaret Armstrong. While the collection includes designs by both men and women, the collection is a great showcase of women designers. Search AR "Myrtle and Harvey Finison Collection." in the catalog and limit the location to Smith College Special Collections.

Artists' Books

The Mortimer Rare Book collection holds a number of artists' books created by women. Search DE "Artists' books" or DE "artists' books (books)" in the catalog and limit the location to Smith College Special Collections.

The Gods by Ron Koertge.

Call number: Oversize PS3611.O47 G6 2017
Alhambra, California : Ophelia Press, 2017.
"The gods was designed, hand set, printed, illustrated, and bound by Farida Baldonado Sunada at Ophelia Press in Alhambra, California. The typeface is Dante, designed by Giovanni Mardersteig and cast by the Letterfoundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler. The paper is Rives from the Arches paper mill in France. The plum and fuchsia papers are handmade in Nepal from the Iokta plant. The imagery is hand cut from Tengucho and Yatsuo papers made in Kochi and Toyama Prefectures, Japan. Kyoseishi from Tokushima Prefecture covers the boards; the spine is Japanese book cloth ... in an edition of 50 signed copies. Copyright 2017 by Ron Koertge"--Colophon. Library's copy number 25. Signed in pencil by author and book artist. In golden orange quarter cloth binding with red paper over boards. Illustration printed in black ink on front cover. Text block stab sewn through spine. Prospectus laid in at back.

As far as we know by Michelle C. Moode.

Call number: N7433.4.M645 A8 2016
Manufacture: [Iowa City] : [Michelle C. Moode], [2016]
"Text was printed from hand-set metal types.... Images were printed from photopolymer plates. Printed and bound by Michelle C. Moode in April & May 2016, at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. This is number [blank] of 10."--Colophon. Original quarter light orange cloth and illustrated light gray cloth stamped in dark gray.