Lieberman Lecture

Lieberman Lecture 2011: 
July 10, 2011 at 2:00
American Printing History Association


The annual Lieberman Lecture commemorates J. Ben Lieberman (1914–1984), founder and first president of the American Printing History Association. The lecture is a moveable feast, given at a different institution each year, by a figure distinguished in the history of printing or the book arts. Past speakers include Betsy Davids, Jack Stauffacher, Johanna Drucker, John Randle, Claire Van Vliet, and Paul Needham.

The 2011 Lieberman Lecture will be given by John Bidwell, Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings at the Morgan Library & Museum. The Lecture will be held at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 10, 2011, followed by a reception sponsored by the Huntington Library, the Zamorano Club and the Southern California APHA Chapter. John has frequently lectured on paper history topics and has published articles, essays and monographs in this field. His next book will be American Paper Mills, 1690-1832, a co-publication of the University Press of New England and the American Antiquarian Society.

The lecture is free and open to the public. No reservations needed.

The title of his lecture is "Early American Paper Mills: Five Hundred and Still Counting." The lecture will be an account of his attempts to identify and describe paper mills operating in this country between 1690 and 1832. Many of these mills have been unrecorded until now. New information found in archival sources, census returns and newspaper reports makes it possible to follow the fortunes of a rapidly growing trade, an important source of cheap newsprint during the colonial period and a vital component of book publishing projects during the early industrial era. By 1832 Americans could compete against imported goods with wrapping, writing, printing, and specialty papers of their own manufacture, some of them made on the recently invented cylinder and Fourdrinier machines. Technological developments will be noted, the business exploits of prominent papermakers will be mentioned, and the lecture will be illustrated with contemporary views of mills and manufacturing facilities.

For further information, contact Kitty Maryatt at kmaryatt@scrippscollege.edu. Please visit our website www.printinghistory.org.