Programs > Lieberman Lecture
The Lieberman Lecture
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.
Sunday, July 10 at 2 pm
Lieberman Lecture:
John Bidwell on Early American Paper Mills
Huntington Library
San Marino, California
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 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.
Past Lieberman Lectures
Lectures in the series are listed with the hosting institution
given in parentheses after the speaker's name.
2010
Betsy Davids
The Book Club of California, San Francisco, CA
2009
John Kristensen
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
2008
[no lecture]
2007
Sue Allen
Grolier Club, New York, NY
delivered 2008
2006
Henry Morris
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
2005
Richard-Gabriel Rummonds
University of San Francisco, CA
2004
John Downer
Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
delivered in 2005
2003
Roderick Stinehour, with Jerry Kelly
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
2002
Jack Stauffacher, with Matthew Carter
Getty Center, Los Angeles
2001
Johanna Drucker
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
2000
John Randle
Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1999
Barry Moser
Iowa Center for the Book, Iowa City, IA
1998
Kenneth E. Carpenter
Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
1997
Robert H. Hirst
Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
1996
[no lecture]
1995
Claire Badaracco
University of Texas, Austin, TX
1994
G. Thomas Tanselle
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
1993
Robert Bringhurst
University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
1992
David Kaser
St. Louis Mercantile Library, St. Louis, MO
1991
Stephen O. Saxe
Book Club of Texas, Galveston, TX
1990
[no lecture]
1989
Clive Griffin
John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, RI
1988
James Gilreath
Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA
1987
Paul Needham
Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
1986
Claire Van Vliet
Mills College, Oakland, CA
Elected to their first term, at our annual general meeting held January 28, were Robert McCamant, President; James P. Ascher, VP for Publications; Casey Smith, VP for Membership; and Charles Cuykendall Carter, Secretary. Re-elected to a second term were Kitty Maryatt, VP for Programs; and David Goodrich, Treasurer. Trustees Amelia Hugill-Fontanel and Richard Ring will serve until January 2013.
The American Printing History Association welcomes proposals for its 2012 annual conference. “At the Crossroads: Living Letterform Traditions” at Columbia College Chicago, Center for Book and Paper Arts, October 12–13, 2012. Proposals are due by March 15. Full details are available in PDF.
Our annual general meeting will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday January 28, 2012 in the Trustees’ Room on the second floor of the New York Public Library, 5th Avenue at 42nd Street in Manhattan. In addition to Association business, our annual meeting is a chance to meet fellow members from around the country, to network, and to hear some important speakers. (Our meeting marks the end of “Bibliography Week” in New York, when similar groups hold their annual meetings and this year includes a major exhibition on printing at the Grolier Club; more information online grolierclub.org. APHA’s meeting is free and open to non-members (except for voting), so please invite friends interested in printing, books, publishing, and type. Read the President's Letter.
The Fall 2011 issue of the APHA Newsletter comprises of reports from the annual conference including panels, Pamela Smith's keynote address, Gwido Zlatkes's Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship talk, the SoCal chapter book fair, a tour of the Stuart Collection of outdoor sculpture at UCSD and a list of new APHA members. Download the Newsletter in PDF form.
Kitty Maryatt reports on the first-ever conference book fair. Read all about it.
Many numbers are available to APHA members for a limited time at the bargain rate of $8 for the first issue, $6 for each additional; $15 for double issues. Learn more at printinghistory.org/sale.
Details and application for the 2012 Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship
in Printing History are now online.
Thanks to the generosity of several APHA Southern California Chapter members, the Southern California Chapter has conducted its first-ever student membership drawing.
To celebrate the start of 2011, the complete listing of Printing History's contents have been put back online. See the contents (and a few select articles) from the Original Series, or a complete listing of the New Series. See something you like? Download the Back Issue Order Form.