Crafting Appeal: An Analysis of Harper & Brothers' 19th-Century Publishers' Bindings
Disciplines
Museum Studies | Other History | United States History
Abstract (300 words maximum)
The United States is well known as a dominant force in the global publishing industry. The long trajectory of this success began during the early nineteenth century when the production and publication of printed books entered a new era. Prior to the nineteenth century, all elements of printed books were crafted by hand and were expensive to acquire. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the domino effect of industrial advances revolutionized and economized book printing and publishing, providing common people access not only to books, but attractive ones. At the forefront of this advancement was the Harper & Brothers Establishment, today known as Harper or HarperCollins Publishers. Harper & Brothers was one of the first publishers to incorporate an in-house bindery, jet setting them miles ahead of their competitors. This bindery produced their famous monthly publication, Harper’s Monthly, and their weekly publication, Harper’s Weekly or Harper’s Bazaar, which provided invaluable marketing for their published books and novels. But what put Harper & Brothers on top was their use of handsome book bindings, particularly the use of “library sets” during the Golden Age of Book Collecting to attract and retain a consistent market of book buyers during the nineteenth century. This study analyzes a collection of the Bentley Rare Book Museum’s Harper Establishment bindings from 1833 to 1900 to understand how Harper used decorative and highly curated sets of bindings to attract book buyers during a competitive moment in book history. This study is significant because it demonstrates the historical importance of publishers’ bindings during the nineteenth century and sheds light on twenty-first century book production practices that continue these traditions.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - English
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
JoyEllen Williams
Additional Faculty
Dr. Mattord, cmattord@kennesaw.edu
Dr. Mattord, hmattord@kennesaw.edu
Crafting Appeal: An Analysis of Harper & Brothers' 19th-Century Publishers' Bindings
The United States is well known as a dominant force in the global publishing industry. The long trajectory of this success began during the early nineteenth century when the production and publication of printed books entered a new era. Prior to the nineteenth century, all elements of printed books were crafted by hand and were expensive to acquire. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the domino effect of industrial advances revolutionized and economized book printing and publishing, providing common people access not only to books, but attractive ones. At the forefront of this advancement was the Harper & Brothers Establishment, today known as Harper or HarperCollins Publishers. Harper & Brothers was one of the first publishers to incorporate an in-house bindery, jet setting them miles ahead of their competitors. This bindery produced their famous monthly publication, Harper’s Monthly, and their weekly publication, Harper’s Weekly or Harper’s Bazaar, which provided invaluable marketing for their published books and novels. But what put Harper & Brothers on top was their use of handsome book bindings, particularly the use of “library sets” during the Golden Age of Book Collecting to attract and retain a consistent market of book buyers during the nineteenth century. This study analyzes a collection of the Bentley Rare Book Museum’s Harper Establishment bindings from 1833 to 1900 to understand how Harper used decorative and highly curated sets of bindings to attract book buyers during a competitive moment in book history. This study is significant because it demonstrates the historical importance of publishers’ bindings during the nineteenth century and sheds light on twenty-first century book production practices that continue these traditions.