I am currently working as a free-lance library and cataloging consultant for private clients while pursuing my research projects. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
From 1990 I had worked for the Gilder Lehrman Collection, a large collection of American historical documents formerly on deposit at the Pierpont Morgan Library (it is now on deposit at the New-York Historical Society). During 2001-2002 I was on sabbatical leave from my position as Curator and Executive Director of the Collection; in September 2002, I left. Since then I have worked for private clients and on my research projects.
While at Gilder Lehrman, I helped write and maintain the Gilder Lehrman site, www.gilderlehrman.com (no longer online), from inception in 1996 until 2001. The collection has been incorporated into Gilder Lehrman Institute, which also has contact information. GLC bibliographies and exhibition history are now available through the Internet Archive's archived backup, including an article I wrote about the collection's Early American Holdings.
At present I am working on a personal project which I'm tentatively calling "Disciples of Baskerville," about the first few generations of English printers who imitated John Baskerville (bio at Myfonts). The first part of this project concerns the relatively unknown Millar Ritchie, who printed from about 1785 to about 1806 or 1807. I am starting by compiling a list of his printed books and examining them for the lessons he applied from Baskerville's fine printing in the mid-eighteenth century. Some of my research notes are online (linked from here).
I am working on American handwriting before 1830, primarily between 1740 and 1810--the late colonial and early Republican periods and hope to produce some articles and, one day I hope, a book. America's distinctive contribution to handwriting and "calligraphy" comes after 1850, particularly with the development of "Spencerian" and Palmer hands. There's no question about British cultural and educational influence, but how did those influences play-out inside (and outside) the schoolroom? The primary impetus for this research came while noticing similarities and differences of late eighteenth century handwriting ("English Round Hand"), particularly of some founders. The great challenge remains latter half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, with their many writing methods, affiliated to various commercial schools or textbooks. Given the complexity, there's no question why Ray Nash stopped his bibliography of American Writing Books at 1850.
I am also working on English language printers' manuals, particularly early twentieth century manuals in the competing International Typographical Union (ITU) and United Typothetae of America (UTA) versions. (The ITU ceased operation as a separate entity in 1986 when it was absorbed into the Communications Workers of America. The UTA was the employing masters' association, later incorporated into the Printing Industries of America and now part of the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation [PIA/GATF].) I'm concentrating how the ITU manuals, which were done as a correspondence school class, forced out competitors. At the moment I'm trying to delineate the various revisions to the ITU lessons.
I have been reading and writing about type designer Fred W. Goudy (1865-1947), based on a volunteer project, processing a collection at The Grolier Club assembled in the 1920s and 1930 by Melbert B. Cary, Jr. (owner of Continental Typefounders Association and proprietor of the private Press of the Woolly Whale), an interesting figure in his own right. (David Pankow's article in APHA journal Printing History no. 37, described Cary's unsuccessful attempt to challenge the ATF monopoly in the US.) Cary collected imprints of Goudy's private Village Press, as well as smoke proofs, some punches and patterns. I'm preparing a new collection inventory and expect to publish an article in the Gazette of the Grolier Club. The year 2003 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Village Press.
I'm also reading widely in historical literature on printing, twentieth century fine presses, editing (documentary and literary), calligraphy, and historical typography. Burgeoning digital type design, rather like the flowering of photo composition typefaces between 1960-1985, seems more interested in novelty than function or utility. A good deal of this interest is generated by advertising needs (grabbing attention, titillating), rather than pedagogical or aesthetic concerns. Technology seems to attract a lot of experimentation, whether the introduction of lithography and wood type in the early nineteenth century, or the onset of machine setting in the early twentieth and offset lithography in the post-war era. Awareness of the past shouldn't shackle us to older type and typographic styles, but it might make us more sensitive.
My non-scholarly research relates mostly to technical issues (web accessibility and standards), printing history and fine presses, letter press printing (with foundry or digital type) and collecting. Less intense has been reading and thinking about the work and roles of non-profits and foundations in society. My current collecting interest is stereocard architectural views of New York City, general views of the lower Hudson (focused on the Palisades of New Jersey and some town views of Westchester County), and Ithaca, N.Y. Links, intended mostly for myself or friends, on tech issues are gathered here, while my stereocard links are here.
I currently serve as Vice-President for Programs for APHA (2004-present), the American Printing History Association, and manage its website (1999-present), www.printinghistory.org. I am chair of its Programs and Internet Communications Committees. I helped organize its Delaware conference in 2004, oversaw the 2005 conference in Oakland, CA, helped with local arrangements in its 2003 conference at the Grolier Club of New York, and arranged for the annual Lieberman Lectures by John Downer at the Newberry Library (2004, held in 2005), by Richard-Gabriel Rummonds at the University of San Francisco (2005) and Henry Morris at Princeton University (2006). From 2002-2004 I also served as APHA's Vice-President for Membership. The world wide web is both a challenge and opportunity to bookish organizations like APHA. Since the site's genesis in October 1999 (after 5 months of testing), with then Vice-President for Membership David Whitesell, printinghistory.org has grown from an "About APHA" site into a growing archive about the organization and its activities--although it is still a far cry from an online history. The site now uses simple images. However, printinghistory.org needs more information and articles about printing history itself. I hope to augment the site with online articles from APHA's journal Printing History, and much older issues of its newsletter. More seriously, the site cries out for a re-design for appearance and organization. It's too much like an library organization chart, and needs re-thinking to make it easier to find those articles and resources from the homepage, without creating too much clutter.
In other non-professional volunteer work, I've also organized a
bibliophile tour of New York for the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic
Societies (FABS) in May 2004, arranged tours for the Society of Typographic Aficionados
in New York in July 2005 (and helped give the tours, as necessary), and
sometimes volunteer at the Center
for Book Arts. I am also active at New York's esteemed
bibliophilic organization, the Grolier
Club (Committees on Modern Fine Printing and Publications), and try
to lend a hand to the Typophiles.
Since December 2002 I served as co-moderator for the PPPletterpress (mostly Photopolymer printing, but any experimental letterpress techniques) and the now-defunct FinePressBook (affiliated with the Fine Press Book Association), both at Yahoo Groups. APHA's Board has a private Listserv for discussion between quarterly meetings, but I've wanted something for members. So, I have been working with Gerald Lange (Bieler Press) on a listserv dedicated to Printing History. The LETPRESS listserv (amateur letterpress printers) is too loose and undisciplined (and sometimes vituperative) for my taste, although I think it will remain an important resource for practical printers. I've created a short list of printing-related listservs of interest of APHAns online.
Web and internet experience (from Gilder Lehrman and APHA) proved useful, also, in advising related organizations like SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship Reading and Publishing), about domains and hosting.
I helped manage and/or edit a number of Gilder Lehrman Institute publications from 1997 to 2001. Many wre listed on the on this page (link via Internet Archive), under the imprint of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
In addition to the Gilder Lehrman Collection and American Printing History Association websites, mentioned above, I also worked directly or indirectly on the following online projects.
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