Past Exhibitions

 

The Grolier Club was the first organization in America to regularly exhibit books as objects of artistic and historical interest, on a par with paintings and sculpture. (At right: an exhibition of the works of Dickens in the Club's 2nd-floor members' gallery, 1943.) In its 125-year history the Club has mounted more than eight hundred exhibitions, introducing American audiences to the work of authors from Homer to Kipling; to topics as diverse as flowers, chess, and the War of 1812; to excellence in the book arts as practiced by the Club Bindery, illustrator Fritz Kredel, and typographer/designer Bruce Rogers; to the artistry of figures such as J. M. Whistler, William Blake, and Antonio Frasconi; and to a wide range of works on paper, from Japanese prints to Art Nouveau posters to contemporary photographs by women. The archive presented here primarily includes press releases for Grolier Club public exhibitions held since 1994; full details of all Grolier Club exhibitions, public and members-only, from the establishment of the Club to the present, can be found in the Club's anniversary volume ‘For Jean Grolier & His Friends’: 125 Years of Grolier Club Exhibitions & Publications, 1884-2009.

Click on any highlighted entry below to see more information about that exhibition.


Past Exhibitions
 
March 25-May 28, 2010. Beyond the Text: Artists’ Books from the Collection of Robert J. Ruben.   
February 24-May 1, 2010. Lives on the Mississippi: Literature and Culture Along the Great River. Curated by John Neal Hoover.  
January 28-March 12, 2010. Mary Webb: Neglected Genius from the Collection of Mary Crawford.   
December 9, 2009 – February 6, 2010. A Monument More Durable than Brass: The Donald & Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson, from the collections of the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Curated by John Overholt.   
November 19, 2009-January 15, 2010. The Grolier Club Creates: Book Arts by Club Members  
September 9 - November 21, 2009. In Pursuit of Knowledge: Six Hundred Years of Leipzig University, 1409-2009. Curated by Dr. Ulrich Johannes Schneider.  
September 11-November 6, 2009. Emblemata: Early Printed Books on Symbolism from the collection of Robin Raybould  
May 20 – August 1, 2009. Cuban Artists' Books & Prints / Libros y Grabados de Artistas Cubanos 1985-2008. Curated by Linda S. Howe.  
March 4 – May 2, 2009. Vivat Rex! Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Accession of Henry VIII. Curated by Arthur L. Schwarz.   
December 10, 2008 – February 14, 2009. 'For Jean Grolier & His Friends': 125 Years of Grolier Club Exhibitions & Publications, 1884-2009. Curated by George Ong & Eric Holzenberg.  
September 16 – November 22, 2008. This Perpetual Fight: Love and Loss in Virginia Woolf’s Intimate Circle. Curated by William Beekman and Sarah Funke.   
May 13 – July 26, 2008. English in Print: From Caxton to Shakespeare to Milton. Curated by Valerie Hotchkiss and Fred C. Robinson.  
February 20-April 26, 2008. Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection. Curated by Margaret D. Stetz.    
December 11, 2007-February 2, 2008. Benjamin Franklin, Writer and Printer. Curated by James N. Green and Peter Stallybrass. Sponsored by the Library Company of Philadelphia.  
September 11 - November 24, 2007. Boston Collects: Celebrating the Bicentennial of the Boston Athenaeum. Curated by Stanley Cushing & David Dearinger.    
May15 - July 28, 2007. Miniature Books: 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures. Curated by Julian Edison.   
February 21 - April 28, 2007. Illustrating the Good Life: The Pissarros' Eragny Press, 1894-1914. Curated by Alice H. R. H. Beckwith.  
December 13, 2006 - February 3, 2007. Hot Off the Press: Prints of 2006 from New York Printshops. Curated by Janice Oresman  
September 20 - November 25, 2006. Guild of Book Workers Centenary Exhibition. A retrospective of work by notable Guild members, curated by Peter Verheyen, and an exhibition of contemporary work, juried by Karen Hanmer, Richard Minsky, and Don Rash.  
May 16 - July 29, 2006. Teaching America to Draw: Instructional Manuals & Ephemera, 1794 to 1925. Curated by Albert A. Anderson, Jr., William L. Joyce, and Sandra K. Stelts.   
February 21- April 29, 2006. Claire Van Vliet & the Janus Press: Celebrating Fifty Years. Curated by Ruth Fine & Neal Turtell.  
December 7, 2005 - February 4, 2006. Books on Ice: British and American Literature of Polar Exploration. Curated by David & Deirdre Stam.  
September 14 - November 19, 2005. "No Other Appetite": Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and the Blood Jet of Poetry. Curated by Stephen C. Enniss & Karen V. Kukil.  
May 11-July 30, 2005. The Western Pursuit of the American Dream: Selections from the Collection of Kenneth W. Rendell.  
February 23-April 23, 2005. Past Presence:The Objects of Study at the Getty Research Institute. Curated by David Brafman.  
December 8, 2004 - February 5, 2005. A Heavenly Craft: The Woodcut in Early Printed Books. Curated by Daniel De Simone  
September 15-November 20, 2004. Bound to Be the Best: The Club Bindery. Curated by Thomas G. Boss  
May 12 - July 31, 2004. Lasting Impressions: The Grolier Club Library. Curated by Eric Holzenberg & J. Fernando Peña  
February 25 - April 24, 2004. Volvelles: the Magnificent Art of Circular Charting. Curated by Jessica Helfand & William Drenttel  
December 10, 2003 - February 7, 2004. The Winterthur Library Revealed: Five Centuries of Design & Inspiration.  
September 17 - November 22, 2003. Whistler and His Circle in Venice. Curated by Eric Denker.  
May 14 - August 2, 2003. The Auroral Light: Photographs by Women from Grolier Club Member Collections. Curated by  Anne Hoy & Kimball Higgs.  
February 19 - April 26, 2003. Walter Hamady &The Perishable Press Limited: A Retrospective Exhibition (1964-2002). Curated by Robert Bertholf.  
December 11, 2002 - February 1, 2003. The Grolier Club Collects: Books, Manuscripts, & Works on Paper From the Collections of Grolier Club Members. Curated by Eric Holzenberg & T. Peter Kraus.  
September 18 - November 23, 2002. Quack, Quack, Quack: Sellers of Nostrums in Prints, Posters, Ephemera and Books. Curated by William Helfand.  
May 15 - July 27, 2002. To Set the Darkness Echoing: An Exhibition of Irish Literature, 1950-2000. Curated by Stephen Enniss, James O'Halloran, & Ronald Schuchard.  
February 27 - April 27, 2002. The Play's the Thing:Theatrical Manuscripts & Prompt Books from the Harvard Theatre Collection. Curated by Fredric Woodbridge Wilson.   
December 5, 2001 -February 9, 2002. Borges:The Time Machine/La Máquina del Tiempo. Curated by Nicolas Helft & Alan Pauls.  
September 25-November 17, 2001. Numismatics in the Age of Grolier. Curated by John Cunnally, Jonathan Kagan, & Stephen Scher.  
May 15-August 4, 2001. Voyages: A Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition. Curated by Mary Augusta Thomas.  
February 21 - April 28, 2001. A Mirror of the World: Monuments of World Literature from the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana. Curated by Dr. Martin Bircher.  
December 13, 2000 - February 10, 2001. The Fine Art of Letters: The Work of Hermann Zapf. Curated by Jerry Kelly.  
September 20 - November 18, 2000. Fritz Kredel Centennial Exhibition.  Curated by Judith Kredel Brown & Mathilde Kredel Brown  
May 17 - July 29, 2000. The Art of Publishers'Bookbindings, 1815-1915 . Curated by Ellen K. Morris & Edward S. Levin.  
February 16 - April 29, 2000. Remembering John Ruskin. Curated by R. Dyke Benjamin & Peter X. Accardo.  
December 7, 1999-January 29, 2000. A Ha! Christmas. Curated by Jock Elliott.  
September 15 - November 16, 1999. A Century for the Century:Fine Printed Books 1900-1999. Curated by Jerry Kelly & Martin Hutner.  
May 5 - July 31, 1999. Stamped With a National Character: Nineteenth-Century American Color Plate Books. Curated by William Reese.  
February 24 - April 17, 1999. Treasures from the Libraries of National Trust Country Houses. Curated by Nicolas Barker.  
December 8, 1998 - February 6, 1999. A Treasure-House of Books: The Library of Duke August of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.  
September 15 - November 14, 1998. One Text, Two Results: Printing on Paper and Vellum. From the Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University. Curated by Decherd Turner.  
May 19 - July 31, 1998. Verdant Riches Revealed: A Selection from the Treasures of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden  
March 11 - May 2, 1998. Emerging Voices: American Women Writers, 1650-1920. Curated by Iola Haverstick, Jean Ashton, Caroline Schimmel, & Mary Schlosser.  
December 10, 1997 - February 21, 1998. The Book Room: Georgia O'Keeffe's Library in Abiquiu. Curated by Ruth Fine, Elizabeth Glassman, & Juan Hamilton.  
September 16 - November 15, 1998. The Practice of letters: The Hofer Collection of Writing Manuals, 1514-1800. Curated by David Becker & Anne Anninger.  
May 20 - July 31, 1997. The Collector Collected: The Horblit Archive of Sir Thomas Phillipps at the Grolier Club. Curated by Eric Holzenberg.  
March 4 - May 3, 1997. K.K. Merker: Serving the Muse. Stone Wall Press and Windhover Press, 1956-1996. Curated by Michael Peich.  
December 11, 1996 - February 15, 1997. William Morris: The Collector as Creator. Curated by Mark Samuels Lasner.  
September 17 - November 23, 1996. So Precious a Foundation: the Library of Leander Van Ess at the Burke Library of the Union Theological Seminary. Curated by Milton McC.Gatch.  
May 21 - July 31, 1996. The Books of Antonio Frasconi: 50 Years.  
March 5 - May 4, 1996. Lithography's Faces: the First Generation. Curated by Colta Ives.  
December 6, 1995 - February 17, 1996. Poets in a War: British Writers on the Battlefronts and the Home Front of the Second World War. Curated by Kenneth A. Lohf.  
September 19 - November 22, 1995. John Keats Bicentennial Exhibition. Curated by James Weil.  
May 23 - July 28, 1995. The Work of Victor & Carolyn Hammer. Curated by James Birchfield.  
March 7 - May 6, 1995. The Art of the Woodcut in the Italian Renaissance Book. Curated by Bennett Gilbert.  
December 13, 1994 - February 18, 1995. Learning from the Greeks: an Exhibition Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Founding of the Aldine Press. Curated by Robert Babcock.  
September 20 - November 23, 1994. One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine. Curated by Haskell F. Norman.