The Philobiblon
Club of Philadelphia welcomes the 2015 FABS Study Tour and Symposium, scheduled
for June 3–7, and sponsored by The Fellowship of American Bibliophilic
Societies.
The Study Tour will be based at the
Hilton Doubletree Hotel in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. On the afternoon
of Wednesday, June 3rd, twelve early-arriving travelers will have the
opportunity to visit the Philadelphia Orchestra library, housed in the Rafael
Viñoly-designed Kimmel Center, an architectural landmark just steps from the
hotel. In the late afternoon we will gather for cocktails and a book fair with
a dozen dealers offering their wares.
On Thursday morning, we will begin
with two curatorial presentations and an exhibition of Pennsylvania Dutch
Fraktur manuscripts in the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of
Philadelphia. We will then cross the street to the Barnes Foundation and spend
the rest of the morning with its extraordinary Post-Impressionist and early
Modern paintings — including sixty-nine Cézannes, sixty Matisses, forty-four
Picassos and nearly two hundred Renoirs — assembled by Dr. Albert Barnes
between 1910 and 1950. That afternoon the staff at The Philadelphia Museum of
Art Library will show us printed materials and manuscripts complementing their
exhibition “Notation and the Arts.” We will spend the remainder of the day in
the University of Pennsylvania Special Collections and in the Fisher Fine Arts
Library Rare Book Room (in the spectacular Frank Furness building, completed
1890). We will have a catered dinner atop the Van Pelt Library in the newly
opened Kislak Center, overlooking the central campus.
On Friday we will walk around the
corner and split the morning between The Library Company of Philadelphia and
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which sit side by side. Established in
1731 by Benjamin Franklin and famed for its collections of 17th-, 18th- and
19th-century American books, manuscripts, prints and photographs, The Library
Company will have two curators present selections from various departments and
guide us through an exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation. Manuscripts will be the focus of our visit to the
Historical Society, which owns, among other treasures, two original drafts of
the U.S. Constitution. Lunch at the Franklin Inn Club, a private literary club,
will fortify us for our afternoon visits to The American Philosophical Society
(also established by Franklin, in 1743), The Philadelphia Athenaeum (a private
lending library founded in 1814) and the Center for Judaic Studies
(incorporating the collections of Dropsy College and allied with the University
of Pennyslvania). At each stop, curators will introduce us to their collections
and show us treasures, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition journals,
architectural drawings and rare Hebraica. In the late afternoon, we will visit
the Othmer Library at the Chemical Heritage Foundation to see their recently
acquired medieval and early modern alchemical manuscripts, books annotated by
Sir Isaac Newton and key works in the history of science.
The Saturday morning Symposium, “My
Life Collecting” will explore the evolution of collectors’ relationships with
and ideas about their books, prints, manuscripts and drawings over many years
of ownership and acquisition. All our speakers have collected for over four
decades: Steve Rothman (Philobiblon President, Baker Street Irregular and
English literature collector), Eugene S. Flamm (neuro-surgeon and collector of
medicine and the history of bibliography), Susan Tane (business-woman and
collector of 19th-century American literature, especially Poe and Twain) and
Peter Kraus (bookseller and picture collector). Michael Ryan (Director of the
Klingenstein Library of the New-York Historical Society) will moderate what
will certainly be a lively discussion following the formal presentations. On Sunday in the late morning, the Rosenbach
Museum and Library has graciously agreed to open its doors to a dozen lucky
travelers.
Save the date, as the event is
limited to fifty-two attendees. The cost is $650 per person (exclusive of
hotel). To register (or if you have questions regarding the tour), please
contact Bruce McKittrick and Kiley Samz (FABS.Philadelphia@gmail.com), and place
“FABS '15” in your email subject line.
