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Handcrafted marbled endpapers of a book manually bound in France around 1880.
art

The Unsung Delight of a Well-Designed Endpaper

They're an art form all their own.
Sarah Laskow March 10, 2017
Drawers and drawers of fonts ready to be used.
San Francisco, California

Arion Press and M & H Type

Fonts are born and bred here at the oldest letterpress type foundry in the United States.
The Note Books of a Woman Alone: the real name of the author is unknown.
libraries

Uncovering the Hidden Books Tucked Inside Every Single Library

There's no standard way to catalog anonymous texts, which makes them incredibly hard to find.
Sarah Laskow February 28, 2017
Main entrance
Washington, D.C.

Carnegie Library of Washington, D.C.

D.C.'s first central library was born out of a chance encounter with the philanthropist whose name it bears.
Library of Congress Card Catalog
Washington, D.C.

Library of Congress Card Catalog

A nostalgic bibliographic gem.
film

Found: A Glimpse of Marcel Proust, Caught on Film

This is the first known footage of the famous author.
Sarah Laskow February 16, 2017
Alternate view from the second floor
Washington, D.C.

Riggs Library

A wondrous old library overlooking the nation's capital.
"Edgar Allan Poe Square" in the Boston Common, near the place where Poe was born.
edgar allan poe

10 Places That Rejected Poe in Life But Celebrate Him in Death

Edgar Allan Poe gets the recognition he deserves in the afterlife.
Molly McBride Jacobson February 9, 2017
Dickens at work.
maps

Why the London of British Literature Barely Changed for 200 Years

An innovative mapping project uncovers just how limited the literary version of the city has often been.
Sarah Laskow February 2, 2017
objects of intrigue

This 19th-Century Book Chronicles Victorians' Strange Cat Fears And Fascinations

A cartoonist illustrated and wrote accounts of weather-predicting and love spell-binding cats.
Lauren Young January 17, 2017
Anatomical fugitive sheet of a male figure, 1573.
objects of intrigue

How Flap Illustrations Helped Reveal the Body's Inner Secrets

Sixteenth century scholars peeled away anatomical ignorance one layer at a time.
Bryan Gardiner January 4, 2017
art

Watch Paper Masterpieces of China's Forgotten Tribes Unfold in Pop-Up Books

Artist and photographer Colette Fu uses the pop-up book to tell stories of minority tribes in China.
Lauren Young December 30, 2016
Castillo de Zafra, one of many picturesque shooting locations for HBO's Game of Thrones
books

The Visual Heritage of Westeros

Sigils have a long history in the land of ice and fire.
Baghdad mosque houses Saddam's blood Quran.
Baghdad, Iraq

Saddam Hussein's Blood Quran

A 605-page Quran penned in the blood of a dictator is locked away in a mosque.
The main reading room of the Athenaeum.
Providence, Rhode Island

Providence Athenaeum

A 19th century library favored by Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, known by locals as "the Ath."
Following in the footsteps of Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
Paris, France

Harry's New York Bar

A favorite Paris bar for U.S. expats, including Gershwin, Hemingway, and James Bond.
While not a real psychological illness, book collectors and bibliophiles described "bibliomania" as a medical condition.
libraries

Bibliomania, the Dark Desire For Books That Infected Europe in the 1800s

Book lovers and collectors feared becoming a victim of the pseudo-illness.
Lauren Young December 2, 2016
The Chap Record, in which women would record their reviews of gentlemen suitors.
objects of intrigue

Chap Records Were Basically Yelp for 1900s Eligible Bachelorettes

The books helped women keep track of—and review—their suitors.
Rick Paulas December 1, 2016