Studying, Preserving, and Sharing Humanity’s Story
Upcoming Events
Programs that cultivate connection and deepen historically grounded perspectives on our cultural heritage
Douglas Fordham: Aquatint Travel Books and the Haptic Picturesque
The 2026 Kress Foundation Art of the Book in Europe Lecture
When London viewers opened elegant folio books like 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘺 or 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘢 they were not just engaging with visual and cultural difference. They were also seeing an image process that was quite familiar. Polite interest in picturesque sketching meant that many Britons had experience drawing outlines, “dead coloring” shadows, and adding enlivening watercolor touches. In this lecture, Douglas Fordham frames that familiarity as the “haptic picturesque.”
Heather O’Donnell: “They Can’t Buy It and They Can’t Take It”: Bookish Solidarity in a Time of Institutional Crisis
The 2026 Sue Allen Lecture for Women in Book History
This talk highlights a number of resourceful women in American book history, some celebrated and some whose names we’ll never know, who found ways to preserve and share aspects of the historical record outside the established institutions of their own day.
A “brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime, phenomenal chance to learn”
Experience cutting-edge, specialized instruction on bibliographical inquiry through intensive summer courses offered at the University of Virginia, online, or at partner institutions across the U.S. and in the U.K.
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Support the present and future stewards of human history through a donation to Rare Book School. By investing in book education and preservation, you secure the future of the humanities through libraries, private collections, and the book trade.