Caxton Club
{{Short description|Private social club and bibliophilic society}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox organization
|name = Caxton Club
|image = File:Caxton Club official brand.jpg
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|formation = {{Start date and age|1895|01|26}}{{cite news |title=The Caxton Club |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=December 8, 1895}}
|extinction =
|type = Social club
|status =
|purpose = To promote the book arts and the history of the book
|headquarters = 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, Illinois
|location = Chicago, Illinois
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|leader_title = President
|leader_name = Sarah M. Pritchard{{cite web |url=http://www.caxtonclub.org/Officers |title=Officers |publisher=Caxton Club |access-date=February 24, 2024}}
|main_organ = [https://caxtonian.org/ Caxtonian]
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|website = [http://www.caxtonclub.org www.caxtonclub.org]
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The Caxton Club is a private social club and bibliophilic society founded in Chicago in 1895 to promote the book arts and the history of the book. To further its goals, the club hosts monthly events, collaborates with institutions like the Newberry Library, and publishes works including The Caxtonian.Caxton Club. (2024). https://www.caxtonclub.org/. Retrieved April 24, 2024. The Caxton Club is a member club of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies.{{cite web |url=http://fabsbooks.org/MemberClubs.aspx |title=Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies Member Clubs |publisher=Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies |access-date=April 3, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720044953/http://fabsbooks.org/MemberClubs.aspx |archive-date=July 20, 2012 }}
History
The Caxton Club was founded in 1895 by a group of fifteen bibliophiles to support the publication of fine books in the style of the then-new Arts and Crafts Movement.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Gehl |first=Paul |encyclopedia=Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago |title=Book Arts |url=http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/156.html |access-date=March 28, 2010}} The club's name honors the fifteenth-century English printer William Caxton.Piehl, Frank (1995). The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago. Caxton Club. p. xiii. The founders included John Vance Cheney, Edward E. Ayer, Martin A. Ryerson, James Ellsworth, Charles L. Hutchinson, and Washington Irving Way and Chauncey L. Williams (of Way & Williams).Piehl, Frank (1995). The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago. Caxton Club. p. 14-15
In 1976, women began to be admitted as members of the Caxton Club, departing from the era's common gentlemen's clubs practices.Piehl, Frank (1995). The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago. Caxton Club. p. 87-88. Mary Beth Beal is notable for being the Caxton Club’s first female President in 1985-1986.Piehl, Frank (1995). The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago. Caxton Club. p. 145.
In 1995 the Caxton Club centenary was celebrated with publication of The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago Piehl, Frank (1995). The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago. Caxton Club. which has been characterized as a "significant addition to the history of American bibliophily."Holzenberg, Eric J. “The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago. Frank J. Piehl, Bruce McKittrick.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 90, no. 3 (1996): 379–81.
The Club published several fine editions in partnership with the Lakeside Press of Chicago.{{cite book |last1 = Hutner | first1 = Martin |year = 2004 |title = A Century for the Century: Fine Printed Books from 1900 to 1999 |publisher = Grolier Club|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=On2cttWtZ9AC |isbn = 9781567922202|ref = none}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=On2cttWtZ9AC&dq=Rockwell+Kent+Moby-dick+lakeside&pg=PR37 p. XXXVII]
The Club awards scholarships and grants to students and researchers in the book arts.{{Cite web|url=http://caxtonclub.org/grants/|title = Caxton Club - Grants}}
Notable members
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- Sydney E. Berger—educator, librarian, rare books expert
- Thomas Kimball Brooker - book collector, businessman
- Gwendolyn Brooks – author, poet
- Francis Fisher Browne – editor{{cite book |editor1-first=Albert Nelson |editor1-last=Marquis |title=Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States: 1908–1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eX0QOpl7iBQC |format=PDF |access-date=March 28, 2010 |year=1908 |publisher=A. N. Marquis & Company |location=Chicago |page=239}}
- Lee Pierce Butler – bibliographer, librarian, professor{{cite web |url=http://www.anb.org/articles/09/09-01044.html |last=Richardson |first=John |title=Butler, Lee Pierce |work=American National Biography Online |date=February 2000 |access-date=March 29, 2010}}
- Michèle V. Cloonan - librarian, professor
- John Y. Cole - founding director of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress
- Charles Deering - businessman, art collector, philanthropist
- Robert B. Downs - librarian, author{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/26/obituaries/robert-b-downs-87-librarian-and-author.html|title = Robert B. Downs, 87, Librarian and Author|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 26 February 1991}}
- Alexander Wilson Drake – artist, collector, critic{{cite book |editor1-first=Albert Nelson |editor1-last=Marquis |title=Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States: 1908–1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eX0QOpl7iBQC |format=PDF |access-date=March 28, 2010 |year=1908 |publisher=A. N. Marquis & Company |location=Chicago |page=530}}
- James Ellsworth – banker, industrialist{{cite book |editor1-first=Albert Nelson |editor1-last=Marquis |title=Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States: 1908–1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eX0QOpl7iBQC |format=PDF |access-date=March 28, 2010 |year=1908 |publisher=A. N. Marquis & Company |location=Chicago |page=579}}
- Charles Lang Freer – art collector, industrialist, philanthropist{{cite book |editor1-first=Albert Nelson |editor1-last=Marquis |title=Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States: 1908–1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eX0QOpl7iBQC |format=PDF |access-date=March 28, 2010 |year=1908 |publisher=A. N. Marquis & Company |location=Chicago |page=669}}
- Michael Gorman – librarian
- Frederic Goudy - printer, artist and type designer{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=An appreciation of Frederic W. Goudy as a type designer|url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2014/03/an-appreciation-of-frederic-w-goudy-as-a-type-designer/|access-date=July 12, 2015}}
- Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden – book collector and scholarThe Caxton Club Yearbook 1965 104, and Yearbook 1971 Supplement
- Nancy Gwinn - director Smithsonian LibrariesSchreyer, Alice."In Memoriam: Nancy Elizabeth Gwinn." The Caxtonian 32 (September/October 2024): 9.
- Theodore Wesley Koch - librarian, translatorNorthwestern Libraries. (2018). Koch, Theodore Wesley, 1871-1941. Northwestern University. https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/2141. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
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- Henry Eduard Legler – activist, librarianThe Caxton Club Year Book 1971 112
- Frank Orren Lowden – 25th governor of Illinois, United States representative IL, candidate Republican presidential nominations 1920, 1928
- Beverly Lynch - librarian{{cite web|url=https://archives.library.illinois.edu/alaarchon/index.php?p=creators/creator&id=3958|title=Lynch, Beverly P. (1936-) - The American Library Association Archives|website=archives.library.illinois.edu}}
- William Mulliken – Olympic swimmer
- Kenneth Nebenzahl - antiquarian book- and mapseller, author, supporter and benefactor of history of cartography.[https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/series/NLHC.html The Kenneth Nebenzahl Jr. Lectures in the History of Cartography.] University of Chicago Press.
- Audrey Niffenegger – author and artist
- Stanley Pargellis - Director of the Newberry Library, 1942 to 1962
- Lawrence Clark Powell -librarian
- Sarah M. Pritchard – librarian [https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2021/10/dean-of-libraries-sarah-pritchard-to-retire/ Dean of Libraries Sarah Pritchard plans to retire in 2022 Longtime dean led transformation of library services] Northwestern Now, October 13, 2021.
- Carl B. Roden – librarianThe Caxton Club Yearbook 1971 115
- Ralph Fletcher Seymour – artist, author, publisher{{cite book |editor1-first=Albert Nelson |editor1-last=Marquis |title=Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States: 1908–1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eX0QOpl7iBQC |format=PDF |access-date=March 28, 2010 |year=1908 |publisher=A. N. Marquis & Company |location=Chicago |page=1699}}
- David Spadafora - historian, President, Newberry Library{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Steve |title=The Newberry Library set to undergo $11 million renovation |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/museums/ct-ent-0615-newberry-makeover-20170614-story.html |accessdate=3 October 2018 |publisher=Chicago Tribune |date=June 14, 2017}}
- Vincent Starrett – author and newspaperman
- Peggy Sullivan - library historian, librarian{{cite web |title=Peggy Sullivan Named ALA Honorary Member in 2008. No. 7.4.2008. 110 |website=Librarian |url=http://librarian.lishost.org/?p=1114 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211151919/http://librarian.lishost.org/?p=1114 |archivedate=11 February 2012 }}
- Robert Wedgeworth – librarian and executive
- Frank Lloyd Wright – architect{{cite book |last=Twombly |first=Robert |title=Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life and His Architecture |publisher=Wiley |location=New York |year=1979 |page=33 |isbn=0-471-85797-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KSA1HTTU-eMC}}
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Publications
In the course of its history, the Caxton Club has published formal publications and other printed
pieces. These include The French Bookbinders of the Eighteenth Century,Uzanne, Octave, and Mabel McIlvine. 1904. The French Bookbinders of the Eighteenth Century Chicago: The Caxton Club. The Cowboy in American Literature by J. Frank Dobie, Owens, Harry J., and Caxton Club. 1952. The Cowboy in American Literature by J. Frank Dobie : Caxton Club, February 16, 1952. [Chicago, Illinois]: [Caxton Club] Tales for Bibliophiles.Koch, Theodore Wesley, and Caxton Club. 1929. Tales for Bibliophiles. Chicago: The Caxton Club. and Imaginary Books and Libraries.Spargo, John Webster, Bruce Rogers, Caxton Club, and Pforzheimer Bruce Rogers Collection (Library of Congress). 1952. Imaginary Books and Libraries: An Essay in Lighter Vein. Chicago: Caxton Club.
A complete listing of the publications is available here: [https://www.caxtonclub.org/publications club’s publications].
See also
{{Portal|Chicago}}
References
{{Reflist|33em}}
Further reading
- {{cite news |first=Courtney |last=Crowder |title=Chicago's Caxton Club Reaches out to a New Generation |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=December 16, 2013 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/12/16/chicagos-caxton-club-reaches-out-to-a-new-generation/ |access-date=December 19, 2013}}
- {{cite book |first=Frank |last=Piehl |title=The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago |location=Chicago |publisher=Caxton Club |year=1995 |isbn=0-940550-09-1}}
- {{cite book|author=The Caxton Club|title=Chicago By The Book|location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2018 |url=http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo28751879.html}}
External links
- [http://www.caxtonclub.org/ Official website]
- [http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/specialcoll/services/rjd/findingaids/Caxtonf.html Caxton Club Collection finding aid, University of Illinois at Chicago Special Collections and University Archives]
- [https://archives.newberry.org/repositories/2/resources/1267 Caxton Club records] at The Newberry
{{Books}}{{Authority control}}
Category:1895 establishments in Illinois
Category:American bibliophiles
Category:Clubs and societies in the United States