Course Description
This course is aimed at librarians, booksellers, collectors, scholars, and others who seek an introduction to theoretical and practical approaches to building and stewarding modern collections. The course will cover the changing landscape for locating and selecting historically significant cultural material of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including books, archives, ephemera, photographs, art, sound and video recording, and other materials. Special attention will be paid to non-traditional materials and obsolete formats, such as texts reproduced on home/office equipment, and sound and video recordings on vinyl and tape. Topics will include institutional stewardship; navigating the antiquarian marketplace for cultural materials; how to assess the aesthetic, market, and research value of potential acquisitions; and the roles of dealer, donor and collector in the enterprise of collecting and preserving historical documentation. The week will feature a combination of lectures, discussions, case-studies, research exercises, and hands-on practical evaluation of materials.Faculty
Tom Congalton
Tom Congalton founded Between the Covers Rare Books with his wife Heidi in 1985; the firm specializes in twentieth-century American books. He served as President of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of …
Johan Kugelberg
Johan Kugelberg has more than 30 years of experience in the U.S. entertainment and art industries. From 1990 to 1994, he was the General Manager for Atlantic Records subsidiary Matador …
Katherine Reagan
Katherine Reagan is Ernest L. Stern ‘56 Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts for Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. She was Chair of the Rare Books …
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Course History
- 2013–
Tom Congalton, Johan Kugelberg, and Katherine Reagan co-teach this course.
- 2004–2007
Susan M. Allen and William P. Barlow, Jr. co-teach a precursor course, “Donors and Libraries” (L-55).
- 1994
William P. Barlow, Jr. teaches a precursor course, “Special Collections Friends and Relations.”