Newly Posted RBS Summer Lecture Videos Available


This summer, Rare Book School welcomed a variety of esteemed experts who discussed a wealth of topics, such as reading habits during the COVID-19 lockdown, Indigenous communities and printing history, the joys of collecting rare materials, and the importance of public history.

We are delighted to share video recordings of our Summer 2023 Lecture Series below. Audio files of lectures are also available. All lectures took place in Charlottesville unless otherwise noted.

“The Surveyor’s Eye: Topographic Mapping and the Contest for Empire in Eighteenth-Century British America” (June 5, 2023)
S. Max Edelson, Professor of History, University of Virginia
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud
NEH-SHARP Living American History in Primary Documents Lecture 

“Reader = Inessential Worker: Book History After Lockdown” (June 7, 2023)
Leah Price, Distinguished Professor & Director, Rutgers Book Initiative, Rutgers University
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud

“Books in the Contact Zone: Between Amatl Papers and the Printing Press, Mexico 1500–1600” (June 12, 2023)
Barbara E. Mundy, Robertson Chair in Latin American Art, Tulane University
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud
The Sol M. and Mary Ann O’Brian Malkin Lecture 

“Why Collect?” (June 14, 2023)
Walter O. Evans, Celebrated Collector of Frederick Douglass and of African American Art
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud
The 2023 Kenneth W. Rendell Endowed Lecture 

“The Lives (and Afterlives) of Stereotype Plates in the 19th-Century United States Booktrade” (July 12, 2023)
Jeffrey Makala, Associate Director for Special Collections & University Archivist, Furman University Libraries
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud
The 2023 Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Lecture on the History of the Book Trades 

“Nuns at Work: The Poor Clares as Makers of Books in Gothic Cologne” (July 19, 2023, at The Grolier Club in New York City)
Joshua O’Driscoll, Associate Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, The Morgan Library and Museum
Watch on Vimeo
Video courtesy of The Grolier Club 

“A Nexus of Learning—Museums and the Importance of Public History” (July 24, 2023)
Christy S. Coleman, Executive Director, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud

“The Typesetting and Designs of the Declaration of Independence Broadsides” (July 26, 2023)
Craig Welsh, Associate Professor of Communications & Humanities, Penn State Harrisburg
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud

“Pacific Encounters in Print: Revisiting James Cook Voyage Publications” (July 31, 2023)
Kailani Polzak, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud
The Kress Foundation Art of the Book in Europe Lecture