To Judge a Book By Its Cover
19th Century American Pictorial Book Covers
Introduction
The beginning of publisher's bindings as we know them occurred in the first third of the nineteenth century. Before that customers either bought books in sheets, that is, unbound, and had them bound privately to their own specifications; or in boards — a kind of temporary binding; or in a generic leather binding commissioned by the publisher or bookseller. In the 1820s in England and 1830s in America the use of cloth as a publishers' binding material made its appearance. The goal of this exhibition is to show the evolution of cloth binding in the United States through the nineteenth into the first decade of the twentieth century.
To use correct terminology the book covers in this exhibition are not bindings but casings, as a "bound book" is made with boards which are laced or sewn to the bookblock (the sewn-together printed folded pages), and then enfolded in a covering material. Cases for books are completed separately from the bookblock and attached to it only by adhesive. However, the terms will be used synonymously here as per present custom.
The machine-stamped decorations of this period were applied after the case was made but before it was attached to the bookblock. The binder or publisher chose the brass stamping die or dies which might or might not have been cut specifically for the book at hand. There are only a few known designers of early stamps; most were done by craftsmen/engravers who also worked in other industries.
In the first run, the stamping machine produced the design in blind, an impression of the design with no color. Then a thin adhesive was painted on the areas to be gilded, very thin gold leaf was applied, and the cover was stamped again. The excess gold was carefully brushed off, collected, and reused.
After the technology of using colored inks was invented and ornamentation was no longer limited to metallic leaf (mostly gold), the range of possibilities for decorative design exploded. The 1880s saw the first covers designed by artists, and by the 1890s scores of men and women artists were employed by publishers to design book covers.
While some children's books and a few others have decorated or fabric covers to this day, the advent of the paper dust wrapper in the early s shrouded the raison d'être for decorative bindings — as an advertisement to sell the book. The creative talent which had produced so many stunning book designs at the turn of the century was channeled into designing ephemeral paper book jackets or dust wrappers.
Simplicity
By "A Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity." Vol III. Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1807. An example of a temporary binding in boards with a paper spine and paper label. Some of these "temporary bindings" have stood up remarkably well through time.
By Friends of Freedom. Boston: National Anti-Slavery Bazaar, 1858.
By T. B. Thorpe. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1846. "Tom Owen the Bee Hunter" must have been a popular story, because the frontispiece is an engraving of Tom, and a bee adorns the title page as well as the cover. Tom is the last story of the book. The spine is embellished with a gilded title and bee, and the back cover has the same blind stamp as the front. This is the first example of a very common design — a blind stamped frame within which are four cornered decorations forming a cartouche surrounding a small gilded picture.
Embossing
Boston: Various publishers, 1833‒1838. Six annual reports bound together in 1838 in a very attractive brown floral ribbon embossed cloth with a leather spine label.
Seventh Edition. New York: Clark & Austin, 1848. This attractive gift book is covered in a striped blue and black ribbed cloth with gilded large corner pieces within a gilded frame on both front and back covers, and beautifully gilded spine with leaves, butterflies and decorative pieces surrounding a brief title. Striped cloths were fashionable on gift books at mid-century.
By George W. Howard. Baltimore: J. D. Ehlers & Co., 1873. This autographed copy in pebble grained cloth is unusual because the gold stamped decorations on the front and back cover are different. The former is a representation of the Washington Monument in Baltimore, which is pictured twice in the book. Assuming that Ehlers & Co. (who proclaim themselves to be "Engravers and Steam Book Printers" on the title page) cut the die, why did they not reuse an image from the print run? Or, did the binder, Dell, Knapp & Co., whose name is stamped in gold on the front and back, simply select the die from a supply they had on hand?
The Age of the Artist-Designer Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842‒1904)
One of the first artist-designers of book covers in America was Sarah Wyman Whitman, who was a well-known painter and worker in stained glass before she began to pursue the book arts. Her simple yet elegant designs contrasted vividly against other styles and helped to make them obsolete. By the 1890s publishers were employing artists to design book covers in large numbers and the effect they produced was dramatic. Sarah Whitman influenced many of the younger book artists and was, in turn, influenced by them, as can be seen in the progression of her covers from 1880 to 1900, ending with a posthumous rendering of her earliest decoration.
By Edith M. Thomas. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1885. Sarah Whitman's covers are almost always identifiable by her very distinct lettering. Only a subtle difference in the gold ornamentation distinguishes this book from the next.
By Louise Imogen Guiney. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899.
Ethel Reed (1874‒1910?)
This very beautiful young woman who was a model as well as an artist had a brief period of intense popularity in the mid 1890s designing posters, bookcovers and endpapers, and illustrating children's and other books.
By Charles Knowlton Bolton. Boston: Lamson, Wolffe, and Company, 1895. Ethel Reed did the designs for the interior of this book, including the endpapers, although she was better known for her posters during her brief life. The front and back paper covers of this little book are identical.
Alice Morse
Born in Ohio, Alice Morse lived in Brooklyn and was considered one of the outstanding book cover artists of her day. She was active from the 1880s to the 1920s.
By Paul Lawrence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1899. This book displays the artist's initials 'AM'.
Blanche McManus Mansfield (1869‒?)
Blanche McManus, author as well as book designer, lived in Paris with her author husband, Francis Miltoun, and illustrated some of his works.
By Charles Gibson. Boston: L. C. Page & Company, 1905. The initials 'B.McM.' identify the designer.
Alberta Hall
By Alfred Henry Lewis. New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1904. Unlike the others in this case, these last four book covers use more than one ink color. Designers were usually told how much money was going to be expended on their designs and, therefore, how many colors they were allowed to use. The more colors used the more expensive it was to stamp or print because each color required a separately-cut die and a separate run through the inking machine. They were also often limited in their use of gold.
Bertha Stuart (active 1903‒1911)
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910. Active in the first two decades of the 19th century, Bertha Stuart was known exclusively as a book designer. This design was used on all Macmillan's "Friendly Series."
Amy Rand
By Paul Lawrence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1904. Another designer known only by her monogram.
Amy Richards
By Timothy Titcomb. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907. Amy Rand and Amy Richards had similar but not the same monogram — Richards' had a more free-hand look (left of book cover). This is a cheap edition judging from the poor-quality printing. The publisher was clearly hoping to see it through its cover.
Margaret Armstrong (1867‒1944)
Margaret Armstrong came from a wealthy Hudson River Valley family. She started designing book covers in 1890 or 1891 and quickly became famous and much in demand by publishers and authors. Her designs were often used over and over again by the publisher either in the original colors or in variations. Charles Gullans and John Espey, in Margaret Armstrong and American Trade Bindings, list 314 covers attributed to Margaret Armstrong. She signed many of her designs with her initials in which the legs of the M and A cross (see monogram on right), but even those not signed are fairly easy to identify because she had a very distinctive style. Her sister, Helen Maitland Armstrong, occasionally collaborated with her, and both decorated the pages of books as well as their covers. Most of them were done between 1890 and 1913.
After 1913, when her output of designs decreased, Miss Armstrong began writing. She wrote and illustrated a field book to wild flowers, several mystery stories, some best sellers, and a biography of her family.
Armstrong did all the covers for Myrtle Reed's books published by Putnam's. Her brother, Hamilton Fish Armstrong, quoted in Gullans and Espey, wrote, "occasionally [she] was called upon to match [her] style to that of the author, which might be terrible. Thus the saccharin mauve color which she devised for the first Myrtle Reed novel was so exactly right that she had to perpetuate it with variations through all the rest of that immensely popular and long-forgotten author's string of works." (p. 110)
Margaret Armstrong designed a series of covers for Henry Van Dyke, as she had for Myrtle Reed, but in deep blue. In each the area of design is the same size, and the twelve books, if massed together, would create a stunning effect. The one exhibited here is in very good condition.
By Paul Lawrence Dunbar. New York: Dodd Mead & Co., 1901. The illustrations throughout the text are also by Miss Armstrong.
By Henry David Thoreau. New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1909.
The Decorative Designers (1895‒1931)
Henry Thayer, an architect, started the small firm which eventually created over 25,000 book covers often identifiable by a monogram of two intertwined Ds facing each other (see monogram on right). Members included Emma Reddington Lee (who married Thayer and came to be known as Lee Thayer), Charles Buckles Falls, and Jay Chambers. Tasks were divided among the artists, so that a single cover could have lettering by one and design by another, or be entirely by a single person. Charles Gullans and John Espey were able to interview Mrs. Thayer before her death at 99 years of age in 1973 and collected much information about the group including who designed what.
By John Esten Cooke. New York: G. W. Dillingham, 1896. The same cover illustrations was used on a whole set of cheaply reprinted editions of Cooke's novels.
By Anna Robertson Brown Lindsay. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell and Co., 1903. This stylized cover is entirely by Lee Thayer.
Will Bradley (1868‒1962)
Bradley was very influential figure in American book and poster design at the turn of the century. His short lived journal, Bradley His Book (1896‒7), his work with apprentices, and his own large output had a lasting impact on printing and publishing in America.
By Edmund Gosse. Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1895. The first edition is 1894. This little russet and silver book with identical design on front and back is Bradley's first cover design. Stone & Kimball hired some of the best artists of the book to design and illustrate their attractive output.
By Richard le Galliene. London & New York: John Lane: The Bodley Head, 1899 [c.1896]. The 1896 design continues on the spine.
George H. Hallowell (1872‒1926)
This Boston artist worked in oils, stained glass, poster design, and journal illustration as well as book arts. He was very highly regarded around the turn of the century.
By Louise Chandler Moulton. Cambridge: Stone & Kimball, 1894. Stone & Kimball were generous in their use of gold and, as with Will Bradley's "In Russet & Silver," allowed the artist to decorate both covers.
Thomas Buford Meteyard (1865‒1928)
Meteyard, who signed his books with a tortoise or a monogram composed of his initials, was primarily a painter. He was friends with poets Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey for whom he designed covers, title pages, and endsheets.
By Robert Louis Stevenson & Lloyd Osbourne. Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1894. This is another example of Stone & Kimball searching out and hiring young artists to decorate their bindings.
Frank Hazenplug (1874‒1931) [Hazen after 1911]
Many of the covers for Stone & Kimball books including those in series were designed by Hazenplug. This prolific artist also designed for Revell, McClurg, Reilly and Britton, Rand McNally, and Doran.
By Mary M. Adams. Chicago: Way & William, 1897. In the short time Way & William existed as a publishing company, they employed Hazenplug to make several covers. There is an acknowledgement on the copyright page that "The cover and title page are from designs by Mr. Frank Hazenplug." The design is repeated on the back cover and the spine has gilt branches and text.
Theodore Brown Hapgood, Jr. (1871‒1938)
Hapgood loved medieval design and worked in many media, including tombstones, church vestments, plaques, inscriptions, and book arts.
By Brander Matthews. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 1906. This little book was printed in red and black at Daniel Berkeley Updike's Merrymount Press. The title page has gothic lettering.
Frank Berkeley Smith (1869‒after 1916)
This prolific author and illustrator as well as cover designer often used the poster style as can be seen in the work exhibited.
By Harold Frederic: Frederic A. Stokes Company, 1899.
Rome K. Richardson (1877‒?)
Gullans and Espey characterize the designs of this craftsman, who started his career with the Decorative Designers, as "...inventive, witty, colorful, [and] occasionally dreadful."
By David Graham Phillips. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merril Company, 1905.
This virtual exhibit is based on information originally researched and presented by Dina Schoonmaker in a physical exhibit displayed in the Oberlin College Main Library in the spring of 1993.