The Grolier Club is a
private club and
society of bibliophiles in
New York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after
Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, Treasurer General of France, whose library was famous; his motto, "Io. Grolierii et amicorum" [of or belonging to Jean Grolier and his friends], suggested his generosity in sharing books.[1]
The Club's stated objective is "the literary study of the arts pertaining to the production of books, including the occasional publication of books designed to illustrate, promote and encourage these arts; and the acquisition, furnishing and maintenance of a suitable club building for the safekeeping of its property, wherein meetings, lectures and exhibitions shall take place from time to time ..."[2]
Collections and programs
The Grolier Club maintains a research library specializing in books, bibliography and bibliophily, printing (especially the history of printing and examples of fine printing), binding, illustration and bookselling. The Grolier Club has one of the more extensive collections of book auction and bookseller catalogs in North America.[3][4][5] The Library has the archives of a number of prominent bibliophiles such as
Sir Thomas Phillipps,[6] and of bibliophile and print collecting groups, such as the
Hroswitha Club of women book collectors (1944–c. 1999)[7][a] and the Society of Iconophiles.[8]
The Grolier Club also has a program of public exhibitions which "treat books and prints as objects worthy of display, on a par with painting and sculpture."[9] The exhibitions draw on various sources including holdings of the Club, its members, and of institutional libraries. In 2013, it hosted an exhibition on
women in science.[10]
From April 20 to June 5, 1971, a newly-discovered pre-Columbian
Maya codex was displayed in the club, giving the codex the name the
Grolier Codex. In 1973 the club published a facsimile of the codex in a book by
Michael D. Coe.[18]
Buildings
The Grolier Club has had three locations since its founding. Its first home was rented space at 64 Madison Avenue,[12] but the club had outgrown this space by 1888.[13] It moved in 1890 to a
Romanesque Revival building at
29 East 32nd Street (now a designated city landmark).[12]
The third and current clubhouse at 47 East 60th Street, on the
Upper East Side, was designed by
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue.[5] The cornerstone was laid in December 1916,[19] and the clubhouse opened almost exactly a year later.[20] In 2013, plans were announced for a 51-story apartment towert beside the Grolier Club, using
air rights purchased from the club and the adjoining
Christ Church.[21]
List of presidents
The following people have served as presidents of the club:[22]
^"Cornerstone of Grolier Club's New Home Laid: Commodious Quarters in East Sixtieth Street Soon to Be Ready". New-York Tribune. December 15, 1916. p. 13.
ISSN1941-0646.
ProQuest575664498.
^A list of club presidents, complete to 2009, appeared in Members of the Grolier Club, 1884–2009 (New York: Grolier Club, 2009), pp. 158–159. A previous list, complete to 1982, appeared in Members of the Grolier Club, 1884–1984 (New York: Grolier Club, 1986), pp. 149–150.
External links
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