Reading & Libraries I || The Cover

The CoverAuthor(s): Jeff DouglasSource: Libraries & Culture, Vol. 26, No. 1, Reading & Libraries I (Winter, 1991), pp. 10-13Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25542318 .

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The Cover

The bookplate of the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana, was designed and adopted in 1893 in connection with an extensive expan

sion of the library. The Morrisson-Reeves Library is an example of the

many pre-Carnegie public libraries founded through the generosity of a

single individual desiring to leave a permanent mark on his or her

community.

The author would like to thank Annelies Conti of the Morrisson-Reeves Library for her research

assistance.

Libraries and Culture, Vol. 26, No. 1, Winter 1991 ?1991 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713



11

Though Richmond was not incorporated until 1818, social libraries were

being formed by 1822. At least three have been indentified: the Young Men's Library, the Manual Labor and Working Men's Institute, and

the Richmond Franklin Institute. The Working Men's Institute was one

of 144 short-lived libraries founded throughout Indiana after 1855 with

$500 grants from the estate of William Maclure, a philanthropist long associated with the Utopian New Harmony community. In the mid-1850s a small township library?open only on

Saturdays?was also founded.

But in the early 1860s Robert Morrisson, one of Richmond's earliest settlers, took steps to insure that the community would have the benefit of a perma nent and accessible library. Having already established a reputation as

a benefactor of various Civil War-related charities, Morrisson spent $12,407 to construct the library's original Greek revival building. In

addition, he donated $5,000 for the purchase of books. Six thousand

volumes from the collections of Richmond's township library and of its various subscription libraries were the core of the Morrisson Library when

it opened in 1864. Morrisson stipulated that his gift should be under the

control of a Library Committee composed of the township trustee, an

appointee of the trustee, and two appointees of Richmond's Common

Council, a method of governance still in effect. A letter signed by "Publius" that appeared in the Richmond Weekly

Telegram on 7 January 1865 suggests the degree of public interest in the town's new library. Publius writes that Morrisson's beneficence "could

not have been appropriated to accomplish a wider and more lasting benefit ... as

long as this library shall continue its ministrations, it

will preach a cbntinual crusade, against error, ignorance, superstition,

vice, poverty, and all their kindred evils." However, as grateful as he is,

Publius cannot refrain from pointing out the library's limitations, noting that its collections are inadequate to "meet the wants and demands of

the public, as any one can testify, who is in the habit of visiting it. It is not an uncommon

thing, with a list of 20 books ... to find them all

out. We need and ought to have more books."

Publius may have had a point. Unlike Andrew Carnegie's, Morrisson's

gift did not require the provision of any future income for the library from any other source. The library apparently struggled financially until

1879, when the first library tax was levied. That part of Caroline Reeves's 1892 gift of $30,000 (made in memory of her husband and son) not required for the physical expansion of the library in 1893 continues to serve as a library endowment.

The 3- by 2-inch bookplate was designed by Edna Cathell, a local artist best known for her paintings of roses. Ten printers' marks, along

with the rectangular device that separates them, comprise the plate's border. They frame a shield whose motto is attributed to William Hazlitt.



12 L&C/The Cover

The blank space above the name of the library was reserved for accession

numbers. (The Morrisson-Reeves Library also celebrated the history of

printing at this time through the installation of four Tiffany windows donated by descendants of the library's founder. The largest depicts

Gutenberg at his press. Four of the bookplate's printers' marks are featured on

another.)

Printers' marks were used almost from the time of the first printed books as a kind of trademark or visual adjunct to the printer's colophon. They quickly developed into a minor art form that flourished through the end of the sixteenth century and remains, like the bookplate itself, the object of intense scholarly attention. Though small, the marks are dense with religious figures and symbols. Cathell reduced most of the

marks to their essential design elements due to their number and the small size of the plate. The initials of Simon Vostre and Philippe LeNoir, for

example, are small, albeit central, parts of elaborate scenes. (Cathell's

initials appear at the lower tip of the border surrounding the motto.) Clockwise from top left, the marks are those of:

(1) Aldus Manutius (Venice, 16th century). Perhaps the most famous

printer's mark, this device contrasts the steadfastness of the anchor with

the fluidity and quickness of the dolphin.

(2) William Caxton (Westminster, 15th century). Caxton's marks

probably have been studied more closely than any others. His initials here frame what seems to be an ornate representation of the date 1474,

though the significance of that date remains obscure.

(3) Nicholas Jenson (Venice, 15th century). Variations on the orb and cross device were the most commonly used printer's mark.

(4) Colard Mansion (Bruges, 15th century). The shield was another common motif, though the double shield is seen more often.

(5) Philippe LeNoir (Paris, 16th century). Printers often punned on their own names in the design of their marks. LeNoir's mark shows a black man

and woman holding a shield that bears his monogram.

(6) Galliot de Pre (Paris, 16th century). This design is a variation of

the orb and cross device seen in its most basic form in the Jenson mark.

(7) Louis Elzivir (Leiden, 16th century). Though one of this printing

family's earliest marks, it includes the tree that became a central feature

of their famous "hermit" mark.

(8) Simon Vostre (Paris, 16th century). The complete illustration of

this mark shows a shield bearing this monogram suspended from a pome

granate tree.

(9) Christopher Plantin (Antwerp, 16th century). Similar in theme to

the Manutius mark, Plantin's mark also represents constancy (the stable

compass point) and movement or work (the moving arm of the compass).

(10) Gerard Leeu (Gouda, 15th century). This is a mark within a



13

mark: the shield on the right is an earlier Leeu mark, while the shield

on the left reproduces the coat of arms of Gouda, the Dutch town where

Leeu worked between 1477 and 1484.

Detailed reproductions and histories of most of these marks may be

found in Hugh William Davies's Devices of the Early Printers, 1457-1560

(London, 1935). The Davies book bears the mark of its own printer, Turnbill & Spears of Edinburgh.

Jeff Douglas

Seymour Library Knox College

Galesburg, Illinois



Reading & Libraries I || The Cover

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