The Museum of Notebooks

"An ongoing project to collect the best and brightest notebooks in the world." So much more interesting than I was expecting. I especially liked the above "Cultural Revolution Notebook" from China.

New Acquisitions

Harvard's Houghton Library has a new blog highlighting recent acquisitions to their Modern Books and Manuscripts division. Each post focuses on one item, with images as well as often-fascinating background and history. Personal faves so far include an Emily Dickinson manuscript, a telegram from the Lincoln assassination conspiracy, and a sort of 19th century version of The Dating Game:

The set, which arrived in its original box, includes forty hand-colored cards depicting men and women. The twenty cards picturing men each contain a member of a different profession and a rhyming, nineteenth-century, pick-up line. The cards featuring women contain various polite (and not-so-polite) rejections, along with a few acceptances. Presumably, players could match different cards to form various comic, romantic scenarios, thus practicing for their own courtships.

On a related note, The Morgan has just acquired (scroll down a bit) a rare miniature Renaissance prayer book:

Created around the time of Queen Claude’s coronation in 1517, the manuscript includes a bookplate designed by Picasso [...]. The manuscript was created by an artist known only as the Master of Claude de France, named after this prayer book and a companion manuscript, who was active in Tours during the early 16th century. Only about a dozen of his works survive.

And finally, my thanks to Michael for inviting me as a contributor. I'm excited to be one of Book Patrol's latest acquisitions.