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Manuscript Digest: March – April 2026
This complimentary e-digest, now published bi-monthly, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more news in this digest. To start your free subscription click here. You’ll begin receiving the Digest with the next issue. Add Manuscript_Society@mail.vresp.com to your address book or the [...]
Recent Posts
MM On-Demand: How Can Book Bindings Sing? (4/13/26)
Overview How Can Book Bindings Sing? will examine Renaissance books bound in fragments of medieval music manuscripts. These “singing bindings” are hundreds of years older than the printed text blocks inside them, and the texts are on mathematics, physics, or astronomy and absolutely not on music. How is that possible? [...]
MM On-Demand: The New York City Municipal Archives (3/16/26)
Overview New York City bureaucrats have been creating records that document its government since the first Dutch settlers established a colony here in 1624. The records now total more than 250,000 cubic feet and are preserved in the Municipal Archives, one of the largest archival repositories in North America. Mr. [...]
MM On-Demand: Constructing Scientific Eminence in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division (2/9/26)
Overview The Library of Congress holds more than 12,000 manuscript collections documenting a broad range of American history and culture, among them around 1,000 collections in the history of science and technology. Acquired as part of a broader collecting program targeting “nationally eminent Americans,” the Library’s science and technology acquisitions [...]
MM On-Demand: The Pathfinder Papers: Exploring the History of the Fontaine-Maurys, a Founding Family (1/12/26)
Overview Russell Hooper will discuss his collecting journey, how he became interested in the Fontaine–Maury family, and his vision for telling a story drawn from the history preserved in the papers. He will also highlight notable individuals represented in the collection, including: Matthew Fontaine Maury, “The Pathfinder of the Seas” [...]
Manuscript Mondays: Holiday Monday! (12/8/2025)
Manuscript Monday, Monday, December 8, 8pm EST Join us for a members-only meeting to ring in the holiday season and share a special manuscript in your collection, a collecting story, or anything else on your mind relating to the wonderful world of manuscripts. We look forward to seeing you on [...]
MM On-Demand: A Sensuous Education: Belle da Costa Greene’s Travels in Europe (11/17/25)
Overview In 1905, Belle da Costa Greene (1879-1950) was hired by J. P. Morgan to work in his growing library in New York. When the library was opened to the public in 1924 Greene became its first director, but even before this she had played a central role in shaping [...]
2025 Annual Trip Recap: Cambridge & Oxford
Manuscript Society Members Discover Hidden Gems in Cambridge This fall, a group of Manuscript Society members traveled to Cambridge and Oxford, England for an unforgettable behind-the-scenes experience. Over several days, they explored some of the cities' most storied libraries, museums, and archives—places that hold centuries of history and some of [...]
