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Printing and Publishing in Library Special Collections

LSC has holdings of printed and manuscript collections supporting research in the history of printing, the graphic arts, bibliography, the book trade, fictitious imprints (1600-1900), and emblem books from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.

Modern Fine Printing and Graphic Arts

LSC has coordinated its collections of modern fine presses, particularly those of California printers, with the Clark Library. It is a repository of publications of the Black Sparrow Press (California) and the Whittington Press (England). Special book collections have been created, such as one for books printed by Edmund Evans and another for books designed and illustrated by Rex Whistler.  The Gullans-Espey collections of more than 1600 American trade and designer bookbindings were donated by Charles Gullans and John Espey.  Well-represented within this collection are bindings by renowned binders Decorative Designers, Margaret Armstrong, Bertha Stuart, Sarah Whitman, Frank Hazenplug, George Wharton Edwards, and Will Bradley. Library Special Collections maintains with current acquisitions a collection of graphic arts ephemera, mostly prospectuses, begun by Jake Zeitlin.