Teaching the History of Print

Dime novels were published from the middle nineteenth century through the early twentieth century and were largely pulp fiction aimed at a young male audience.

A fine press is a printing establishment that adheres to particularly high standards in terms of the skill of the workers, the choice of materials, and the overall design of the books ultimately produced. The spirit of the fine press movement continues in the ongoing revival of the techniques of letterpress printing, but the movement itself is usually dated to the years 1891-1939.

Dr. Frank Luther Mott’s library of American best sellers is held in Special Collections. Dr. Mott endeavored to purchase a copy of each book included in his study of American best sellers, preferring a first edition when one could be located. Mott defined best sellers as books known (or believed) to have had total sales equal to one percent of the population of the continental United States (or the English colonies in the years before the revolution) for the decades they were published.

The Department of Rare Books and Special collections maintains a small collection of incunabula (books printed before 1501) and early printed material.

The University of Missouri acquired the collection of Geoffroi Jacques Flach (1846-1919) in 1920. Dr. Flach's collection included several fine examples of medieval manuscripts and printing.

Pages from the Past is a collection of manuscript and rare book leaves compiled and sold by a New York book dealer Alfred W. Stites from 1964 to 1967. Each set of Pages from the Past is unique. This collection is labeled Set no. I, “The History of the Written Word”. This is version “B” from the Stites’ third “release” of sets. Within the set I it is no.14 of 15 sets.

The collection consists of posters from both World War I and World War II with a few tourist and other miscellaneous posters from the same periods. Additionally, the collection contains broadsides, banners, pamphlets, and ephemera.

The collection contains material on private and specialty presses, dating primarily from the 1980s to the present. Many items in the collection are prospectuses and offerings of new books by the presses. The items are often specially printed on unusual and handmade papers or with special printing techniques.

The Folger Shakespeare Library has the world's largest collection of materials relating to Shakespeare and his works, from the 16th century to the present day, as well as a world-renowned collection of books, manuscripts, and prints from Renaissance Europe. As such, its digitized collections are an excellent resource for the history of print in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection includes nearly three hundred manuscripts and documents ranging in date from ca. 1900BC to the 20th century, with particular focus on the eras of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

With more than 900 illuminated manuscripts, 1,250 of the first printed books (ca. 1455 - 1500), and an important collection of post-1500 deluxe editions, this extraordinary collection chronicles the art of the book over more than 1,000 years.

The Wellcome Library is a free museum and library based on the collection of Sir Henry Wellcome with particular strengths in medicine and the history of science.

The Huntington Library is a premier research library with a strong set of collections in a variety of formats, particularly early modern printing.