 The Grolier Club's home at 47 East 60th Street | |
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| Formation | 1884; 141 years ago (1884) |
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| Coordinates | 40°45′50″N73°58′12″W / 40.76391°N 73.96987°W /40.76391; -73.96987 |
President | Nancy K. Boehm |
| Website | www |
TheGrolier Club is a museum, library,private club andsociety of bibliophiles inNew York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. It is named afterJean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, Treasurer General of France, whose library was famous; his motto, "Io. Grolierii et amicorum" [of or belonging to Jean Grolier and his friends], suggested his generosity in sharing books.[1]
The Club's stated objective is "the literary study of the arts pertaining to the production of books, including the occasional publication of books designed to illustrate, promote and encourage these arts; and the acquisition, furnishing and maintenance of a suitable club building for the safekeeping of its property, wherein meetings, lectures and exhibitions shall take place from time to time..."[2]
The Grolier Club maintains a research library specializing in books, bibliography and bibliophily, printing (especially the history of printing and examples of fine printing), binding, illustration and bookselling. The Grolier Club has one of the more extensive collections of book auction and bookseller catalogs in North America.[3][4][5] The Library also has the archives of prominent bibliophiles, such asSir Thomas Phillipps,[6] and of bibliophile and print collecting groups, such as theHroswitha Club of women book collectors (1944–c. 1999)[7][a] and the Society of Iconophiles.[8]
The Grolier Club's public exhibitions "treat books and prints as objects worthy of display, on a par with painting and sculpture."[9] The exhibitions on two gallery floors draw on various sources including holdings of the Club, its members, and of institutional libraries. Subjects of its recent shows includewomen in science (2013),[10] blooks (2016), Walt Whitman (2019), American menus (2023),Zoe Anderson Norris (2023), Abraham Lincoln (2024, fromDavid Rubenstein's collection), andimaginary books (2024-2025).
In 2022 theRare Book School was featured in the exhibit,Building the Book from the Ancient World to the Present Day: Five Decades of Rare Book School & the Book Arts Press.[11] The exhibit covered two millennia of the changing form of the book.
The Grolier Club, which also hosts frequent public tours and lectures, is a member of theFellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies.[12]
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The Grolier Club was formed on January 23, 1884,[13] with 50 members and was formally incorporated in 1888.[14] The founders of the club wereWilliam Loring Andrews,Theodore L. DeVinne,A. W. Drake,Albert Gallup,Robert Hoe III, Brayton Ives, Samuel W. Marvin, E. S. Mead, and Arthur B. Turnure.[15] Perfection in the art ofbookmaking was encouraged.E. D. French engraved the club's ownbookplate as well as bookplates for many of its members.
Honorary members have included I.N. Phelps Stokes (elected 1927),Bruce Rogers (1928),Henry Watson Kent (1930),Franklin D. Roosevelt (1934),Rudolph Ruzicka (1946),Lawrence C. Wroth (1950), Carl Purington Rollins (1951),Elmer Adler (1952),Joseph Blumenthal (1967),Margaret Bingham Stillwell (1977) and Mary C. Hyde Eccles (1989). Honorary Foreign Corresponding members have includedEmery Walker (elected 1920),Alfred W. Pollard (1921), SirGeoffrey Keynes (1922),Michael Sadleir (1925),Stanley Morison (1951),Giovanni Mardersteig (1964),Howard M. Nixon (1971),Nicolas Barker (1972),John Carter (1973), andHermann Zapf (2003).[16]Harry Elkins Widener, the wealthy young bibliophile whose early death inthe sinking of the RMSTitanic inspired his mother to construct Harvard'sHarry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, had been a member.[17][18]
From April 20 to June 5, 1971, a newly-discovered pre-ColumbianMaya codex was displayed in the club, giving the codex the name theGrolier Codex. In 1973 the club published a facsimile of the codex in a book byMichael D. Coe.[19]
The Grolier Club has had three locations since its founding. Its first home was rented space at 64 Madison Avenue,[13] which it quickly outgrew.[14] It moved in 1890 to aRomanesque Revival building at29 East 32nd Street (now a designated city landmark).[13]
The third and current clubhouse at 47 East 60th Street, on theUpper East Side, was designed byBertram Grosvenor Goodhue.[5] The cornerstone was laid in December 1916,[20] and the clubhouse opened almost exactly a year later.[21] Its members-only upper-floor spaces include a simulation of a 17th-century New York Dutch taproom. A 51-story apartment tower beside the Grolier Club was built withair rights purchased from the club and the adjoiningChrist Church.[22]
The following people have served as presidents of the club:[23]
The Club has issued editions of the following works:[15]
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