Illustrated Lecture: The 19th Century City and the Book

Architectural historian Francis Morrone has for the last several years been studying the history of New York as a center of American book culture – publishing, printing, bookselling, libraries, and book reviewing. Morrone will discuss the Village’s and the Union Square area’s 19th-century history as a center of the book trade–of publishers, bookstores, and printers.

This program is held in partnership with the Merchant’s House Museum, to highlight their current exhibition “The Tredwell Book Collection and the Changing 19th Century Culture of Books.” The Tredwell books provide a glimpse into the family’s interests, tastes, and intellectual pursuits, and were published almost exclusively in New York City during the early to mid-19th century, a period known as the “emerging mass culture of print.”

Co-sponsored by the Merchant’s House Museum