Rebecca Romney to Speak on Gen-Z Collectors and the Future of Collecting

On Wednesday, April 24, Rebecca Romney will speak to the Baxter Society in our meeting room at Glickman Library at USM, and on Zoom, at 7:00 pm. Ms. Romney is the co-founder of the DC-based rare book company Type Punch Matrix and co-founder of the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize.

Since 2011 she has appeared as the rare book specialist on the History Channel’s show Pawn Stars. She speaks and writes widely on rare books and collecting; her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more. She is the author of Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History and of The Romance Novel in English. Her upcoming book is Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, chronicling her efforts to build a book collection of Austen’s favorite women writers (Simon & Schuster, 2025). She will speak Wednesday on “Next Generation Book Collecting: How Gen Z is Joining the Centuries-Long Tradition.”

Spencer Stuart, Collections Advisor, to Speak at March 6th Meeting

The speaker at our March meeting will be Spencer W. Stuart, internationally-known collections advisor. Spencer will speak on the stages of collecting in a talk entitled Emerging, Expanding, & Legacy: Three Perspectives on Collecting. This talk will be entirely on Zoom.

Spencer’s recent book is Contemporary Issues in Rare Book & Manuscript Collecting: A Handbook for Collectors and the Trade.

February Joint Meeting with the Kate Cheney Chappell Center

The February Meeting of the Baxter Society will be held at 7:00 pm, Wednesday February 7, on Zoom. Held jointly with the Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts, the meeting’s speakers will be Rebecca Goodale and Carrie Scanga on the topic of “Making Books Together.”

A visit to Pettengill Farm, a study site stewarded by the Freeport Historical Society, inspired Back Then and Now, their third collaboration.

Rebecca Goodale
Carrie Scanga

To receive a link to the Zoom meeting, please register at the link sent to you in this month’s email from the Baxter Society.

January Meeting on Zoom Only

Because of the closure of Glickman Library during the time of our meeting, the January meeting, our annual Show-and-Tell, will be held on Zoom only. Please check your email for the link or contact us through this website’s contact menu.

Spring Schedule Announced

Unless otherwise noted, you may attend either in person at room 423-424 Glickman Library, U. of Southern Maine, Portland, or on Zoom, at 7:00 pm. 
The public is welcome.

Wednesday, Jan 10, at 7:00 pm, Annual Show-and-Tell. At Glickman Library, and on Zoom.

Wednesday, Feb 7, at 7:00 pm, Rebecca Goodale and Carrie Scanga - "Making Books Together", held jointly with the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for the Book Arts. On Zoom only.

Wednesday, Mar 13 - Anne Bromer - "Miniature Books Deserve More Respect."

Wednesday, April 24 - Rebecca Romney - "Next Generation Book Collecting.
How Gen-Z is Joining the Centuries-Long Tradition." 

Wednesday, May 8 - Veronique Plesch - "The Many Paradoxes of Tom Phillips’s A Humument." 

For Zoom meetings: the link will be sent to members via e-mail both in advance and on the morning of the meeting.

Please remember that Baxter Society membership runs on the calendar year. Please pay your 2024 dues by January. Thank you.

Nick Basbanes to address Baxter Society in November

On Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m., our speaker will be Nicholas Basbanes. Nick is the author of A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, as well as nine other critically acclaimed works of cultural history, with a particular emphasis on books and book culture. He is an NEH Public Scholar, and he will speak on his work in progress, Before Paper.

Kimberly Toney to Speak on Algonquian Bible

On Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 4:30 p.m., Kimberly Toney, Coordinating Curator of Native American and Indigenous Collections, Brown University Library. “Up-Biblum God: The Algonquian Bible, Native Labor and Indigenous Futures.” Jointly sponsored with the Bowdoin College Library. At Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (Bowdoin College), Special Collections & Archives Learning Lab, Room 317A and on Zoom.

Baxter Prize Awarded at May Meeting

The Baxter Society Prize for the Book Arts was awarded at the May Meeting of the Society, held at the Baxter House Museum, and the Baxter Memorial Library in Gorham, Maine. The four judges (Marieke van der Steenhoven at Bowdoin College Library Special Collections; Sarah Baker, Curator of the Maine Women Writers Collection, UNE; Josh Bodwell from David R. Godine Publishing; and Fannie Ouyang from Colby College Libraries) had a real challenge in selecting only three winners from the impressive submissions received.

The prize winners are:

Women of Windy Hill, Rachel Church (grand prize)

Bestiary, Brian D. Cohen (honorable mention)

Wonder, Jan Owen (honorable mention)

The Grand Prize book was designed, printed, and assembled by Rachel E. Church, 2022 Book Artist in Residence at Maine Media Workshop + College, where it was produced in the Charles Altschul Book Arts Studio on a Vandercook Universal III letterpress and in the Haas Lab for Historical Photographic Processes. The paper used is 90 lb white Legion Stonehenge, 140 lb Winsor & Newton Professional Hot Press Watercolor, and Moab Lasal Photo Matte 235. The images were printed in cyanotype and inkjet. The type set is Bembo.

Thank you to Maine Media Workshop and College for their generous support to create this project, as well as the Women’s Group of the North Vienna United Methodist Church, and especially Barbara, Debbie, Donna, Jean, Katie, Laura, and Millie, for sharing their recipes, photos, and stories. 

May Meeting to be held at the original Baxter House

On Wednesday, May 10th, the Baxter society will meet at 6:00 pm, in person at the Baxter House Museum, beside the Public Library, 71 South St., in Gorham, to celebrate our 40th anniversary and our namesake, bibliophile James Phinney Baxter, twice mayor of Portland, thirty-year president of the Maine Historical Society, and donor of libraries in Portland, Maine and in his birthplace, Gorham, as well.

The meeting, in person at the library, will include refreshments, a tour of the adjacent Baxter House, the awarding of the Baxter Prizes in Book Arts, and the cutting of the Society’s birthday cake.