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Bound
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by
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Tradition |
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CONVENTIONS OF
BOOKBINDING IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY TENNESSEE |
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IN EIGHTEENTH and
early nineteenth-century America, books were often hard
to come by in regions distant from cities and larger
towns. In time, the railroad and the westward movement
of the printing press would make books more plentiful in
rural areas. But in the 1700s and early 1800s, it was
difficult to acquire books in small villages and in the
back country. In many homes-- especially on remote farms
and in isolated areas--the only reading material
available might include a Bible, a work of religious
entertainment or spiritual instruction, an almanac, and
a volume of household medicine recipes. |
THIS SCARCITY of books sustained
an array of traditional reading practices. For example, many
readers tended to read the same books over and over again, for
they could not finish one and pick up another book. Traditional
reading practices also fostered a customary approach to making
books, involving durable materials and sturdy methods of
construction so books would not fall to pieces after repeated
readings.
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| NUMEROUS BOOKS
printed in Tennessee in the first half of the 1800s reflect
these traditions. Their pages were hand-stitched with heavy hemp
cord, pasted into thick board covers, and the board covers were
often overbound with calf or pig skin. As many of the books in
this exhibition testify, books bound by traditional methods
remained intact after years of hard use and even neglect.
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| TRADITION ALSO
dictated a rough correspondence between a book's contents and
its binding. A work felt to have enduring practicality or value
required durable binding. A work viewed as having only ephemeral
appeal required little protection. Thus, the pamphlets on
display were issued in paper wrappers, for pamphlets of the time
often contained a printed version of a speech delivered and thus
"used" on a particular and transitory public occasion.
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| BY THE MID 1800s the
traditions enveloping book binding were shifting in response to
broad change in American book production and consumption. The
advent of regional presses, mechanized printing, and the
railroad were bringing more books into the hands of more
readers. And in the offing were decorative cloth bindings,
dustjackets, paperbacks, machined paper, and other hallmarks of
modern book production |
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| A
COLLECTION OF HYMNS FOR PUBLIC, SOCIAL, AND DOMESTIC WORSHIP,
Nashville, 1881 |
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| AN
ADDRESS, DELIVERED ON ST. JOHN'S DAY, Clarksville, 1859 |
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| PUBLIC
ACTS OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, PASSED AT THE EXTRA SESSION OF
THE THIRTY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY, Nashville, 1861 |
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| THE
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE, Nashville, 1857 |
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