The graphic arts ephemera collection contains over 1,600 booksellers' and binders' labels. Arranged alphabetically on index cards, these labels have been acquired from collectors and book dealers over the years. In recent years, it has become routine to photocopy any labels or binders' tickets in volumes and add these to the file, along with information on the provenance of the label.
This small but expanding collection provides a source for the names of binders in major urban and rural centers and serves as an index, albeit a very partial one, to signed bindings in the Society's collection.
Access
A name list for the booksellers' and bookbinders' labels collection is available. An inventory of the collection (updated summer 2021) is available as an Excel sheet.
A number of these labels were reproduced in "Book Trade Labels at the American Antiquarian Society" in volume 82 of the Proceedings (1972) with a brief introductory note by Marcus A. McCorison.
This collection has not been digitized.