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Collection of Booksellers' Catalogs

 Collection
Identifier: Z999.C69

Scope and Contents

This collection comprises antiquarian booksellers' catalogs dating from 1918 to the present. Most of these catalogs were issued by American and British booksellers, though some French and German booksellers are also represented. The large majority of these catalogs were collected over time by the Clark Library, which receives mailings and catalogs from booksellers on a regular basis and retains these for reference purposes. Most booksellers represented focus on British antiquarian books and manuscripts as well as book arts, as these are major collecting areas for the Clark Library, but other subject areas are also represented by the catalogs gathered here.

Dates

  • Creation: 1918-2023

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research, but is housed off-site and advance notice is required for paging. Please contact Clark Library staff regarding this collection.

Conditions Governing Use

The Clark Library owns the property rights to its collections but does not hold the copyright to these materials and therefore cannot grant or deny permission to use them. Researchers are responsible for determining the copyright status of any materials they may wish to use, investigating the owner of the copyright, and obtaining permission for their intended publication or other use. In all cases, you must cite the Clark Library as the source with the following credit line: The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Extent

78 Linear feet (78 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

French

Abstract

Booksellers' catalogs collected by the Clark Library, The Heritage Bookshop, and William Dailey Rare Books, dating from 1918 to the present. Booksellers represented are largely from the United States and from England, though other countries (particularly France and Germany) are also included.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged alphabetically by bookseller name.

Please note that all bookseller business names are considered to be corporate titles even when they appear to be personal names, so "John A. Smith" is filed alphabetically under J instead of S.

Physical Location

Stored off-site at SRLF - please contact Clark Library staff at least 2 weeks in advance if interested in using these materials.

Provenance Note

Part of this collection was donated to the Clark Library in 2007 by the Heritage Bookshop. Originally, these catalogs were a part of Heritage's in-house reference collection.

Large portions of this collection were donated to the Clark Library in 2022 by the estate of William Dailey.

Most of the rest of the catalogs here were collected over time by the Clark Library, which regularly receives new catalogs from booksellers and auction houses and keeps these for reference purposes.

This collection will be added to over time.

Processing History

Some portions of this collection were described and processed in 2011 by Kevin Wright. This collection was processed by Rudy Arellano and Alejandro Sanchez Nunez in 2015-2016; additional materials (including those from the William Dailey Collection) were processed and added to this finding aid in 2023-2024 by Alejandro Sanchez Nunez and Chanel Viera.

Title
Collection of Booksellers' Catalogs
Author
Processed by Alejandro Sanchez Nunez; EAD finding aid by Rebecca Fenning Marschall
Date
2016, revised 2024
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Repository

Contact:
2520 Cimarron Street
Los Angeles 90018 USA us
(310) 794-5155