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Rose A. McCandless

@rosemccandless.bsky.social
546 followers 334 following 311 posts

Bibliographer, rare book enthusiast, and special collections instruction librarian. I post about rare books & manuscripts, fine/small press, book arts, digital humanities, etc. MPhil, MLIS. Leftist. Silly goose. she/they

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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I am so excited to have received an honorable mention in this year’s Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize for my collection “The Book as Art and Commodity: Design Reform and Commercial Publishing, 1890-1915.” It’s an honor to be among such distinguished collecting company!
themillions.com
Meet the Winners of the 2026 Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize - The Millions
In 2017, Honey & Wax Booksellers established an annual prize for American women book collectors, aged 30 years and younger. Our goal, at the time, was to expand the popular perception of who book coll...
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Not to mention this literal bullsh*t from the Bod.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Private versus institutional stewardship is such a complex and nuanced topic, including valuable legacies of private ownership preserving materials, generosity and accessibility of collectors’ collections contrary to popular belief, and the elitism and restrictive nature of many institutions.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
We have been discussing private ownership of cultural heritage materials with students and when they argue that history shouldn’t be in private hands (though I may agree, for some materials, in theory) I show them examples like this to demo why we cannot always trust institutional stewardship.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Homiliary, Italy, ca. 1100. Text is from Maximus of Tours and Augustine. Unknown provenance! (Ah, the institutional collection.)
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Look at all those Carolines!
A long table with five large manuscript fragments in Caroline minuscule scripts. Ohio State University, Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, SPEC.RARE.MS.MR.Frag.105Ohio State University, Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, SPEC.RARE.MS.MR.Frag.96Ohio State University, Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, SPEC.RARE.MS.MR.Frag.215
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I pulled our copy of this recently as part of my project moving decorative covers from circulating into special collections!
A (more battered than the below example) copy of Dreams and Ghosts (1897).
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Morning timeline cleanse—the Ohio State Marching Band, “The Best Damn Band in the Land” playing the university Alma mater “Carmen Ohio” drifting into my living room, accompanied by the crickets and other fauna of central Ohio in late summer.
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Shannon McSheffrey @medievalmcsheff.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
JOB!! The Department of History at the University of Ottawa invites applications for a position in medieval and/or transregional history, 7th-16th centuries. French or English, bilingualism an asset. universityaffairs.ca/search-jobs/...
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Totally agreed, Dot! I think folks are craving the feeling of paper in their hands—and the ability to talk with other interested folks about history, sources, and how to understand sources in context. It helps build skills for navigating our times and heals the soul at the same time!
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Zanna Van Loon @zannavanloon.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A glimpse into the sixteenth-century printing office. This 16th-century Bible sheet became a printer’s copy: a gathering from an earlier edition, marked in red by compositors and used as copy for a new setting, placed on the visorium above the type cases. #earlymodern #bookhistory #rarebooks 📚💙📜
First gathering of the edition with the unfolded pages visible, including the title page on the bottom left. The paper sheet contains printed text, red markings, and ink stains.Detail of the ink stains on the sheet of paperDetails of the red markings added by hand
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This is such a cool typographical cover!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Sorry you’re having these. It’s really the worst. Also seconding Alice’s notes of salt and caffeine!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I’ve learned over the past decade or so to start recognizing when my light sensitivity starts kicking in—why do my eyes feel weird? is usually the first sign—and immediately take a proactively large dose of ibuprofen and lay in the dark. Usually helps fend it off. Sending best wishes!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I bet you anything Sarah Grace Heller (Ohio State, not on Bsky) can answer your questions or knows where to go!
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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Hey, guys, when the librarians get pissed about the destruction of books, it’s time to put those listening ears on. Because we are very comfortable with the idea that books are tools that can be retired. What’s happening right now is not that.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Me trying to mentally reverse engineer how Kate moved the combs through the marbling tray in order to achieve this pattern on the right
The math lady meme
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
This pattern is so gorgeous!! Douglas Cockerell would have approved.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Also such a good one. These presses are famous for a reason!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This Roman type is so gorgeous!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
And because it’s out, a timeline cleanse. Still one of the most beautiful examples of typography ever, IMO!
The opening to Genesis in the Doves Press Bible (1905).
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Closer!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Staining in the magnificent 1905 Doves Press Bible—these stains, which appeared in pages of vol. 1 as a result of too little hanging space (and thus attempting to dry too many stacked sheets after printing, causing the sheets to stay damp overlong and discolor). Lamented by the printer.
An opening of the 1905 Doves Press Bible, with stains resulting from staying wet too long after printing.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
No way! He is from Columbus (where I live) and he walked into a bookshop right after me on Saturday! Dual poet sighting in a weekend :)
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Plates of William Morris’ designs for Morris & Co., and other parts of his career, reproduced in “The Art of William Morris” (1897—one year after Morris’ death), printed at the Chiswick Press.
Morris & Co. Daisy wallpaperWilliam Morris’ “Trellis” wallpaperMorris’ “Pink and Rose” wallpaperMorris’ “Woodpecker” tapestry
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Inventorying historical architecture books means lots of lovely 2nd half of 18th-early 19th century decorated book papers.
Mid? 19th-century Spanish marbled paperEarly-mid 18th-century French curl marbled paperA late 18th-century paste paper. Tbh I am a paste paper hater but it’s HISTORICAL
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
In action!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Purpose of this machine: seeing watermarks!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Shout-out to our department’s Cold Nose Illuminator (“Old”) which some random person made in their garage in the 1990s and we ended up with. No company-produced cold nose illuminator can live up to it. It is eternal and weighs about 30 pounds. Also includes ancient tic tac box with spare parts.
The old cold nose illuminator in all its old tech glory. It’s enormous. A tic tac box with spare parts the purpose of which I really couldn’t tell you.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
This morning: the lovely italic of Robert Estienne, one of the most important 16th-c. French printers. This book is a 1543 copy of Cato’s De Re Rustica.
A printed title page from 1543.A woodcut printer’s markA page of italic textA page of italic text
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Admiring the tangled glory that is this fifteenth-century binding. Sadly detached. One of the usual suspects.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Three gigantic fine press bibles today—Nonesuch (1924), Pennyroyal Caxton (1999), and Arion (2000) Presses. Pennyroyal and Arion are particularly interesting as they were published and produced within a year of one another.
A metal plate engraving to the Nonesuch New Testament (1924-1927). The opening to Genesis in the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible designed by Barry Moser in 1999.The opening to the book of Matthew in the Arion Bible (2000), with burnished gold illuminated initial.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I like JSON/csv! Mainly because OpenRefine is my preferred data tool, and these play best with OR.
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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
For perspective, this is equivalent to what I earned as an assistant professor fresh out of grad school 25 years ago in a rust belt city where large houses in nice neighborhoods near the university cost $150k.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Letterpress friends! Would anyone be able/willing to sell me a photopolymer plate to incorporate into my teaching collection? I’m hoping for text but dot screen images would also be of interest.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
This is the opposite of what Hartmann argued for. This is allowing the machine to literally rewrite history, asking the manifestation of the structures of power that created the gaps in the archive to then fill them. Critical fabulation, not to be undertaken lightly, requires a human moral compass.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Woodcuts/wood engravings I saw at work this week.
Ornaments designed by William Morris for the Kelmscott Press and reproduced in an Elston Press volume on Morris’ printing. A wood engraving of the Albion Press used by the Kelmscott Press, by John DePol.Illustration to the Golden Cockerel Mabingion (1948), by Dorothea Braby. Two woodcut prints in a set of mail art dating from ca. 1980.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
The Dance Magazine, July 1926. Pulled for a group of high schoolers doing a dance intensive summer program in OSU’s Dance dept. visiting us on Wednesday!
A magazine cover with a colorful illustration of a woman in a dance pose.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
For your viewing pleasure, this beautiful “liber” in one of OSU’s newest manuscript fragments, copied in gorgeous Montecassino-style Beneventan script.
A close up of a manuscript leaf written in Beneventan script.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Cobden-Sanderson was himself utilizing the printing services of the Chiswick Press in 1901-2, when he and his wife Annie printed several tracts on art and socialism as part of a limited series printed by Chiswick and published by the Cobden-Sandersons’ Hammersmith Publishing Society.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Unexpected encounter with an old friend today: looking at copies of William Morris’ works published by Longmans and printed at the Chiswick Press, 1901-2 and stumbled upon another major fine printer… in the circulating collection, no less. (Deep breaths)
Ex Libris of T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, founder of the Doves Press. Signature of T. J. Cobden-Sanderson. Colophon of “The Roots of the Mountains”.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Was delighted today to receive North Yorkshire-based @nepenthepress.bsky.social’s new “The Domain of the Pale Queen” by Benjamin Tweddell—absolutely gorgeous!
A half-cloth bound book with green paper boards printed in a black design, with gold stamped typography.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Summer project: finding things in the circulating collections that should be in special collections, and transferring them… aka searching “decorative cloth publishers’ binding” in the catalog and having fun :)
Gold floral decorative cover of “Lyrics from Elizabethan Song Books,” Scribner’s, 1896.Art Nouveau decorative cover to Laurence Housman’s “The House of Joy,” K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1895. Cover also by LH. Gold decorative Art Nouveau cover to Richard Le Gallienne’s “The Romance of Zion Chapel,” The Bodley Head, 1898. Cover by Will H. Bradley. Simple gold Art Nouveau decorative cover to “Vespertilia and Other Verses,” The Bodley Head, 1895.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
I’ve been thinking a lot about the influence of William Morris’ book design aesthetic on lower cost, commercial printing, and nothing sums this up so literally like the title spread from J. M. Dent’s initial run of the Everyman’s Library series, 1905-1910 (right. Left: Morris’ Kelmscott Chaucer.)
The title opening of William Morris’ design, The Work of Chaucer, published by the Kelmscott Press in 1896.The title opening from the edition of Sir Walter Scott’s “The Fortunes of Nigel” published in J. M. Dent’s Everyman’s Library Series, 1906.
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
A few highlights from the NY Antiquarian Book Fair a few weekends ago…
Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” in a binding designed by Laurence HousmanA Chivers “velluscent” binding with flowersAn 18th-c. Japanese book about fish/whales with hand painted illustrationsAn Art Nouveau Barbier illustration
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Now that term is over, there is more time for collections research, which this week has meant Will H. Bradley’s weird and wonderful “Bradley, His Book”—a periodical from 1896-7 discussing typography, printing, publishing, etc. with many art nouveau illustrations by Bradley and his contemporaries.
A black and white designA drawing of a horsed knight with a leafy border printed in redA list of publications available from the Bodley Head publishing company with a decorative borderThe cover of the November 1896 issue with an art nouveau illustration
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Hooray!! Can’t wait for my copy!
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
A few of the sights from the Akron Antiquarian Book & Paper Show, not including the Nonesuch edition of William Morris’ selected writings that I walked away with.
A green Morocco bound book with a lovely floral border stamped in red and gold by RivièreA mid-century advertising pamphlet for “Low Cost Homes” in Akron, Ohio with an illustration of two women outside a house The endpapers of “The Happy Prince and Other Stories” by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Charles RobinsonThe cover of “Manual of Weeds” by Ada Georgia (1919) with a cover design of dandelions stamped in orange and green on blue (?) cloth
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Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
OSU’s leaf of this Maghrebi Qur’an manuscript, formerly owned by the Lima Public Library (one of the primary recipients of Ege’s leaves).
The recto side of a Qur’an in North African Maghrebi script. The verso side of a Qur’an in North African Maghrebi script.
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