RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection

Join us this Friday for an online tour of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection for #ATypI2020 conference! Discover some of our unhidden treasures and stick around for a Q&A session. Link to registration in the comments.

Examples of logos and brand identities from the Cary Collection were recently shown to a Communication class. Among them was a logo proposal book prepared by Paul Rand in 1986 for NeXT Computer and its CEO Steve Jobs. Of note is the similarity between Rand’s spotlight on the letter e in NeXT and its various connotations, and Steve Jobs’ spotlight on the i in iMac and its connotations over a decade later.

We invite the #RIT community to support The Cary Collection Research Fellowship on #ROARDay. The fellowship is open to scholars engaged with subject areas covered by the library’s holdings. Your gift will help future Cary fellows! Link in the comments. Our research fellow for 2020 is Robert Gordon-Fogelson, a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and a recipient of the Visual Studies Graduate Certificate. Robert is researching the work Will Burtin for his dissertation Total Integration: Design, Business, and Society in the United States, 19351975.

Ed Benguiat was visionary who influenced type design’s evolution for new technologies of the mid-to-late 20th century. He shared his talents with scores of students over his long careerall whom, no doubt, fondly remember his humor and warmth. Cary Collection mourns the loss of this great man, but is buoyed by the notion that his archives are preserved at RIT for the inspiration of future designers.

As some classes have shifted online, we are exploring new ways of teaching with our special collections. For professor Susan Farnand's graduate seminar in color science, @rit_pocs_mcsl students learned about the history of wood engraving during a virtual visit to the @ritcarycollection. Associate curator @ameliafont1 shared original wood engravings by British engraver Thomas Bewick and books with illustrations created by wood engraved plates.

From our expanding incunabula digital collection: Colonna’s and Manutius’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili". The book that has fascinated architects and historians since its publication in 1499, now scanned in its entirety! Links to the book and an introduction video to the digital collections in the comments.

The RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection is preserving a rare collection of Hebrew wood types used by the Jewish-American press at the turn of the 20th century, tha...nks to a grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation. The collection will be made accessible online through RIT Digital Collections and in a new publication. See more

Plan your visit to the Cary Collection! Email us to schedule an appointment [email protected] or chat with is us on our website Monday through Friday, 1-3 pm. Link in the comments.

The power of the press is strong at the Cary! Here is a sneak peek at our printer/curator Amelia Hugill-Fontanel holding one of many online printing demos.

Check out our YouTube channel for recorded #caryonline series of Zoom events, Collection Highlights videos, Printing History and Letterpress videos, Teaching Modules and much more! Link in the comments.

Visit our Accordion Fold Book Pop-up Exhibition on the second floor of @RIT Libraries, in the Sunken Gallery and Via Lab. We showcase some of extraordinary book structures from the library collection! @wsworkshop, @carolynswiszcz, @nataliazapella, Veronica Graham, @marlenemaccallum, @karenhanmer, @arzu.mistry, Claire Van Vliet, @springtidepress, Aliquando Press, Werner Pfeiffer, Jen Farrell. Photography by @jiageng.lin

From ancient clay and wax tablets, to scrolls and medieval manuscripts, to printed books and iPads, RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection is a research laboratory fo...r book history from 2300 BCE to the present. Curator Steven Galbraith has recently authored A Brief History of the Book (Libraries Unlimited, 2020) based on his RIT College of Liberal Arts class, MUSE 361: From Tablet to Tablet. And yes, you can even read it on your tablet. https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Book-Tab//1440869391/

Need help with your class assignment? Looking for archival material for your research? Have a question about our rare library? Our calendars are open! Schedule a 1 on 1 zoom meeting with us. Link in the comments.

The Cary is hosting American Printing History Association’s online 2020 Lieberman Lecture on October 2. Jennifer Farrell of @starshapedpress will present the creative #letterpress work from her latest book, The City is My Religion, an homage to Chicago. Fellow printer/designer Ben Blount will conclude with an in-depth interview. Register now with the link in the comments!