The fields of book history and bibliography are having a cultural reckoning. The Women in Book History Bibliography (womensbookhistory.org) has acted as an impetus for championing the “lost” histories of women in the book trades and as a tool for arguing for further recovery work. Still in progress, the bibliography currently consists of over 2000 citations of scholarly work that has otherwise been made inaccessible due to problematic indexing practices. This lecture will combine an overview of historical figures and a discussion of the ways that bibliographical practices can make – or erase – history.

An in-person and virtual presentation by Cait Coker, associate professor and curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

** Co-presented and co-hosted by the Northern California Chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America