Jump to content

Rosamond B. Loring

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Andy02124 (talk | contribs) at 16:21, 15 November 2022 (→‎Further reading: Add posthumous tribute by Peabody Museum). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Rosamond Bowditch Loring (May 2, 1889 – September 17, 1950) was an author, bookbinder, and creator, collector and historian of decorated papers.[1] She worked as the librarian for The Club of Odd Volumes from 1936 through 1949[1]: 39  and was a member of the Hroswitha Club from 1944 until her death.

Loring originally started with book arts through bookbinding, but soon found it was difficult to get quality decorated papers and so began to create both marbled and paste papers at her home.[1]: 39  She collected and categorized decorated papers and endpapers into several categories: "Paste, Marble, Early Printed, Modern Printed, Douglas Cockerell, Oriental, her own papers, book covers, Ingeborg Börjesson, W.C. Doebbelin, and Modern Pictorial Endpapers."[2] Her collection was sought after by librarians, book publishers and collectors.[1]: 36 [3] Her first published work, Marbled Paper, grew out of a talk she had given to The Club of Odd Volumes in 1932. In 1942, the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts of the Harvard Library published her book Decorated Book Papers, illustrated with specimens of original papers, in a limited edition printing.[1]: 36 

After her death in 1950, exhibits of her collections were held at the Boston Athenaeum and Boston University. Her library of paper sample books, books about decorated paper, and books containing examples of decorated papers have been collected in the archives of Houghton Library[2] at Harvard where she had been an honorary curator of the Department of Graphic Arts.[4] The library has reorganized the collections: two major components are the Rosamond B. Loring Collection of Decorated Papers, containing over 10,000 samples,[2] and the Rosamond B. Loring Collection of Printed Endpapers.[5]

Personal life

Loring was a great-granddaughter of Nathaniel Bowditch; her parents were Alfred Bowditch and Mary Louise Rice.[1]: 36  She was born and raised at "Moss Hill", her family's estate in Jamaica Plain, a Boston neighborhood, where she married Augustus Peabody Loring, Jr. (1885-1951) on June 22, 1911.[6] The couple had five daughters and two sons.[1]: 38 [7][8] For the first eight years of their marriage, they lived year-round in Prides Crossing on the North Shore of Massachusetts. In 1919, they moved to the Back Bay, Boston, spending winters there and summers in Prides Crossing, for the rest of their lives.[9][10]

Bibliography

  • Loring, Rosamond B. (1933). Marbled papers. Boston: The Club of Odd Volumes.
Based on a lecture given to The Club of Odd Volumes on November 16, 1932.
Loring discusses her early work in paste papers, her introduction to marbling and subsequent instruction therein by a professional marbler, the making of marbled and paste papers, and the history of marbling. Following are five tipped-in samples of paste paper made by Loring, a sample of monochromatic combed marble paper, and samples for each of five stages in the production of three-color combed marble paper. The paste paper covers are also made by her. Limited to 149 copies.
  • —— (2008) [1942]. Decorated Book Papers (4th ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library. ISBN 978-0976547266.
The first edition was limited to 250 copies and included 25 4"x6" tipped-in samples; later editions used photographs of the samples.
  • —— (January 1949). "Colored Paste Papers". The New Colophon. Vol. 2, no. 5. New York: Duschenes Crawford Inc. pp. 33–40.
  • ——; Bowditch, Mary Orne (1991) [1950]. Marx, W. H. (ed.). Life Here a Century Ago: A Memoir of Moss Hill (Reprint ed.). Jamaica Plain, Mass.: Jamaica Plain Historical Society.
Reminiscences of Rosamond Bowditch Loring and her sister, Mary Orne Bowditch, of life at Moss Hill during the 1890s. The memoir includes a sketched map of Moss Hill and the surrounding area.
  • ——; Mayo, Hope; Berger, Sidney E. (2007). Marbled and Paste Papers: Rosamond Loring's Recipe Book (Facsimile ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library. ISBN 978-0976547259.

Gallery

  • Handmade paste paper used to cover Decorated Book Papers
    Handmade paste paper used to cover Decorated Book Papers
  • Handmade paste paper sample from Decorated Book Papers
    Handmade paste paper sample from Decorated Book Papers

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Whitehill, Walter Muir (1969). "Chapter IV: Rosamond Bowditch Loring". Analecta biographica; a handful of New England portraits. Brattleboro, Vt.: The Stephen Greene Press. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Collection: Rosamond B. Loring collection of decorated papers". Harvard Library. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  3. ^ Thompson, Lawrence Sidney (June 10, 2020). Books in our time. Retrieved January 28, 2021. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "Obituary: Mrs. Rosamond Loring". The Boston Globe. September 15, 1950. p. 25. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  5. ^ "Rosamond B. Loring collection of printed endpapers, 1900-1950". Harvard Library. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  6. ^ "Bowditch-Loring Wedding". Boston Evening Transcript. June 22, 1911. p. 1. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  7. ^ "Bowditch-Loring Family Papers, 1762-1940". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  8. ^ "History". Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge. June 18, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  9. ^ "81 Marlborough". Back Bay Houses. July 23, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  10. ^ "404 Beacon (2 Gloucester)". Back Bay Houses. July 9, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rosamond_B._Loring&oldid=1122054880"