How to read old paper: Searching for meaning in early modern English writing paper
Channel: Special Collections & Archives, UIowa Libraries
Date: 2023-10-27

Iowa Bibliophiles is a group for book lovers and enthusiasts of all kinds. Join us as we bring in a guest speaker to talk about some aspect of book collecting, book history, book making, and more. 

On October 11, 2023 we were joined by Heather Wolfe, a consulting curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. 

In the late 1580s and 1590s, England experienced a writing paper renaissance. High status people began to have access to and develop a vocabulary for an expanding range of imported fine paper. At the same time, a German refugee jeweler named John Spilman began one of the first viable paper mills in England. Despite his documented struggles in sourcing rags, he supplied writing paper to Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council and a handful of printers, adorning it with intricate watermarks depicting the queen’s coat of arms, royal badges, and cypher. Join Wolfe as she digs into the archival evidence to tell a story about paper that begins with impoverished and unhoused London rag women and ends with Queen Elizabeth.
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In addition to stewarding the manuscript collection, Wolfe teaches people how to read English secretary hand and oversees transcription crowdsourcing projects at the Folger. She publishes widely on early modern English manuscripts and hybrid books. Her essay “The Material Culture of Record-Keeping in Early Modern England,” co-written with Peter Stallybrass, received the 2019 Archival History Article Award from the Society of American Archivists. She was also the Munby Fellow in Bibliography at the University of Cambridge in 2021/22. Wolfe received her BA from Amherst College, her M.L.I.S. from UCLA, and her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.

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