Graphic Arts and Rare Books

Greatly augmented by a collection from the estate of Archibald S. Alexander, Class of 1928, the Library has a sizable collection of Baskervilles (books renowned for their typographic beauty which were designed, printed, and published by John Baskerville between 1757 and 1779. in Birmingham, England). The collection--42 of the 56 Baskerville books described by Philip Gaskell in his 1959 bibliography--is in the Graphic Arts Collection. Refer to: Dale Roylance, "The Baskerville Collection of Archibald S. Alexander '28" in the Princeton University Library Chronicle XLII, 3 (Spring, 1981) p. 210-211. [ full text]

See also the brief description of  the gift of Baskervilles by Robert F. Goheen, Class of 1940, in the Princeton University Library Chronicle XXX, 2 (Winter, 1969) p. 132. [ full text]

For a checklist of Baskervilles at Princeton but not in the Alexander gift, see the Collections File under Baskerville. See also the marked copy of Philip Gaskell's John Baskerville: a bibliography (Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1959) [(GA) Z232.B2 xG3].