Archives & Special Collections

Wilkes University Archives is excited to announce that thanks to Ayden Clisham, a Junior Digital Design and Media Art major, the Bookplates series from the Gilbert Stuart McClintock collection is now digitized and processed. Ayden hopes to go into the video game design and animation industry after graduation with the goal of becoming an animator. Additionally, he participates in Gender and Sexuality Alliance meetings on campus.

The blog post is co-written by Ayden and Jessica Van Orden, an alumna of the English Literature department and graduate student of the Maslow Creative Writing Graduate program. Jessica aims to one day work within the public library sector as a community outreach coordinator.  

The finding aid to the collection can be found here. The finding aid and blog post were edited and supervised by Suzanna Calev, University Archivist. Below is Ayden and Jessica’s blog post.

Series XIII: Bookplates, mid 18th century–1929, contains 127 bookplates from a variety of academic libraries and clubs, historical societies, and wealthy individuals who commissioned artists to create bookplates for them from the mid 18th century to early twentieth century. Many of these bookplate collectors include notable 19th and 20th century lawyers, scientists, doctors, educators, historians, religious figures, businessmen, authors, and writers who collected bookplates as a hobby. The themes depicted within these bookplates include coats of arms, signatures, musical annotations, landscapes, Greek Myths and legends, religious and historical figures, poems, monuments, and historical events. 

What I found the most interesting in my research was the bookplate collectors that originated from the Wyoming Valley. These collectors were wealthy individuals, to be sure, but they were also prominent figures who left a lasting impact on the region. Yet, one could wonder what their bookplates contributed to their personal histories. It was in my research of the bookplates’ history that I noticed the form had a more complex evolution than one may first think. In many of the shifting interests and designs of bookplates there is an equal shift in cultural identity. From the nineteenth century, where bookplates became forms of hereditary wealth by adopting iconography of British heraldry all the way into the twentieth century, where American individuality bleeds through the ink of cultural identity, my time in bookplates have shown me that it is in the details that we find the most important strokes upon the plate.  

Before diving into the specific bookplates held by Wyoming Valley residents within the series, it’s important to provide historical context to the medium for researchers. While bookplates may have begun with a simple interest, marking the owner of the text, they soon took on a new purpose. People started to personalize their bookplates, making a show of their wealth or power by including specific idols or references and transforming the simple practice into a new art form.

History of the Creation of Bookplates

Since our earliest histories of recording, such as the Library of Alexandria circa 334 BC to the rule of Amenophis III circa 1391, people have long been drawn to owning books or written documents. An interesting parallel we can see for much of that history is an interpersonal relationship between wealth and texts. This is partially due to the costly nature of the trade including both its labor and materials. Yet, it is also because books themselves became a marker of wealth. 

It might seem foreign to us now given our current digital age of audiobooks and ebooks, but the concept of bookplates harken back to a time in which literate people owned large personal library collections and they were used as a means to maintain book ownership. 

Thus, they created bookplates. Otherwise known as Ex Libris, “from the books/library of” in Latin, bookplates were printed or decorated labels pasted in the front of a book to indicate ownership. They contained these common phrases, such as “from the library of,” “from the books of,” or “Ex Libris,” and they usually preceded the name of the owner and included a variety of imagery such as a coat-of-arms, crest, badge, signature, phrase or a piece of art. This practice developed into its own study, particularly among nobility in England beginning as early as the sixteenth century, named Heraldry. 

Heraldry is a practice of using symbols to indicate specific individuals, institutions, or armies. Where bookplates once were made to designate the owner initially, the trade grew into an art form all on its own as people took the time to personalize their plates. 

In our collection, there are many that highlight this practice, such as the earliest bookplate in the collection, Item 20.65: A Bookplate,  Hon[oura]ble William Howard, [pre-1754]. We can note the early choices in this shift from practical use to embellishment by comparing Howard’s eighteenth century plate with one of the earliest English plates from the collection of Brother Hildebrand (Hilpbrand) Brandenburg of Biberach, circa 1470s found at Brandeis University.

As we can see from the print, the commissioner of the bookplate, William Howard, chose to have the printer include the word Honourable before his name as well as a longtime family sigil, a crowned lion sitting upon a larger crown. These emblems were used to indicate a sovereign power and mark the wealth of the Howard name in a period where William Howard, a Viscount Andover and son to the 11th son of Suffolk was facing great political strife for his choices in Parliament.

As one of the earliest instances of a bookplate, from 15th century Germany, Brother Hildebrand’s contains a hand-colored wood carving that exhibited a shield of arms and an angel. It was put in books that were shown to the Carthusian Monastery of Buxenheim by Brother Hilprand Brandenberg of Biberach in about 1480. He was known for having his coat of arms drawn on the bookplates he owned. In 1506, he gave over 450 collections to the Carthusian Charterhouse in Buxenheim, Bavaria, and every one of them contained a wood bookplate created by him. They were also colored from scratch and signed by him (Brandeis University).

These two show a slight shift in the intention of the bookplate, with Brother Hildebrand’s noting the institution more than the man, while Howard’s plate gives researchers some plausible side notes of his history along with the record of his life. 

Many collectors, such as Lew Jaffe, note a great shift in the popularity of bookplates in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States. This is an important period of history to consider in that change, as we see the trade utilizing the printing press methods of technology to shift the means of the form. The ease of the shift makes it more widely accessible to people of all class levels, for the means of production becomes easier and more cost effective for the creators of the plates.

Examples of the Shifting Form of Bookplates

The bookplate trade, much like literature and literacy, faced a great boom after the invention of the printing press. The very creation of bookplates themselves before the printing press faced a social evolution in connection with cost and production. Many early patrons chose to demonstrate their wealth and power through their bookplates, as seen from Howard, but the bookplate itself was also a piece of that wealth as much as the book was. The earliest pieces created were done so on plates of engraved copper (Virginia History). The process would have been costly, both in money and time, as each commission and carving would have to be done individually. The way most bookplates were carved was by burin engraving. A burin is a carving instrument used to engrave copper.

The artist would then coat the plate in ink, wiping off any excess in order to transfer the design as cleanly as possible for the next stage: printing. The engraved copper matrix is then printed with an intaglio press on paper, and the resulting print can be pasted into the book to indicate ownership.

How the printing was produced was by friction. The plate was placed beneath the paper and both were rolled through the press, impressing the engraving on the page. The pressure was often so great that the edges or outline of the copper plate was transferred as well, known as a plate mark. The plate mark is the gray space surrounding the print in the image below. 

Copper Engraved Versus Printed Bookplates

As you can imagine, the shift to more natural block choices and the usage of paper labels made the trade more affordable. Rather than singular carvings, the artist could make a block with the print and charge for additional copies with little overhead.

This innovation of the trade also made the art form more accessible to people of all classes, as it would be cheaper to produce a print than a single carving. Up until the 19th century, people relied on the talents of heraldic stationary salesmen. By the early 20th century, the creation of “personalized book tokens” started to gain recognition as an art form, with original designs that defined their era. They were a specialty to collectors as decorations or as a collector’s item of someone well-known. 

We also saw a social shift in society, as the middle classes of both the United States and Great Britain was emerging and finding a renewed interest in knowledge and literature following the scientific revolution. In result, the widening market meant that the bookplate industry changed, the content and creation of the plates shifting to include the icons that represented the interests of middle classes.

A Time Before Bookplates: The Book Curse and Identification Rhyme
Though bookplates feel quite common to us, there was actually a tool used before them, dating back to as early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries: book rhymes and curses. Book Rhymes were little poems that were printed at the beginning of the book or on the flyleaf as an advisory against stealing it. They were prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries before bookplates took their place. Examples of anti-stealing advisories and ownership poems include “If this book you steal away, what will you say on Judgement Day?” There were often visual plates connected with the rhymed curses. 

Book curses were another tool commonly used as a way of preventing the theft of manuscripts during medieval times in Europe before the book rhyme, with manuscripts depicting their use as far back as the eleventh century. They were used before Christianity became prominent, when people relied on angry deities to guard their books. There were several categories of book curses. These include ancient curses, medieval curses, Edwardian curses, and document curses.

The first book curse is believed to have involved Ashurbanipal, the King of Assyria from 668 to 627 BC. He had a curse written out on almost all the books at the Nineveh Library, thought to be the first instance of a put-together library. For medieval curses there were different types of punishments. These included excommunication, damnation or anathema. When Book curses became prominent in Edwardian Britain, they became tradition rather than a warning. Document curses are unique in the way that they guarded the words rather than the book itself.

Rhyme of Gerard Cooper his Book, November the 4th, 1704

Book Rhyme of George Wightwick (1802-1872) 
Book Plates,1897, William John Hardy

Another common usage was the book identification rhyme, such as “Everytown is my dwelling place, America is my nation, John Smith is my name.” It was also used in literature when  James Joyce wrote, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in 1916. In the first chapter, Joyce’s protagonist reads his own writing placed in his geography text: “Stephen Dedalus is my name, Ireland is my nation. Clongowes is my dwellingplace And heaven my expectation.” 

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce, 1916

In the end, bookplates grew in popularity, coming to replace the curses and rhymes in their time in the United States. Yet, we are seeing the reverse happening today, as the style of the book curses have recently seen a re-emergence in popular culture. There are even new editions of bookplates that blend the two forms, as we can see below in the modern rendition of a bookplate titled Ex Libris Malcolm M. Ferguson, [no date].

Bookplate collecting and research is thought to have started in 1860. The original impetus was presented by A Guide to the Study of Bookplates (Ex Libris) by Lord De Tabley (then the Honorable Joh Byrne Leicester Warren M.A) in 1880. His book helped make the heraldic categories of British ex-libris known. They include early ammorial, Jacobean, Chippendale, and wreath and ribbon. 

A Shift in American Identity: Twentieth Century Bookplates

Major trends that we see in our collection suggest that American bookplate artists and collectors desired to emulate British bookplates in the latter nineteenth century, yet provided them with an opportunity to establish a unique American identity. If we consider the social climate of the era, we can see some interesting shifts occurring within the social classes of both countries that may allude to the shifting interests we see occurring in the iconography of our bookplates within the collection. 

The nineteenth century was a serious time of change for each country, as Great Britain was seeing a rise of the middle class during the Victorian era and the United States created a new class of wealth that rivaled others on the global stage. The United States built up a strong economy throughout the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by rampant industrial innovation that came to be known as the Gilded Age. 

The country saw the creation of the transcontinental railroad, a boom in steel and coal, and an easier avenue in settling United States interests in the west, which opened up the abilities and reach of many enterprises, such as ranching, merchanting and trade, and stimulated the economy by numerous channels.

Along with all this progress, however, the country saw an extreme shift in the balance of wealth. A new class emerged during the Gilded age with the creation of robber barons, which were men who owned monopolies of industries. Yet, this created a larger gap between this new class of wealth and the labor classes. Robber barons were able to amass their wealth by exploiting their workers with low wages and unsafe working conditions, asserting influence over government officials, and conducting unethical business practices.  Robber barons grew extravagant in their success and began to emulate European inclinations of displaying that wealth. Among them, some men of note are John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, or Cornelius Vanderbilt. 

These wealthy men and families often displayed their opulence within their homes, as we can see with two examples below, one from the Vanderbilt summer home and the other from a tapestry room of the Croome Court. 

From the red and gold coloring to the ornate crown molding, there are plain similarities being used by the Vanderbilt design that mirror the aesthetic of the British regal class. 

From the bookplates in our collection, we can see that their interest in displaying their fortune extended beyond the interior of their homes. Their bookplates even began to take on the historic British practices of heraldic iconography. In a deeper explanation of heraldry, the Historic United Kingdom’s website explains that heraldic devices were the perfect status symbol” (Historic UK). The plate was designed with such precision that the “bearer’s wealth” could be inferred by the herald immediately. “It was the role of the herald to know, recognise and record these coats of arms, and in time they would come to regulate and grant them” (Historic UK). 

Moreover, these symbols became pieces of wealth themselves (Historic UK). As noted in the history of bookkeeping and the printing press, books have long been understood as wealth themselves. People even put curses to ensure that their wealth was recognized and returned to them. Thus, as heraldry became more recognized, we see British bookplates begin to adopt their specific heraldic icons. What is interesting, however, is the usage of those same images in American bookplates during the late nineteenth century. 

In our collection we see American bookplates intentionally mirroring those old heraldic practices that date back to the 1700s. It makes sense when we consider that the wealthier class of Americans were considered new money by those established powers on the global stage (Lansley, Stewart). It is plausible that they figured adopting these understood practices would point to the degree of wealth they were amassing, as the crests were meant to be identifiable and inheritable wealth. Two plates in the collection that display how wealthier Americans began mimicking these ancient arts of heraldry are 20.15 and 20.127. 

The style can be seen plainly in the British plates of the eighteenth century below, from the usage of shields and animal icons to the specific numbering of stars and flowers to the fleur de lis. 

We can see in comparing our bookplates with the three above that ours mirrors the same use of pairing heraldic imagery with a family name. The family name was associated with these symbols of regality, honor, and wealth. The intention of heraldic imagery within British bookplates appears to be a form of displaying hereditary wealth. They were given to those inheriting the family name, extending the power of its employment by the continued amassing of wealth and prestige by the new heir. Both of the plates in our collection display a helmet sat above the shield with an animal placed above it, a stylistic choice that we can see in the plate of Reid and Platt of the British plates:

They also both include a varying number of stars and flowers upon the shield. These are intentional designs that vary in odd intervals among British crests and bookplates. In his work, A Display of Heraldry, John Guillim explains some of the purposes of the inclusions, as well as the names of the coats’ owners. In the images below compared with Williams’ bookplate, we can note the mirror of the cross iconography, as well as the specific usage of five stars in a similar formation to the fleur de lis on the plate of the first image. 

While there are usages of star iconography in heraldry, seen in the second image of Guillim, it is interesting to note that the design of them changes between the British and US plates. The stars on the Williams’ plate are rigid, creating straight lines at each side, while British depictions use a wavy line to demonstrate movement. That movement is an important symbolic choice of British heraldry, as they are meant to be mirroring what is seen by the eye. 

A Display of Heraldry, John Guillim, Pursuivant at Arms, 1724
Internet Archive; ACD March 2024
Page 130 ; 86:

The variance in the shape and style of the star’s form may plausibly hint to the intended differences between the US and Britain bookplates and heraldic images. The star in British heraldry is symbolic in its proximity to the heavens, second only to heaven (Guillim 85) while the star in the American bookplate may mimic those of the United States flag. The change in the depiction of stars between the British plates and that of Williams’ may point to a connection between his American interests at a period where the country was trying to solidify what it meant to possess an American identity.

We begin to see a trend among American bookplates in the early twentieth century as scholars, authors, artists, and everyday people begin to garner more access to books and printed materials (US History). American bookplates start to veer away from displaying wealth by picking more symbolic and classical images that relate more to their personal interests. Some more information by collectors on this topic can be seen in interviews on Collectors Weekly, where they discuss with prominent collectors, such as Jaffe.

Although we still see those same British heraldic influences remain prevalent in American bookplates, their emphasis shifts as we see in the bookplate below created for Charles Henry Cheney. One could argue that we are drawn visually to the tree just as much as to the heraldic plate featured below it. 

There is a heavy shift to a more artistic approach, using landscape and the natural world to accompany their simple phrases, usually “She/He/Their Book” or a latin phrase that notes the owners interest in knowledge or the arts. 

Rather than using the themes of British identity, wealth and valor by the use of lions, dragons, or other such animals that create that idea, Americans were inspired by the natural landscape. It is an identifier that is seen in some of the earliest American literature published after the American Revolution; Americans were inspired by the natural world and the opportunity that they saw to inscribe their own traditions, unruled by those of the monarchs. As the printing press continued to make it easier for more voices to be printed and read, questions of what it meant to be an American arose (Britannica).

One prominent voice of this shifting period is Ralph Waldo Emerson, who directly asks the American reader what is deserving of naming the American identity. As we can see from his essay, Nature, Emerson was stark in his belief that it was a separation from the “traditions” of British culture and toward an insight derived by these  “new lands and new thoughts” :

OUR age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? … There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (1836) (The Gutenberg Project), Introduction, Paragraph 1, Opening Lines

American bookplates during this time reflect this evolving American identity, that placed higher value on developing new traditions instead of inheriting old ones from Great Britain. Bookplate collectors sought out specific artists to create new plates that emphasized new American values of individuality. 

We see a larger range in style than we previously saw with the ornate, heraldic styles, as artists had more freedom in creating their own signature of bookplates, such as William Edgar Fisher from our collection. There were also a number of women who found careers as bookplate designers, granting them the opportunity to hone their artistic skills and find greater autonomy within this craft.

One of the more renowned women of this art was Bertha Jaques, a prominent female etcher who had a hand in  founding the Chicago Society of Etchers during her life. 

Though we do not have any female bookplate designers in the collection at Wilkes, what was really striking was the prevalence of female collectors! It was interesting to note the number of them that were, not only creating their own collections, but becoming the hand that holds the tools in creating them, as well! Below are two bookplates within our collection that are commissioned by female collectors, items 20.81, a bookplate of Theordora Nye McCutcheon, and another of Eleanor Ter Bush, item 20.18. 

It was really fun, then, to see how this shift from wealth to art in bookplates occurred within our own piece of history here in Wilkes Barre! Across numerous pieces of Wilkes-Barre bookplate collectors and designers, we get to see how this evolving art form merges with historical figures who have come to shape the place we call home. 

How We See Bookplate Evolution in Wilkes-Barre

What I found most interesting in my research of the collectors from this area was the range they incompass. From one of the very first librarians who helped established the Osterhout library, to numerous entrepreneurial endeavors, lawyers, businessmen, professors, and architects. 

20.79. Item 79: Bookplate, Virtute, Et, Labore, Andrew T[odd]. McClintock, no date

This bookplate was created for Andrew T. McClintock. It depicts a family crest with three shells on it. The crest is surrounded by garland and has a knight helmet and griffin above it. Below the crest there is a banner with text that reads “virtute et labore” which translates to “virtue and labor.”

Andrew Todd McClintock was an influential lawyer of the Wyoming Valley. Beginning his law career in Luzerne County on August 8, 1836. He worked closely with Judge Woodward, a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1837, and later would take over their practice after Woodward became sick. He upheld their practice in Wilkes-Barre until his appointment to the District Attorney’s Office. Like Gilbert McClintock before, Andrew McClintock pursued a hand of his own among the community. For several years, he was in charge of the Luzerne County Bible Society, the Wilkes-Barre Hospital, the Hollenback Cemetery Association, the Wyoming Historical Society and Geological Society, the Wilkes-Barre Institute, and the Luzerne Bar Association. He died on January 14, 1892 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Andrew Todd McClintock’s plate is an interesting one to begin with, as it will allow researchers to see the differences between the various influences on the McClintock plates of the nineteenth through the twentieth centuries. Andrew Todd McClintock was drawn more to the older influences of the bookplate collectors than those that follow, as his plate was created during the Gilded Age while the rest note the distinct markers of the artistic shift.

Of the many icons, McClintock employs the shield focal point, with a lion on top, which is very reflective of British plates that we have seen throughout the blog.

These call back to the British plates that we have discussed, suggesting a courage, valor, and status that is related by allusion to the British royal classes. We can compare it with a plate of Britain during McClintock’s lifetime, that of Robert C. Croker in 1882, we can see the stylistic influences that McClintock wants attributed to his name by connotation. 

Aside from the markers that we have already noted, the helmet, the shield, and the evocation of the animal images, they both use the very distinct acanthus leaf design used in British heraldry. The acanthus leaf design is meant to symbolize wealth and power even as far back as the Middle Ages. In Greek and Roman cultures, it was a symbol of luxury, finding its influence touching architecture and art alike (Britannica).

We can see the influences of the man himself and his trade in the words he chose to include,  “virtute et labore” or “by virtue and labor.” These are values that McClintock possibly held dear to him, believing that the merit of the man is made upon them, as they align with his professional ventures in law as well as his personal experiences in rising to the challenges he saw throughout his education.

These words become even more interesting and reflective of the man when we know that he is a self-made man. In the Annual Report of the American Bar Association, they include a short biography of McClintock that shares much of his early education was spent in his home or smaller village schools. 

He is an example of the early entrepreneurial and professional vigor in the valley, demonstrating how, by virtue and labor, the man rose against the barriers of higher education connections to build a respectable law career for himself. He was appointed to the District Attorney’s Office and he left after a year to begin his own practice, serving not only Luzerne, but extending to Lackawanna, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Bradford, Wayne, and Pike counties. 

In looking at the influential collectors of Wilkes Barre within the collection, it would be remiss not to note the namesake and benefactor of the collection itself: Gilbert Stuart McClintock! Gilbert Stuart McClintock was an influential person of many hats within the community, including law, business endeavors, a hand at our own college in his seat on the Board of Trustees, and even an author, as he wrote a title called, Valley Views of Northeastern Pennsylvania, published by the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society in 1948. 

20.80. Item 80.001: Bookplate, Ex Libris Gilbert Stvart McClintock, 1909

McClintock is an intriguing person of the area, for he showed by his life an interest in the region as well as a dedication to building up—not only the city itself but—the people within its walls! Though he originally began his life in Wilkes as a lawyer in 1912, the legacy that McClintock leaves behind is that of his later years, where he sat on numerous boards that oversaw the enrichment and development of the Wyoming Valley. From his time on the Board of Public Assistance of Pennsylvania, the president of the Wyoming Valley Council, and his time with the Boy Scouts of America—over nine years—McClintock ensured that he spread his efforts to organizations that were cultivating the valley as we know it. McClintock also took an avid interest in the accessibility of knowledge and the arts. He served as a leader of the Osterhout Free Library and the Children’s Home of Wilkes-Barre during his life, and later became a member of the library council and art and archeology at Princeton.

It is this interest that speaks plainly through his bookplate, for particular pieces of his bookplate highlight the man’s interest in history, arts and its influences on those who follow. As we see in the base of his bookplate, McClintock utilized British influences of the heraldic shield, evoking historic tones of the bookplate practice. However, he has included a number of artistic allusions within his plate. There are the two sculpted figures, Venus de Milo on the left and on the right, which may be a depiction of The Victorious Youth, on either side of the parthenon, a temple built formerly for the Goddess Athena.   

The symbols in tandem can tell us something about the interests shown on the plate. The Venus de Milo is believed to be a depiction of Aphrodite, or her Roman counterpart Venus. References to Aphrodite are thought to represent feelings of passion, love, and desire. The other image shows a male figure with his head tilted slightly back with his arms raised to his hair. It is possibly a reference to the Greek statue, The Victorious Youth, which is said to be an athletic youth or even one of royal descent, such as one of Alexander the Great’s line. In both Greek and Roman cultures, the athletic build was one seen as a feat of honor and valor, something similar to the lion and crest of British heraldry. These two figures frame the Parthenon, a temple built in honor of Athena, a goddess of practical reason and war and was deemed a protector of the cities she ruled over.

Above these symbols, McClintock’s plate has a bookshelf placed. It is plausible that these symbols are holding up the books, making the literature and pursuit of knowledge the mantle set upon images of valor, strength, passion, and reason. 

It also makes a reference back to the image of Venus once again, as it alludes to the painting, The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli, in the fifteenth century. 

In the painting, Venus is born from the sea by a shell. She is fully grown and met by deity and man alike. Yet, in McClintock’s plate, rather than an emerging Venus from the shell, the bookplate depicts the figure of a man curled in on himself. With the change of Venus, making it rather a man in a fetal position, it may be that one is not fully aware without the access of these virtues that build the foundation of McClintock’s plate. 

Yet, we continue to see some of his inclinations toward British iconography through his inclusion of a family crest. It possibly indicates the recognition of a family name, heralding back to a point of that inherited wealth, while still elevating the artistic influences we see coming forth at this time period.

His crest has the knight’s helmet with a lion attached to it, noting the use of imagery that symbolizes his power, valor, and prestige by the association of those images.

“virtue et labore” which translates to “power and work.”  

Many of these symbols and icons depicted within the McClintock bookplate uphold his values of knowledge, literature, and history, and offer a deeper look at his life’s contributions within the Wilkes-Barre community.

Another connection to the area by connection with the Osterhout library is Myra Poland, one of the earliest female librarians in the country and Wilkes-Barre’s very own! 

20.92. Item 92: Bookplate, Myra Poland, 1911

Myra Poland was originally from Massachusetts, born in Arlington on December 13, 1855 to her parents, Almira Prentiss and Benjamin Poland. Yet, she has a substantial tie to the area for her hard work and effort in establishing the Osterhout Free Public Library alongside her lifelong friend, Hannah Packard James. 

Poland is most recognized for her creation of the stacks section of the library in 1908, as well as having a hand in the beautiful stained glass piece within it. It was Poland who offered advice to the themes that would later become the focal points of each window in the stacks, each “containing designs pertaining to books, education, printing, and binding” (Osterhout).

In her forty-one years of service, Poland became a fundamental pillar in the community, gaining the respect and trust of those she served. In her article researching the lives of these two women, Bernadette Lear explains how the two women became known as “apostles of culture” in their work by researchers and authors, such as Dee Garrison. Lear explained that women like James and Poland were revolutionary in librarianship during this social shift from the Gilded Age into the Progressive era. For, they were of the earliest women to enter a field dominated by men.

In her forty-one years of service, Poland became a fundamental pillar in the community, gaining the respect and trust of those she served. Librarian Bernadette A. Lear researched and wrote an article on Poland and James’ lives, explaining how these two women became known as “apostles of culture” in their work by researchers and authors, such as Dee Garrison. Lear explained that women like James and Poland were revolutionary in librarianship during the Gilded Age into the Progressive era, as they were one of the earliest women to enter a field dominated by men. 

Not only was their presence on the stage notable, Hannah Packard James and Myra Poland went above and beyond in expanding the collection available within the community, growing the reputation of Osterhout as an institution and, by Lear’s research, making Osterhout a “designat[ed] … ‘district library center’” (Lear).

While they may have been a crucial hand in developing the librarian field itself, it is the reflection the community holds of Poland that gives us the best understanding of her as a person and the bookplate in the collection. In Poland’s obituary, the author notes that it was the reputation and time that Poland cultivated that meant the most to Wilkes-Barre residents.

Like we saw with McClintock’s legacy, it is the ways in which Poland reached out to the community that is most cherished and remembered today. Her plate is very telling of this open nature, as it depicts a  picture of the front door of a house that states, “The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it – The Lark’s Nest.”

The saying is an important fixture of the piece alongside the door. It is similar to the tympanum above a church door or of classical architecture. Particularly in religious contexts, the tympanum was a pivotal piece on the exterior of the building. It relayed important messages and even warnings, with the most common being a scene on the judgment day.

However, Poland has used it to convey the pieces that are important to her, friendship and simplicity. As we can see with Poland’s bookplate and from outside reflections in her obituary, she simply enjoyed working with the people as they came in. By suggesting that the only ornamentation that one needs in life to be the friends who enter our homes, her bookplate gives us a deeper look into the woman behind the book. 

Of the Wilkes Barre plates, those of Edward Welles may be some of the starkest examples of true pieces of art and demonstrate a new artistic direction that bookplates took in the twentieth century. 

The Bookplates of Edward Welles

Edward Welles was one in the eighth generation and the youngest of nine children to Charles Fisher Welles and Ellen J. Hollenback. He joined his brother in business affairs after his education, working with the agriculture trade before accepting the director position at Wilkes Barre’s Second National Bank in 1871. 

Welles connection to the Historical society may have an influence on the plates within our collection. The first bookplate, item 123, seems to indicate the medieval period, where scribes used to write the texts individually. 

There is an older man looking over a text before a window. Through the window, we can see the sketch of a castle outside. It is interesting that the man is not depicted as writing the text but enjoying it. 

The form is very familiar to other paintings or references of this time, yet the scribes are usually at work rather than leisurely looking through a text. 

For the art of work to be put aside in favor of showing the person in a relaxed state elevates the act of reading and the text itself, rather than the act of commissioning it or the status of wealth it may have provided. 

However, there is a nod back to the British heraldry with Welles’ inclusion of the lion before his name. It may be attached to the time period in reference by the art rather than an actual allusion to the symbol of courage it once was. 

Whatever his intention with the images, it is plain that Welles’ plate is for a different purpose than that of the British plates or even Andrew McClintock’s plate. It is not simply a tool of identification or a status symbol, but a piece to be enjoyed by itself. 

We see a similar intent in item 124, as the piece is presented for its art before as symbols of wealth or prestige. In fact, this one is even more removed from the history of bookplates that we have discussed yet, as it rejects all forms of recognizable heraldry. 

The bookplate depicts a young woman walking from a well with a jug in tow. In the background, we can see two other women silhouetted in conversation. 

The usage of the female form is not uncommon in the bookplates in our collection, in fact many included the female form in various styles, but within Welles’ plate, the art creates a balance that draws the viewer into the scene. It feels as if the viewer locks eyes with the woman and we take a point of view in this moment of history, which is a time that dates back further than the first plate, if the barefoot and the light dress are anything to gauge by. 

The plates of Welles then, are a piece of history as much as the literature itself. 

Another collector in our collection that merges history and literature together upon their plates is Thomas Henry Atherton. 

20.8. Item 8: Bookplate, Ex Libris Thomas Henry Atherton, no date

Thomas Henry Atherton was a leading architect of the area who helped design architecture in New York, Pennsylvania, and France. His designs were so innovative for his time that many of his buildings are documented as a U.S. National Register of Historic places. In 1941, he established his own architectural practice in Wilkes-Barre and eventually merged with L.Verne Lacy and John W. Davis to become the architectural firm of Lacy, Atherton, & Davis. Of the many places we may walk daily, Atherton designed the Myers Warehouses (1922), the 109th Field Artillery Armory (1923), and the Kirby Memorial Health Center (1929). 

His most well known Wilkes Barre design is our notable Market Street Bridge!

Atherton’s designs renovated and improved upon the structure of Market Street Bridge, a pillar of the community that has seen four renovations since its first construction in 1818, when it was a simple wooden bridge. 

It is an emblem that was noted as a physical display of the citizen’s motivations and determination during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and remains a tone that has carried across two centuries from the initial voices of ambition and enterprise in the Valley because of Atherton’s designs. In a lecture for the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society in 1929 concerning said bridge, Constance Reynolds said feats have “symbolized man’s battle for commerce, growing and enlarging, always moving forward” (hmdb.org).

It is important to note that Atherton utilized a structure meant to memorialize a tragic conflict in history, rather than a depiction of the event. 

It plausibly speaks to his interests and profession as an architect. The plate also speaks to this other important vein in Atherton’s character: history. Atherton was also an avid local historian, serving as the vice president of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, the president of the Forty Fort Cemetery Association, and a member of the Jacobsburg Historical Society and the Wyoming Commemorative Association. He also served the Wyoming Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America as a three-term president.

The Wyoming Monument depicted on the plate is meant to honor the honorarium for the Battle of Wyoming, also known as the Wyoming Massacre.

The Battle of Wyoming, or The Wyoming Massacre, was a battle that happened between Connecticut and Pennsylvania settlers in the Wyoming Valley and a collaboration between the British soldiers and Iroquois Nation. The Pennsylvania and Connecticut settlers had been in a long conflict, the Yankee Pennamite Wars, concerning the ownership of the territory now known as Pennsylvania after a double grant by King Charles II. With Connecticut having pushed a greater number of Pennsylvania settlers back, the Pennamites believed they could either profit off a collaboration with British loyalists, joining captain Butler and the Iroquois in attacking the Wyoming Valley on July 3, 1778. The settlers in the valley lost a great number of men, over 300 soldiers dying at the hands of the Iroquois,while the rest were taken hostage. A few of the citizens of the Wyoming Valley fled to places in the Poconos such as Stroudsburg and Easton, and Sunbury in the Susquehanna Valley.

On the bookplate, Atherton has placed the Wyoming Monument as the focal point. The original is located in Wyoming, Pennsylvania and represents the bones of fallen soldiers who were killed during The Battle of Wyoming. His plate highlights his interest in the record and memory of history, for he has ensured a physical monument of memory will survive in print, even if it were to wear down with time. 

A particular plate that is fun to examine is that of Jean Ricketts for the sole fact that there is not much information on the woman herself, but like Atherton’s bookplate, Ricketts’ maintains the memory of something long after it may fall. 

20.105. Item 105: Bookplate, Aequini Mitas Jean Ricketts, no date

Jean Holberton Ricketts was the daughter of Captain Robert Bruce Ricketts, a colonel in the civil war and marked figure of the Gettysburg Battle. Jean Ricketts became a Daughter of the Revolution during her life, an organization that honors the legacies of the men who fought in the American Revolution, highlighting her interest in history. Following his service, Ricketts purchased nearly 65,000 acres of untouched forest lands in Wyoming and Luzerne counties, known as current day Town of Ricketts. 

Ricketts monopolized upon his investment by leasing tracts of divided land to different lumber companies and saw a large boom in his business after the Lehigh Valley Railroad finished the Bowman’s Creek stretch of tracks, effectively connecting Ricketts summer estate to the larger sections of the nearby towns. His lands grew to nearly 80,000 acres during his life. 

Ricketts’ heirs sold 48,000 acres to the Pennsylvania Game Commission from 1920 to 1924, which would become Ricketts Glen State Park. They maintained about 12,000 acres for themselves, including the lakes that Ricketts named for his daughters, including Lake Jean, as well as Ganoga Lake and Glens area. Eventually, they sold the rest of the lands to the Game Commission and saw the land become a national park in the 1930s before the installation was paused during World War II. 

We can see plainly the interest that Ricketts has in the natural world, as the massive tree in the center of her bookplate draws the eye immediately. It is interesting that the tree grows so large that it appears to move beyond the plate at the top and the sides. 

The tree could also point to the markers of a legacy, as helmets, shields, and animals had for British heraldry in an interesting way for Ricketts’ plate alone, as her fortune was built on lumber. 

She also includes a motto of her own that allows us insight into her as a person, “Aequinimitas,” which means “Equality” in latin.

It is interesting, as it is split by the tree itself, severing the word equality in two.  Though we do not know a great deal about the woman herself, her specifics included on the plate offer us a deeper look into what motivated her, as they have with the other plates explored thus far!

One last Wilkes Barre bookplate we have in the collection is Jessie Thomas Sturdevant’s, another mystery that allows us to try and find plausible notes of who the woman was!

20.117. Item 117: Bookplate, Ex Libris Jessie Thomas Sturdevant, no date

Jessie Thomas Sturdevant was born on October 7, 1877 in Wilkes-Barre to Mary Letita Thomas Sturdevant and William Henry Sturdevant. There is even less known about Jessie Thomas than there had been on Jean Ricketts, yet the highly stylized plate allows us to see some of the interests that Sturdevant held. 

Her plate displays a castle in the background, set upon a rolling hill with a land that leads from its doors to the foreground of the plate. The scene is framed by two large trees on either side of the scene and a mountain sits at the farthest point back in the scene, while clouds hang above it.

The scene looks like an image out of a fairytale, from the magical arch of the trees to the castle itself. It could perhaps allude to the collector favoring fables of fantasy or medieval literature, where kingdoms are a common feature.

The collector also elevates literature, displaying books on either side of their name. 

What is interesting is the frame within a frame. As noted, the trees frame the mythical scene. However, on either side of that frame sits two ornate designs. They almost look like the ornate candlesticks seen in churches, making me wonder if they could be a nod to the Sturdevant line, which has a number of reverends within it. 

These images resemble one of the important altar candles of the church, the Paschal candle, as well as a number of the Gothic period inspired candlesticks. The paschal candle is the central focus of the sacred Triduum, the summit of the liturgical year. It is also representative of the Resurrection of Christ. The candle is blessed at each Easter mass.

It often has multilayered ornamentation that is reflective of the cross itself. This design mirrors the ornamentation of the circles and square embellishments on Sturdevants’ plate. 

They are often featured by a floor length candlestand that is highly ornate. The candle itself is also incredibly tall, as it is lit every mass following its blessing. 

Some candlestands are even built into the architecture itself, making it immovable and a piece of the design. 

They may also depict iron gates, with the intricate design in the plating. Plausibly, either could indicate the image of paradise, or the ideology of the afterlife, with the gates open upon a kingdom. Nevertheless, the bookplate shows us the potential of everyday people to access the trade in the twentieth century. 

Yet, another interesting insight that Sturdevant’s bookplate offers is an insight into the creator. Jessie Thomas Sturdevant’s bookplate was created by artist Clarence Kirby Valentine, an art teacher in Denver, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg.   

An intriguing aspect of Kirby’s work is that, while it is art, there also seems to be some form of commentary in the piece, deepening the interpretation available in each. This can be seen particularly in the Baird plate, where the “full man” is a religious scribe that is clearly full of himself more so, considering his disrobed state. 

It is interesting to consider how the form is growing, not only in style, but in what is chosen to share or delve into on a subliminal nature.

I had fun learning about all of these bookplates. Especially the ones that involved local collectors and creators. It’s always fascinating to discover something new from our area, and I get excited when I learn that something I know of is related to our area. One thing Gilbert Stuart McClintock and Andrew Stewart McClintock have in common is that they are both lawyers who were associated with organizations in the Wilkes-Barre area such as the Osterhout Free Library and the Westmoreland Club. It was a connection that made my experiences in those places, the library especially, more interesting on a personal level, as I got to see these mementos from the people who helped create and shape them. For one thing, I was completely shocked by the history of Myra Poland, a prominent female leader of the community in her work through the library. Yet, it was even more interesting to consider how Poland offers her own behind the scene lens to beloved Wilkes Barre architecture, alongside architect Thomas Henry Atherton, as she devised important literary themes for the windows that spoke to the developing interests of those in the valley. A tie that we see within bookplates, as well!

It also felt satisfying to complete all this work, as well as getting to the bottom of who the creators or people mentioned were, as I took up a field that many of them also admired: local history. I felt really determined to figure all of that out and get it right in the end, and it gave me a taste of what it was like for men such as Andrew and Gilbert Stuart McClintock, who prized the history of the land they inhabited. It made me feel more connected to the collection, both in the name of the benefactor, but my own contributions and experiences in the valley alongside the names of this collection. 

There is truly an ocean of insight within bookplates, as they grant us insight not only into the individual but how the time they inhabit shapes the meaning of the elements they include. As you can see from this blog, it is a dynamic trade that has long evolved from being used as an identifier, if there even was a time that it was so simply employed. From as early as the medieval period, people have recognized the importance and wealth of their texts, spelling it with curses or claiming them in rhyme. It is intriguing to see it then shift to become a marker of identity, a vein it maintains from British heraldry to artistic representations that reflect American values as they evolve on the cultural and individual level. It is my hope that all who dive into the Bookplates series from the Gilbert Stuart McClintock collection find the depth that has revealed itself to these researchers. Whether it be the personal motivation and intentions of the collector, the social influence of their time, or the artistic individuality of the creator’s hand, there is certainly more than meets the eye.