Expert Bookbinder Receives Bibliography and Book History Award

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Printer-friendly versionSubmitted on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 - 14:37

The Faculty of Information is proud to recognize Jeff Peacheyhas been chosen for the Patricia Fleming Visiting Fellowship in Bibliography and Book History, for his immense contributions to bibliography, book history, and his binding mastery.

“I'm thrilled and honored to receive the Patricia Fleming Fellowship. I am digging into the spectacular resources at the University of Toronto, and participating in the vibrant Book History community,” Peachey says.

Every second year, the Patricia Fleming Fellowship is awarded to a scholar outside the University of Toronto who works in the field of bibliographical studies or book history. The Fellowship allows the recipient to conduct research for a month in an academic year.

Peachey is a Professional Associate in the AIC American Institute for Conservation and has served as Chair of Conservators in Private Practice. For more than 25 years, he has specialized in the conservation of books and paper artifacts for institutions and individuals.  

The working title for his research is “Putting it Together: American and English Bookbinding 1820-1850.”

“I'm looking at the radical changes to the book that happened in this time, and how these changes affected binders and the how they worked. Two of the book structures that predominated in the 20th century, the hardcover and the paperback, have their origins in this time. I'm particularly interested in quotidian bookbindings, rather than ones produced for luxury markets,” Peachey says.

Adding to his decades of experience, Peachey is also the inventor of the Peachey Board Slotting Machine, which is used by many institutions worldwide to help treat books with detached boards, and also makes specialized hand tools.

Currently based in New York, Peachey provides consulting and conservation services for libraries, museums, dealers and private collectors. He also teaches bookbinding and conservation workshops nationally and internationally.

Furthermore, he manufactures and sells specialized tools for the book conservation community, including his own Slotting Machine.

Throughout his career, Peachey has also contributed to numerous industry specific and influential publications including the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, Guild of Book Workers Newsletter and The Planning and Construction of Book and Paper Conservation Laboratories: A Guidebook.

Peachey has a large breath of experience spanning the academic as well as professional arena as well. He has taught, “Bookbinding for Book History Students” at Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, as well as “Historic Book Structures for Conservators” at the University of Delaware program in Art Conservation.

The Fleming Fellowship provides a monetary award, along with University of Toronto library privileges, and office space at the Faculty of Information, for the duration of the month-long fellowship.

Created in 2005 to honour Professor Patricia Fleming on the occasion of her retirement from the Faculty of Information, the fellowship was funded by faculty members, staff, friends, former students, and colleagues.

For more information on the Patricia Fleming Fellowship, please seehttp://www.ischool.utoronto.ca/patricia-fleming-visiting-fellowship-bibl.... For more information about Peachey and his work, please visit his website jeffpeachy.com.