- The Club of Odd Volumes
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Device of the Club of Odd Volumes
The Club of Odd Volumes is a private social club and society of bibliophiles founded on January 25, 1887, in Boston, Massachusetts. The club was founded by eighteen Boston bibliophiles in order to "promote literary and artistic tastes, the exhibition of books, and social relations among [its] members." The term odd, as used in the club's name, is an eighteenth-century usage meaning varied or unmatched. The club and its name were likely inspired by 'The Sette of Odd Volumes', an English bibliophile dining-club founded in 1878 by Bernard Quaritch, among others.[1]
The club began primarily as a dinner club complementing established social clubs like the Algonquin Club, Harvard Club, Somerset Club, and the Union Club. In its earliest years the club was somewhat roving holding meetings and dinners in other clubs and at the Boston Athenæum. The club rented a sizable building on Beacon Hill's Mount Vernon Street before buying its own five story Federal Style townhouse across the street in 1920. The club has a substantial library of antiquarian books and an archive of letterpress printing.
Mt. Vernon St. building, 2010
Mt. Vernon St. building, 1911Between its founding and 1900, the club expanded its membership and activities to include an active exhibition and publishing program as well as the maintenance of a library. Members in the Club of Odd Volumes are often associated with Boston's publishing business or universities. They often include printers and typophiles. The club continues to offer exhibitions on the printing arts, typography, and antiquarian books.
The club has hosted authors, book designers, artists, politicians, and printers. Notable members and guests include Winston Churchill, Theodore L. de Vinne, William Addison Dwiggins, Frederic Goudy, Rockwell Kent, Bruce Rogers, Rudolf Ruzicka, Daniel Berkeley Updike and Walter Muir Whitehill.
Contents
See also
References
- ^ The archives of the Sette of Odd Volumes are now at Cambridge University Library, see: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/deptserv/rarebooks/directory.html#sette
Further reading
Works published by the club
- First exhibition. 1889
- Yearbook. 1894
- Constitution and By-laws. 1904
- George Emery Littlefield. The early Massachusetts press, 1638-1711. 1907.
- Yearbook. 1911.
- Worthington Chauncey Ford. Boston book market, 1679-1700. 1917
Works about the club
- P. Meritt. Club of Odd Volumes. Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Volume 9. 1915.
Gallery
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Exhibition at the Boston Art Club, 1889
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"His Oddship" Alex T. Hollingsworth, president, Club of Odd Volumes, 1893-94
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Bookplate, 1904
External links
- Club of Odd Volumes local information from Yahoo
Categories:- 1887 establishments in the United States
- Beacon Hill, Boston
- Bibliophiles
- Clubs and societies in Boston, Massachusetts
- Clubs and societies in the United States
- Cultural history of Boston, Massachusetts
- Hobbyist organizations
- Libraries in Boston, Massachusetts
- Literary societies
- Organizations established in 1887
- Private clubs
- Traditional gentlemen's clubs in the United States
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