“The world was made in order to result in a beautiful book”*…

Revisiting a topic covered here just over a decade ago: Adam Green on the remarkable mid-17th century to the late 19th century practice of publishing books with “hidden art”…

A “fore-edge painting” is an illustration or design which appears on the “fore-edge” of a book (i.e. on the edge which is opened up, opposite to the spine). The history of such embellishments is thought to go back to the tenth century but it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that the unusual practice really began to take off. The simplest form involved painting onto the fore-edge when the book was closed normally — hence the image appears by default — but a more advanced form involved a rather ingenious technique whereby the painting was applied to the page edges when the stack was fanned at a slight angle. This way the image is hidden from view when the book is closed normally. To hide any remnants of this secret image the exposed edge of the book, when closed normally, was gilded (or sometimes marbled). In his 1949 essay “On Fore-Edge Painting of Books” Kenneth Hobson came up with this rather nice metaphor to explain: “Imagine a flight of stairs, each step representing a leaf of the book. On the tread would be the painting and on the flat surface would be gold. A book painted and gilt in this way must be furled back before the picture can be seen.”

Bookbinders, such as Edwards of Halifax, got even cleverer with variations of the technique, producing books with “double fore-edge paintings”, where one image would be revealed when the book was fanned one way, and a second image revealed when fanned the other. “Triple fore-edge paintings” are where a third image is added instead of gilt or marbling. “Panoramic fore-edge paintings” utilise the top and bottom and edges to make continuous panoramic scenes. “Split double paintings” have two different illustrations, one on either side of the book’s centre, meaning that when the book is laid open in the middle, each is seen on either side. Very rare and skilled variations of the art only reveal the image when the the pages of the book are pinched or tented in a certain way.

Most often the artwork would reflect the content of the book (as shown in the chess example above). Sometimes it would depict the owner (through a portrait or picture of their home). And occasionally it would be oddly incongruous, such as The Poetical Works of John Milton being adorned with a painting of the tomb of Thomas Gray.

One of the finest collections of fore-edge paintings is held at Boston Public Library, which you can see on their Flickr, and on a dedicated website, which includes an introductory essay by Anne C. Bromer of Bromer Booksellers, who along with her husband gifted this wonderful collection to the Boston Public Library. In this post we’ve featured our highlights from their collection…

See many more examples at: “Fore-Edge Book Paintings from the Boston Public Library,” from @publicdomainrev.bsky.social.

* Stephane Mallarme

###

As we fan the folio, we might send delightfully-illustrated birthday greetings to Michael Bond; he was born on this date in 1926. A writer of both children’s books and teleplays, he is of course best known as the creator of of Paddington Bear.

Bond published the first of his 29 Paddington books in 1958. The series has sold over 35 million copies worldwide (and been featured in several (mostly) animated television series, a film series, and a stage musical).

Here are the Boston Public Library’s most-borrowed books of 2025 – Boston.com

Here are the Boston Public Library’s most-borrowed books of 2025

All of the top ten most-borrowed books in 2025 were written by women.

By Annie Jonas December 17, 2025 | 2:58 PM

2 minutes to read

The Boston Public Library released its most-checked out books in 2025 this week, and like last year, women authors dominated the list.

All of the top ten most-borrowed books in 2025 were written by women, with romance novels taking the first three spots on the list. 

“Onyx Storm” by romantasy author Rebecca Yarros claimed first place, and was borrowed more than 9,000 times this year, according to Melissa Andrews, BPL’s Chief of Collection Management.

Sarah J. Maas, another romantasy heavy-hitter, came in second for her book “A Court of Thorns and Roses.” Emily Henry’s “Happy Place” took third, down from its first place spot last year. 

The list also had its fair share of New England authors. Rhode Island-based author Alison Espach took the number five spot for her novel “The Wedding People,” followed by “Hunger Games” author Susan Collins, a Connecticut resident, in sixth.

“The most-borrowed titles of 2025 span a mix of genres, settings, and storytelling styles, yet they share one clear thread: new releases from authors building stronger connections with readers,” Andrews said in a statement. “This shows that readers continue to seek out stories offering both familiarity and connection, returning to worlds and voices they love while discovering something new that grows and evolves with them.”

Over the course of the year, the BPL lent a combined 7.5 million physical and digital items, welcomed more than 3.2 million people to its locations throughout Boston’s neighborhoods, and signed up 129,745 new library cardholders.

The Top 10 Checked Out Books in 2025:

“Onyx Storm” by Rebecca Yarros 

“A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas 

“Happy Place” by Emily Henry 

“Demon Copperhead” Barbara Kingsolver 

“The Wedding People” Alison Espach 

“Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins 

“The Women” by Kristin Hannah 

“Shield of Sparrows” by Devney Perry 

“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins 

“Great Big Beautiful Life” by Emily Henry

In addition to the most checked out books of the year, the library also released its top five books across mediums and age groups. Check them out below. 

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Here are the Boston Public Library’s most-borrowed books of 2025

He Died at a School for Disabled People. Decades Later, His Brother Sought Answers.

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/us/fernald-state-school-disabled-people.html

📰 Today's top stories, personally curated for you by Zorz Studios: http://zorz.it/newspaper

- #AnnieLeibovitz’s #Vogue cover shoot of Timothee Chalamet raises eyebrows;
- How do you get a #BusinessLicense?
- Why #MedievalInspired #weddings are back in style;
- ‘It makes you feel glam’: shaggy, #Studio54-style #coats are partying again;
- Dozens of M.C. Escher #prints have been digitized and put online by the #BostonPublicLibrary, and more

#ZoracleDaily #newspaper

A locked door and myriad treasures beyond, in vast rooms deemed unusable at Boston Public Library – The Boston Globe

 The Boston Globe

A locked door and myriad treasures beyond, in vast rooms deemed unusable at Boston Public Library

By Malcolm Gay, The Boston Globe updated on October 3, 2025, 7 minutes to read

• Comments

The resplendence of the Boston Public Library’s McKim Building unfolds with each step up the grand staircase.

Past the imposing stone lions, the golden-hued stairwell gives way to an airy gallery of murals, a millennium-spanning celebration of the muses. Nearby, a narrower stairway leads to the hushed third floor, where people wander the opulent gallery to untangle John Singer Sargent’s “Triumph of Religion,” a monumental cycle of murals the artist left unfinished despite nearly three decades of work.

Inevitably, some will try the leather-clad door at the end of the gallery, whichseems to promise yet more wonders beyond.

But the door is locked.

It has been closed to the public for more than a decade, concealing a once-grand enfilade of vaulted ceilings, interior arcades, and elevated walkways that wrap around the library’s courtyard.

The rooms, which rival many of the building’s most celebrated spaces, now warehouse a Narnia-worthy collection of the library’s holdings — everything from sculptures of Joan of Arc and a portrait of Samuel Johnson, to a room of illuminated dioramas, where a pair of miniature boxers stand frozen in mid-fight, as though before a roaring crowd.

There are neoclassical sculptures that peek from beneath plastic, a weathervane in the shape of a cod, a printing press that belonged to artist Hyman Bloom, and a set of golf clubs once swung by author Cleveland Amory. And that’s to say nothing of the myriad architectural plans, microfiche, administrative records, card catalogues, and archives piled about in boxes and in crates.

At 130 years old, the McKim Building is nearly as iconic as the collection it houses. Designed by architect Charles Follen McKim,it is a sort of secular cathedral, exalting the life of the mind.

But today, nearly 40 percent of the building — essentially the entire third floor — lies dilapidated and inaccessible to the public. Paint peels from its walls and ceilings. Crumbling plaster has exposed masonry. Leaky pipes have prompted library officials to turn off the heat, meaning most of the palatial third-floor rooms have no climate control at all, a wrecking ball of temperature swings and humidity.

Now at a crisis point, the unusable spaces and their at-riskcontents have prompted library officials to begin imagining a massive — and massively expensive — overhaul, one that would not only restore the third floor but also reshape one of the country’s oldest and most vaunted library buildings.

BPL president David Leonard said any renovation must not merely safeguard the building, but also secure the library’s collections, making them (and the physical building) more accessible to the public.

“We have an obligation to our collections and to the building itself, which we like to think of as part of the collection,” Leonard said while touring the McKim.

The library recently received a $5.5 million gift from an anonymous donor to study the building and its systems. It’s a preliminary step to understand what obstacles and opportunities the building may present as a renovation project that seeks to update the 19th century structure to meet the demands of 21st century library patrons.

Once the five-year planning phase is completed, leaders hope to enter the project’s design phase.

Beth Prindle, BPL’s director of research and special collections, called the renovation effort “a once in a multiple-generation opportunity.”

“The McKim transformation and rebirth is a clarion call,” she said. “We collected this incredible, irreplaceable collection, and we need [the public] to help us steward it, not only for [today], but for future generations.”

In addition to branch renovations, BPL has completed two major capital projects on its central library over the past decade. In 2016, the library unveiled a $78 million renovation to its lending library in the 1970s-era Boylston Street Building. That was followed in 2022 by a $16 million project that carved out a state-of-the-art facility to house its vast special collections of rare books and other historic items.

The cost of renovating the McKim, however, would likely dwarf those earlier projects. A 2021 master plan estimated construction costs at $325 million, but the final project could cost significantly more.

Leonard, who compared the project’s potential cost to building a new public high school,said the library will have a better price estimate in a year or so, but “regardless, it’s a large, triple, hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: A locked door and myriad treasures beyond, in vast rooms deemed unusable at Boston Public Library

#2025 #America #Books #Boston #BostonPublicLibrary #Education #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #LibraryTreasures #LockedDoor #Massachusetts #TheBostonGlobe #Travel #Treasures #UnitedStates #VastRooms

MPR News: Boston Public Library aims to increase access to a vast historic archive using AI. “Boston Public Library, one of the oldest and largest public library systems in the country, is launching a project this summer with OpenAI and Harvard Law School to make its trove of historically significant government documents more accessible to the public.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/19/mpr-news-boston-public-library-aims-to-increase-access-to-a-vast-historic-archive-using-ai/

Boston Library Consortium (BLC) Announces Launch of Digital Lending Toolkit

BLC is pleased to announce the launch of our Digital Lending Toolkit, a comprehensive resource designed to support libraries and consortia in navigating the evolving landscape of digital resource sharing.

https://www.infodocket.com/2025/07/30/boston-library-consortium-blc-launches-digital-lending-toolkit/

#libraries #controlleddigitallending #ebooks #digitallibrary #bibliotheques #BostonPublicLibrary #blc

Staring contest with “Sibylant House” by Swoon, deep inside the Boston Public Library. Art that watches back.

#Photography #PublicArt #SwoonArt #BostonPublicLibrary #PortraitPhotography #ScottKissPhoto

AI Chatbots Are About to Get a Huge Boost—From Libraries
https://www.inc.com/associated-press/ai-chatbots-are-about-to-get-a-huge-boost-from-libraries/91201600

#ai #libraries #harvard #bigdata #bodleian #BostonPublicLibrary #digitalization

#BostonWeekend 10/x
Thu:
Ultimate #nerd cred: Science #Trivia at the #BostonPublicLibrary #Copley with GBH/Nova? Its free but RSVP.

https://ticketbud.com/events/75ea12de-29e3-11f0-96d5-42010a7170c0
#Boston #CambridgeMA #STEM #MIT

The #BostonPublicLibrary's free Globe access has been really over-subscribed of late, it seems. Karen Read interest, maybe?

The courtyard at the Boston Public Library. A peaceful place in the midst of Boston's Back Bay.

#Boston #BostonPublicLibrary #Libraries

It's funny but I rarely cross the river and head into Boston. (Ok, I'm both spoiled and lazy.)

Walked to the Boston Public Library today. Many people don't appreciate how beautiful the place is. If you're visiting or a local and need a break, I highly recommend stopping for a visit. Just take a moment to enjoy the quiet, the AC and above all and the art and architecture.

#Boston #BostonPublicLibrary #Libraries

Boston Globe: BPL will use AI to expand digital collection. “With help from the Institutional Data initiative at Harvard Law School Library, the Boston Library is using AI technology to make the materials available online and in the form of public domain data collections, which can be used to train future or existing AI models.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/03/20/boston-globe-bpl-will-use-ai-to-expand-digital-collection/

THIS is the #Charlestown Branch of the #BostonPublicLibrary.(2/2)

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday #BrutalistArchitecture #Brutalism

With auto-renews, the amount of time you can hold onto #BostonPublicLibrary books is wild. I keep on thinking I need to get the books back, but I still have over a week left in my loan!

Freedom to Read Day of Action: Communities Unite Against Book Bans!

The freedom to read is an American value that must be protected. Book bans and challenges in the U.S. reached an all-time high in 2023 and continue to happen at an alarming rate. It's more important than ever to show support for local libraries and the freedom to read.

https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/6707ec78dfa2e93600060de4

https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/day-of-action/

@bplboston #bpl #BostonPublicLibrary #FreedomToRead