We are frequently asked by collectors and clients about the use of gloves in the handling of rare books.  This recent entertaining article by Jennifer Scheussler of The New York Times is a guide to why we, for the most part, say "No"!:

[The elegantly gloved hand illustrated is from a portrait of Queen Adelaide by William Beechey]

For Rare Book Librarians, It’s Gloves Off. Seriously.

When handling rare books, experts say that bare, just-cleaned hands are...

From the fifteenth century onward Europeans were in search of alternative routes to India, and there was much speculation whether a route existed via the Arctic. This issue was of immense interest to 18th Century scholar and librarian Samuel Engel, and most of his work on geography is based on this question.  The map detail pictured is from his Mémoires et Observations Géographiques et Critiques… (1765). From the final part of Books from a Private Collection (see Website...

Following the military defeat of the Canadian rebels in 1837, some were executed but most of the rebels were banished without trial to Australia. In all, 141 political prisoners were transported, slightly more than half to Tasmania and the remainder to New South Wales.   Their presence as convicts in the Longbottom Stockade in Concord, Sydney is recalled by the names of Exile Bay, France Bay and Canada Bay. The “Canadian exile” printings have always been keenly collected...

So said the naturalist John Gould of the astonishing fauna he saw and recorded in Australia and wonderfully noted in a review of our latest catalogue in Rare Books Monthly by Michael Stillman here . More of Gould and his work with both his remarkable wife Elizabeth and fellow naturalist John Gilbert may be seen here

The remains of Cook's Endeavour finally identified beyond doubt. 

The Australian National Maritime Museum has confirmed that the wreck in Newport Harbour, off Rhode Island, is that of Cook's ship, scuttled in the harbour as part of the American War of Independence in 1788.

See the full story here 

Jacques Arago (1790-1855), eccentric but gifted explorer, and artist on the Freycinet expedition, set himself a very peculiar task. Signing himself “J.cques.r.go”) he set himself the downright weird mission of describing his trip throughout the world without using one very helpful vowel; the title of the work gave his conceit some trouble "Voyage autour du Monde sans la Lettre A.",  but for the rest of the text he is good to his word.  Thus delightful...