American Historical
Print Collectors Society

RECOMMENDED
REFERENCE WORKS

Listed below is a selection from the many excellent books and magazines which deal with historical American prints.  We have categorized the references as follows:

Many of these publications contain thorough bibliographies which will provide useful guidance for further reading in a particular area. In addition, each issue of Imprint, the magazine of the AHPCS, contains informative reviews on many new publications.

Most of these books should be available through your local library.  For those wishing to obtain books for their personal collection, many dealer members of the AHPCS offer for sale both new and out-of-print  publications, and would be happy to recommend other publications in your area of interest.

TECHNICAL PROCESSES
 

Gascoigne, Bamber. How to Identify Prints, a Complete Guide to Manual and Mechanical Processes from Woodcut to Ink Jet.   Thames & Hudson.  London. 1986. 
An invaluable work, discussing in detail what distinguishes one type of print from another.  Excellent glossaries. 

 
Ivins, W.M. Jr. How Prints Look.  Photographs with a Commentary.   New York. 1943.
 
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GENERAL HISTORY OF PRINTMAKING
 

Griffiths, Antony. Prints and Printmaking. An introduction to the history and techniques. University of California Press.  Berkeley. 1996. 
Organized according to the different techniques of printmaking.  Very useful appendices, including a listing of abbreviations found on prints and an extensive glossary of printmaking terms. 

 
Hults, Linda C.  The Print in the Western World. An Introductory History. University of Wisconsin.  Madison. 1996. 
A survey of Western printmaking from the 15th century to the present day. A bibliography follows the chapter  "American and Mexican Printmaking to the Mid-1940s".  Includes a glossary of printmaking terms.

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CURRIER & IVES
 

Berkoff, Marshall R.  Currier & Ives - The New Best 50.  AHPCS.  Milwaukee. 1991. 
Reproduces in color "The New Best 50" large and "The New Best 50" small Currier & Ives prints as voted by members of the AHPCS.  Includes a bibliography of  books about Currier & Ives. 

 
Conningham, Frederic A., updated by Colin Simkin.  Currier & Ives  Prints.  An Illustrated Check List.  Crown.  New York. 1970. 
The standard reference to Currier & Ives prints, listing some 7,000 titles with measurements.

 
Currier & Ives.  A Catalogue Raisonne.  Gale Research Company.  Detroit. 1984. 
Descriptions of 7,450 Currier and Ives prints, trade cards etc., including some not listed in Conningham.

 
Peters, Harry T.  Currier & Ives.  Printmakers to the American People.  New York.  Arno Press. 1976.

 
List of previously unrecorded Currier & Ives prints
 
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AUDUBON PRINTS
 

Bannon, Lois & Taylor Clark. Handbook of Audubon Prints.  Pelican.  Gretna. 1998.
Brief overview of the major Audubon editions.

Boehme, Sarah E.  John James Audubon in the West - The Last Expedition - Mammals of North America.  With essays by Boehme, Annette Blaugrund, Robert McCracken Peck, and Ron Tyler.  Harry N. Abrams, Inc., publishers in association with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. New York and Cody, Wyoming. 2000.
Well-illustrated book on the creation of Audubon's quadruped series.  Essays discuss Audubon's painting techniques, his 1843 journey up the Missouri River to paint and collect western mammals, his collaboration and friendship with co-author John Bachman, and the publication of the Imperial Folio edition of the quadrupeds.

 

Braun, Robert.  Identifying Audubon Bird Prints. Originals, States, Editions, Restrikes, and Facsimiles and Reproductions.  Published in Imprint, the Journal of the American Historical Print Collectors Society. [Volume 21, Number 2.] Fairfield, Connecticut. 1996.
Well-illustrated guide on identifying Audubon bird prints of different editions.

Braun, Nancy and Robert.  An Audubon Concordance. Migration Through the Plate Numbers.  AHPCS.  Fairfield, Connecticut. 1999. 
Comparative tables for the Havell, octavo, and Bien Audubon bird prints, including titles, plate numbers, common and scientific bird and plant names,other images appearing in the prints, and the first naturalists to have described these birds.
 
Fries, Waldemar.  The Double Elephant Folio: The Story of Audubon's Birds of America.  American Library Association.  Chicago.  1973. 
The story of the Havell Edition from watercolors to completed sets of books.  Includes extensive appendices covering topics of interest to collectors and scholars alike (e.g., location of surviving copper plates).

Low, Susanne.  A Guide to Audubon's Birds of America.  William Reese Company and Donald A. Heald. New Haven and New York. 2002.  Information on each of the 435 plates of the Havell Edition including states and plate dimensions.  Includes a print-by-print discussion of the Bien edition. 

Steiner, Bill.  Audubon Art Prints: A Collector's Guide to Every Edition. University of South Carolina Press. Columbia. 2003. 
Comprehensive overview of the original print editions of Audubon's work (bird and animal, folio and octavo), plus descriptions of collectible and common reproduction editions.

Tyler, Ron.  Audubon's Great National Work. The Royal Octavo Edition of the Birds of America. University of Austin.  Austin. 1993. 
A study of the octavo editions, describing how they were produced and their importance in the history of American ornithology.

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GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY
 

Blum, Ann Shelby. Picturing Nature. American Nineteenth-Century Zoological Illustration. Princeton University Press.  Princeton, N.J. 1993. 

Bridson, Gavin, White, James and Bruno, Lugene.  American Botanical Prints of Two Centuries. Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University.  Pittsburgh, PA. 2003.

Feduccia, Alan. Catesby's Birds of Colonial America. University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, N.C. 1985.
An excellent book on the fundamental importance of Mark Catesby's Natural History, with illustrations of all Catesby's birds, with the original text. 

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GENERAL AMERICANA
 

Beam, Philip C.  Winslow Homer's Magazine Engravings.  Harper  & Row.  New York.  1979. 

 
Barnhill, Georgia Brady; Diana Korzenik; Caroline F. Sloat (editors).   The Cultivation of Artists in Nineteenth-century America.  American Antiquarian Society.  Worcester, MA.  1997.

 
Bennett, Whitman.  A Practical Guide to American Nineteenth Century Color Plate Books.  Haydn Foundation for the Cultural Arts.  New York. 1980. 

 
Deak, Gloria Gilda.  Picturing America 1497-1899.  Princeton University Press.  Princeton, N.J. 1988. 
A two volume work with detailed descriptions of over 1000 prints, maps and drawings in The New York Public Library's collection "Bearing on the New World Discoveries and on the Development of the Territory That Is Now the United States".  Extensive bibliography.

 
Ebert, John & Katherine.  Old American Prints for Collectors.  Scribner's.  New York. 1974. 
A most readable book introducing the variety of American prints from the 17th century to the late 19th century.  Useful appendices and bibliography.

 
Fowble, Sherry.  Two Centuries of Prints in America, 1680-1880 : a selective catalogue of the Winterthur Museum collection.  Winterthur Museum / University Press of Virginia. Charlottesville. 1987.

 
Marzio, Peter C. The Democratic Art.  Pictures of a 19th Century America.  Godine. Boston. 1979. 
An invaluable study of American chromolithography, its technique, publishers and artists.  Excellent bibliography. 

 
Peters, Harry T.  American on Stone.  Doubleday, Doran.  New York.  1931. 
The classic work on lithography in America.  Peters also wrote California on Stone (1935) and Currier and Ives, Printmakers to the American People (1929-1931).

 
Pierce, Sally with Catharina Slautterback and Georgia B. Barnhill. Early American Lithography. Images to 1830.  Boston Athenaeum Library.  Boston.. 1997. 
A scholarly catalogue co-produced by the Boston Athenaeum and the American Antiquarian Society, surveying the formative period of American lithography 

 
Princeton University Library. Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers, 1670-1870; a catalogue of a collection of American books, illustrated for the most part with woodcuts and wood engravings in the Princeton University Library.  With an introductory sketch of the development of early American book illustration by Sinclair Hamilton and a foreword by Frank Weitenkampf.  Princeton, N.J.  1958.

 
Proceedings of the North American Print Conference.  View a listing of titles in this series, which explore in depth various subject areas of print making in North America. 

 
Reilly, Bernard F. Jr.  American Political Prints, 1766-1876 : a catalog of the collections in the Library of Congress.  G.K. Hall.  Boston. 1991.

 
Reps, John W. Views and Viewmakers of Urban America.  University of Missouri.  Columbia, MO. 1984. 
The standard reference of  lithographic views of towns and cities in the United States and Canada, covering the period 1825 to 1925. 

 
Shadwell, Wendy J.  American Printmaking.  The First 150 Years.  Museum of Graphic Art. New York. 1969. A profusely illustrated catalogue of prints produced in America to 1820.

 
Smith, Steven E. et al.  American Book and Magazine Illustrators to 1920.  Gale Research.  Detroit. 1998.  Reviewed in Imprint (Volume 23, Number 2) 1998. 

 
Stauffer, David McNeely; Mantle Fielding & Thomas Hovey Gage. American engravers upon copper and steel. Oak Knoll Books.  New Castle, DE. 1994.

 
Taft, Robert.  Artists and Illustrators of the Old West 1850-1900.  Scribner's. New York. 1953. 

 
Tyler, Ron. Prints of the West.  Fulcrum. Golden, Colorado. 1994. 
An excellent general reference based on prints in the Library of Congress. 

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MAPS
 

Moreland, Carl & David Bannister. Antique Maps. A Collector's Handbook.  Phaidon-Christie's.  Oxford.  1989.

 
Ristow, Walter W. American Maps and Mapmakers. Commercial Cartography in the Nineteenth Century. Wayne State University Press. Detroit. 1985. 

 
Schwartz, Seymour I. & Ralph E. Ehrenberg.  The Mapping of America.  Abrams.  New York.  1980. 

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NEWMAN AWARD WINNERS
 

Outstanding publications that have won the Ewell L. Newman Award established by the AHPCS to foster "wider recognition of outstanding publications which enhance our understanding and appreciation of the role prints and print makers have played in our history and culture."
 
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Last updated June 02, 2006