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Bibliomigrancy amongst the Ruins: post-1945 Book Movement (Online)
The V&A is committed to provenance research and exploring the custodial histories of all the objects in our care; this conference focuses that endeavour on books, recognising them as artefacts of cultural heritage as well as carriers of information.
This two-day conference will showcase active research from librarians, historians and researchers that unearths new understanding of how books moved around Europe after a war that had disrupted and scattered the book stock of an entire continent. We will hear how, from a moment of continental catastrophe, creative and distributive systems were resurrected, rebuilt and created at a vast scale.
Case studies will include holdings in major research libraries of Norway, Poland, Germany, Canada and the UK, as well as exploration of those dealing in and publishing new books in the years after 1945.
The conference will give attendees an opportunity to visit the V&A National Art Library and view items from the collection while hearing from V&A staff how their provenance reflects the issues discussed. We will close with a keynote from Professor Andrew Pettegree, author of, among many other titles, The Book at War: How Reading Shaped Conflict and Conflict Shaped Reading (2023).
A detailed programme will be available for download shortly.
Zoom links will be sent to all online attendees at least 24 hours in advance of the event.
Case studies will include holdings in major research libraries of Norway, Poland, Germany, Canada and the UK, as well as exploration of those dealing in and publishing new books in the years after 1945.
The conference will give attendees an opportunity to visit the V&A National Art Library and view items from the collection while hearing from V&A staff how their provenance reflects the issues discussed. We will close with a keynote from Professor Andrew Pettegree, author of, among many other titles, The Book at War: How Reading Shaped Conflict and Conflict Shaped Reading (2023).
A detailed programme will be available for download shortly.
Zoom links will be sent to all online attendees at least 24 hours in advance of the event.
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Header image: Wrapped packages of looted Jewish books are stacked in the cellar of the Institute for Research into the Jewish Question in Frankfurt am Main. Public domain (Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park)