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On Tuesday, October 23, I journeyed to Boston to attend a workshop held at the venerable North Bennett Street School. The school was originally founded as a trade school in 1885 by The Boston Atheneum. NBSS now has full-time, 2 year programs in furniture, preservation carpentry, jewelry, violin-making, piano technology, locksmithing, and bookbinding. NBSS also has a workshop program which I am attending. My workshop is called Limp Vellum Bookbinding and ia a 3-day workshop taught by NBSS alumnus Stacie Dolin.

Prior to starting the workshop, I arranged a visit to the Harcourt Bindery with proprietor Sam Ellenport. Sam was kind enough to give me a tour of the Harcourt Bindery, which recently merged with Acme Bookbinding – another long time New England bindery. Harcourt Bindery has been a commercial bindery since 1900. I was able to see every aspect of their binding operation and witnessed a NBSS grad doing gold tooling on some volumes bound in leather. After the tour, Sam drove me through the Beacon Hill area of Boston and gave me some tips on restaurants and sights to see.

In the evening, I rode the “T” to Harvard Square and was able to hear Ken Burns at the First Parish Church Meetinghouse discuss his film, “The War”.