Rare Book Monthly

Articles - February - 2025 Issue

Dr. Jason Silverman Named New Executive Director of Manuscript Society

Jason H. Silverman, PhD, has been named the new Executive Director of the Manuscript Society (Photo courtesy Manuscript Society).

Jason H. Silverman, PhD, has been named the new Executive Director of the Manuscript Society (Photo courtesy Manuscript Society).

Jason H. Silverman, PhD, has been named the new Executive Director of the Manuscript Society according to a Jan. 15th announcement by the Board of Trustees. Dr. Silverman, an award-winning teacher and prolific scholar, comes to the Society after a forty-year teaching career including Yale University and Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Silverman has authored or co-edited fifteen books and scores of articles, including co-editing the first two volumes of the Frederick Douglass Papers and writing the award winning, Lincoln and the Immigrant.

 

He received his undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia and his graduate degrees at Colorado State University and the University of Kentucky. Dr. Silverman has won numerous awards for his teaching and three of his books have been nominated for national book awards. The appointment caps a four month national search. 

 

Commenting on his new post Silverman said, “In joining the Manuscript Society I feel like I am coming home, because one of my very first scholarly articles was published in Manuscripts back in 1977. In many ways it set me on the path to becoming the published scholar that I became. I am very excited about serving the Society in my new role.”

Retiring Executive Director, Shirley Sands, is continuing to work on the transition through March 31, 2025. Speaking to Rare Book Hub by phone Sands said she has held the job for 15 years. She was formerly a history professor with Louisiana State University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She called her “interaction with the membership” the highlight of her work with the Society saying, “It gave me the opportunity to meet members from all backgrounds, dealers, collectors, the exchange between the organization and members.” She also mentioned that the group’s annual meeting, a four day conference in various cities, “is always exciting.” Going forward she hopes to do some traveling and have a less demanding calendar. 

The Manuscript Society is currently based in Overland Park, Kansas where Sands lives. It will move its home base to South Carolina on April 1st when Dr. Silverman takes over. 

The Manuscript Society has roughly 500 members devoted to the collection, preservation, use and enjoyment of autographs and manuscripts. It is the oldest society of autograph and manuscript collectors in the United States today, with members in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Founded in 1948 as the National Society of Autograph Collectors, it changed its name to the Manuscript Society in 1953. While collectors originally formed the heart of the organization, today membership includes archivists, manuscript curators, librarians, and prominent manuscript dealers and auction houses. 

In other Manuscript Society news the organization continues to host the lively Manuscript Mondays series, now in its third year. These are informative online presentations on a variety of interesting topics. Last month the featured speaker was Joel Silver, director of the Lilly Library at Indiana University discussing the collecting interests and taste of JK Lilly Jr.

Upcoming events for the Society include its annual meeting to be held in New York City April 23 - 26 with the opportunity for members to visit a variety of distinguished New York collections. Also on the horizon is a September trip to the UK to enjoy the hidden treasures of Cambridge and Oxford with an optional London segment.

Regular membership beginning at $85/year is open to any individual or institution interested in the appreciation, preservation, study and collection of manuscripts and autographs. 

Details of other Society programs, blogs, resources and publications can be found at its website.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.

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