Many of the rare books and pamphlets in the Clements Library have provenance trails to great collectors, dealers, bibliographers, and auctioneers. Bookplates, ownership signatures, dealer and auction invoices, and other evidence tie individual titles here to a long list of noteworthy Americanists — White Kennett, Isaiah Thomas, John Carter Brown, James Lenox, William Menzies, George Brinley, Brayton Ives, Wilberforce Eames, Edward E. Ayer, Lathrop C. Harper, Thomas W. Streeter, and dozens more.
Since the Grolier Club’s founding in 1884, the Grolier roster has included most of the leading Americana collectors, curators, and connoisseurs of each generation. William L. Clements was a Grolier member from 1920 to his death in 1934. In honor of the Club’s April 2013 visit to the Clements, this exhibit features a range of Clements rarities once owned by Grolier members.