Thinking of the start of his long career as a collector of rare books, Sid Lapidus recalled, “My first antiquarian book was purchased in 1959. In a bookseller’s dusty window, I noticed a small book, a 1792 edition of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man. The principal theme of my collection was even embedded in the title of [this first purchase].”
That principal theme is the documenting of new conceptions of human liberty, political order, and scientific reasoning that emerged in the Anglo-American intellectual world between the 17th and 19th centuries. It resulted in a large book collection now dispersed in libraries on the East Coast. This exhibition attempts to provide an overview of Sid Lapidus’s overall achievement.
A dedicated philanthropist, Lapidus has donated his books to several libraries, including Princeton University Library; the American Antiquarian Society; the Wolf Law Library, William & Mary Law School; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; the Center for Jewish History; the New York Historical; and the New York University Health Sciences Library. His contributions have strengthened the existing collections at those libraries, helping create collections of research value, with works that often are in conversation with one another.
Unless otherwise indicated (§), all items on exhibit are from the Sid Lapidus '59 Collection on Liberty and the American Revolution, Princeton University Library. All items on loan from other libraries are gifts of Sid Lapidus.
Long "s” in “Cause”; “f” in “Effect”
In many of these texts, words appear to be misspelled—with an “ſ” where “s” should be. In the 18th century, printing conventions used two versions of the letter “s”. The “long s” resembles an “f”, but the half-crossbar partway up only extends to the middle of the letter. It is used in the middle of words, and the “round s” appears at the end of words.
