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Library of Congress' rare books chief Dimunation to give Friends annual lecture, April 18
By Michael WorringerLibrary Communications
MADISON, Wis -- Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, will present “Forged in Fire: Building the Nation's Rare Book Collection” 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, in the Phillips Auditorium, room L160, at the Chazen Museum of Art.
The annual lecture, held by the Friends of the UW-Madison Library, is open to the public at no charge.
Dimunation acquires materials, develops programs of lectures and presentations, and oversees the operations of the Division, which has one of the largest collections of rare books in North America.
That collection has been rebuilt from the ashes of a fire from when the British occupied Washington, D.C., in August 1814 and burned the Capitol. Much of the Library of Congress' collection was destroyed. Congress agreed to replace the loss by purchasing the personal library of Thomas Jefferson -- all 6,487 volumes, at the cost of $23,950. The new collection, probably the finest collection in the country at the time, was twice the size of its predecessor and contained a rich selection of philosophy, classical literature and scientific material. The library also used Jefferson's method of classification until the close of the 19th century.
Dimunation got his start in the rare books profession when he was appointed Assistant Chief of Acquisitions at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. He then held positions related to rare books and special collections at both Stanford University and Cornell University before being hired by the Library of Congress in 1998.
Dimunation specializes in 18th- and 19th-century English and American printing and has considerable experience working with antiquarian materials as well as fine press and contemporary artists’ books. He has lectured extensively about book collections and has authored a number of exhibition catalogs.
