Bookplates are tools that have been used around the world to identify a book's owner beginning around the early 15th century. Often times, bookplates are small pieces of paper that are embellished with hand drawn symbols, pictures, and/or words that are specific to the owner. During early bookplate usage, books were a rare treasure, so, owners wanted to establish ownership of their books with extravagant pieces of their own identity pasted inside the front cover. On many bookplates, one will see the words, "ex libris," which is Latin for, "from the library of.." Bookplates can be specific to a family, a library, any type of institution, or an individual. Bookplates were extremely common in the past but they are still used today. Since many early century books contained bookplates, researchers can now use bookplates to track down rare or even ancient books. Bookplates are also popular as collection items due to their unique designs.
Clara Therese Evans was a librarian, working at Columbia University from 1907 until she retired at age 70 in 1943. She was an active bookplate collection for the institution, wrote about bookplate collections across the U.S., and also managed the clippings files of Ware Memorial Library, School of Architecture, Columbia University. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; received a librarian degree from Brooklyn Library School, New York; and was married to Hubert Evans.
This collection contains bookplates that indicate ownership of books. Though most of the bookplates are not dated, some may have a date written on it or printed as part of the design. The collection includes many bookplates with different designs, names, and/or portraits on them. Most are not related to Wake Forest College. It's likely that, over the years, others have added bookplates to this collection and that they were not all collected by Evans. Materials from others included letters to Wake Forest College librarian Ethel Taylor Crittendon.
Clara T. Evans Collection of Bookplates (MS 879), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
This collection is open for use.
The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.