The Caxton Club brings together archivists, authors, binders, book artists, booksellers, collectors, conservators, designers, editors, librarians, printers, publishers, scholars, and others. Members from these diverse backgrounds form a community that shares a love of printed, handwritten, and digital books and related textual objects, such as pamphlets, broadsides, maps, and ephemera. The club provides a forum to learn about the arts, history, and technologies of these materials, as well as a space to share the joys of appreciating and collecting them.

Rudy Altergott, President...... Leslie J. Winter, Secretary....... Jeffrey Jahns, Treasurer......
CAXTONIAN.ORG: A PUBLICLY AVAILABLE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE FIRST 27 YEARS OF THE CAXTONIAN.
L–R: CATE COKER, CYNTHIA WALLS, AND NORA BROOKS BLAKELY
The Caxton Club proudly salutes the winners of the 2024 Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize.
Caxton Club Grants Recipients Artist’s books
CAXTON CLUB EVENTS

Caxton Members: Submit your item to our online exhibit, Caxtonians’ Collections.
Exhibit is open to all.



UPCOMING CAXTON PROGRAMS

Caxton Club programs run from September through June with a second Friday daytime program at Noon CT and a third Wednesday evening program at 6:30 PM CT. Please see detailed descriptions for available programs.

Virtual programs will consist of quality Zoom presentations with real-time Q&A features immediately following. All programs — virtual or in-person — require advance registration on the club’s website. This allows Zoom instructions to be sent before programs, and for planning for in-person programs where space is limited. As usual, we will record all programs and make them available for viewing in the Past Programs section of our website’s Members Only section.

Only registrants who miss a program or wish to view it again will be given the opportunity to request a link to a recording of the program.

    • 10/15/2025
    • 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
    • WED 10/15/2025 5:30–7:30 PM In-person at D4 Irish Pub & Café, 345 E. Ohio St., Entrance on Grand Ave. $25 includes a buffet of select appetizers. Full beverage service available (additional cost). Registration and prepayment required by 5:30 PM 10/13.
    Register


    Meet and mingle with fellow Caxton Club members in the Library Lounge at D4 Irish Pub & Cafe. This is an opportunity to socialize with old friends and meet new members, too.

    The Evening Program and Membership committees have reserved the Library Lounge from 5:30 until 7:30 pm. There will be a buffet of select appetizers. Full beverage service available at additional cost. Happy hour drink specials including draft beer, house wines, and Stoli cocktails available from 5:30 to 6:00.

    D4, named after Dublin’s tony zip code, Dublin 4, brings a taste of Dublin to Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood.

    Remember to bring your Caxton badge. Register today.

    Parking Spot Hero is an independent parking option, generally offering spots at the The Streeter Parking Garage directly above the restaurant with entrance on Ohio St. or Grand Ave. There are other garages nearby. You may reserve and pay for a guaranteed parking spot through the Spot Hero app or website (spothero.com).



    • 11/05/2025
    • 6:30 PM
    • Wed 11/05/2025 6:30PM CT/7:30 ET. Zoom presentation is free and open to all. Preregistration required via website.
    Register

    November Evening Program




    In this program, Lauren Hewes will introduce Caxton Club members to the Stephen D. Paine Collection of American Ephemera at the American Antiquarian Society, a national research library located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The talk will include an overview of the 18,000 objects in the Paine Collection – a private collection built between c.1975 and 1997 and recently donated to AAS – and an explanation of the Society’s larger ephemera holdings. Hewes will discuss how libraries decide what qualifies as “ephemera” and how researchers have used pre-1900 ephemeral objects in their projects.

    Lauren Hewes is the vice president for collections and Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts. She manages and oversees the Society’s acquisition, cataloging, conservation, curatorial and readers’ services departments. She is also the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts and builds and cares for the Society’s extensive collections of prints, broadsides, ephemera, and photographs, working with the Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAViC), AAS fellows, and outside scholars to make connections between American history and the visual resources of the Society. Lauren has previously held positions at the Print Council of America, the National Park Service, and Shelburne Museum, and she has published widely on American printmaking and portraiture. She has a BS from Ithaca College and an MA in art history from Williams College.

    Register today.

    Zoom presentation is free and open to all.

    Zoom begins at 6:30PM CT/7:30 PM ET. Preregistration required via website.

    Please forward this notice to anyone who may find it of interest.

    Even if you can’t attend at the scheduled time, if you’re interested, please register. After the program, we’ll send an email to all registrants, asking if you’d like a link to the complete recording. That way you can see the program even if you couldn’t attend live, ran into technical issues, or simply wanted to watch it again.

MIDDAY PROGRAMS

EVENING PROGRAMS

  • 10/15/2025 5:30 PM
    WED 10/15/2025 5:30–7:30 PM In-person at D4 Irish Pub & Café, 345 E. Ohio St., Entrance on Grand Ave. $25 includes a buffet of select appetizers. Full beverage service available (additional cost). Registration and prepayment required by 5:30 PM 10/13.
  • 11/05/2025 6:30 PM
    Wed 11/05/2025 6:30PM CT/7:30 ET. Zoom presentation is free and open to all. Preregistration required via website.

Items of Interest

  • No upcoming events

Caxton Club Member Opportunities

  • No upcoming events


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211 South Clark Street,
PO Box 2329,
Chicago IL 60604-9997

info@caxtonclub.org