| American Bookbinders Museum | |
| Established: | 2009 |
| Location: | San Francisco, California |
| Type: | Not-for-profit museum about bookbinding |
| Executive Director: | Anita Engles |
The American Bookbinders Museum is a small, not-for-profit museum in San Francisco, California, dedicated to showcasing the artistry, history, and craft of bookbinding.
The Museum opened as a private museum in 2009. In 2015 it relocated to a larger location in the South of Market neighborhood, where it opened to the public, offering docent-led and self-guided tours. The Museum focuses on the history of the book as object, examining the transition in the 1800s from hand-bookbinding to industrialized book manufacture, using 19th century equipment, much of it functioning.[1] [2] [3] [4] The Museum, a nonprofit corporation, was started by Tim James, a Bay Area bookbinder.[1] In 2017 James stepped away from his involvement in the Museum, which continued in operation.
In addition to tours, the Museum hosts rotating exhibits,[5] as well as special tours and workshops. The Museum has a Special Collection of books, equipment, and ephemera which is available to researchers.[6] The New York Times described it as "a small, obsessive collection of machinery and ephemera."[2]