Archives de l’auteur : sfinding

A propos sfinding

This blog is intended to contribute to a better visibility for the work to which I have contributed than any search engine can produce. Feel free to browse around as different aspects are completed and updated. Ce blog est destiné à donner une meilleure visibilité que celle que peut donner un moteur de recherche traditionnel aux domaines et travaux scientifiques auxquels je participe. Vous êtes cordialement invité(e) à explorer les pages et à découvrir les nouveautés.

The smartest bookseller in London’ Leon Kashnor (1879–1955) and the Museum Book Store

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Published in The Book Collector, Vol. 74.4, Winter 2025,  ‘The smartest bookseller in London’ Leon Kashnor (1879–1955) and the Museum Book Store’. The following paragraphs from the article introduce the subject.

At both ends of his career, Leon Kashnor received glowing recognition from knowledgeable specialists. H. R. Wagner, who produced the first modern historical bibliography of economic texts, identified him as ‘the smartest bookseller in London’[1] in the 1900s. Ten years after Kashnor’s death and three years after the publication of his seminal The Making of the English Working-Class, E. P. Thompson, spoke of the ‘gifted bookseller’’s ‘splendid collections of early economic theory, English Jacobinism, Chartism, and so on’.[2] Leon Kashnor dealt intensively, but not exclusively, in the niche market of political and social economy. This expertise and specialization led the major collectors of economic history to use Kashnor as their supplier in London of works in English, some almost exclusively.

The collections compiled by H. S. Foxwell (the Goldsmiths’-Kress Library at London University and Harvard), E. R. A. Seligman (the Seligman Library at Columbia), Henry Raup Wagner (the British Economics collection at Yale and collections at the Huntington), Auguste Dubois (collection at Poitiers) and Emanuel Leser (collection at Heidelberg) now forming the basis for the major collections of economic literature, all contain works purchased from The Museum Bookstore, some to a large extent (Seligman, Wagner and Dubois). In addition, the Huntington Library acquired whole catalogues or collections of Americana and British history from the same, as did other American university libraries, the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, the Feltrinelli Institute, the National Library of Australia. The collections and the correspondence to and from Leon Kashnor found in the archives of these varied collections bear witness to these dealings and to his central position in the specializations in which he dealt.

In view of these remarkable collections in institutions of international repute, it is legitimate to ask why Kashnor is not better known. He is absent from the 1906 list of Founder Members of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association.[3] Neither Kashnor, nor the Museum Book Store, appear in the index of the history of the rare and second-hand book trade published in 2006,[4]  nor in a more recent study of ‘Americanists and the Rare Book Market’.[5] It is hoped to remedy this oversight here.

[1]. H. R. Wagner, Bullion to Books: Fifty Years of Business and Pleasure  (Zamorano Club, 1942), p. 99.

[2]. E. P. Thompson ‘History from below’, Times Literary Supplement, (1966) April 7.

[3]. Giles Mandelbrote, Out of Print & Into Profit, A History of the Rare and Secondhand Book Trade in Britain in the Twentieth Century (London: British Library, 2006), Appendix 3, pp. 337–340.

[4]. Out of Print & Into Profit.

[5]. William Reese, Collectors, Booksellers and Libraries: Essays on Americanists and the Rare Book Market (New Haven: Overland Press, 2018).

Un bouquiniste spécialiste d’ouvrages anciens d’économie politique

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A paraître dans The Book Collector, Vol. 74.4, Winter 2025,  ‘The smartest bookseller in London’ Leon Kashnor (1879–1955) and the Museum Book Store’.

Cet article est consacré au bouquiniste qui a fourni de nombreux exemplaires d’ouvrages anciens aux collectionneurs qui ont fondé le corpus d’économie politique dans les collections des universités de Harvard, Columbia, Londres, The Huntington Library, l’IISH (Amsterdam), de Heidelberg et Poitiers.

French Fellows’ Seminar Churchill College, 25-27 July 2025

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As a regular at the annual reunion of French Fellows’ elected to Churchill College, I attended the French Fellows’ Seminar held on 25-27 July 2025 in Cambridge.

The meeting kicked off with Dinner at High Table on Friday 25 July 2025. Former fellows share the privilege of being able to invite guests to share in the occasion with its formal procedures softened by the friendly informal atmosphere where mingling and chatting is encouraged.

 

Accomodation was provided by the College in Cowan Court.

Following Breakfast in the Hall, on Saturday 26th July, the Seminar was opened by Adrian Barbrook, Vice-Master, fresh from his ‘tour de France’ in the summer. Ludovic Drouin, the Scientific attaché represented the Embassy.

Frédéric Thibault- Starzyk (CNRS), French Fellow 2003, who, along with Anny King, organized the meeting, introduced the speakers, Nathalie Berny (Maison française d’Oxford), Jean-François Roch (ENS Saclay) French Fellow 2017, Damir Juric (CNRS) French Fellow 2021-22 (pictured here), Adrian Liston (St. Catharine’s, Cambridge, former Senior Research Fellow at Churchill College) and David Holcman (ENS Paris) French Fellow 2015, who spoke on topics ranging from fluid dynamics to AI and anesthesia, environmental advocacy to immune system diversity.

Lunch was provided in the Fellows’ Dining Room, where the Fellows were honoured to be joined by the Master, Professor Sharon Peacock (Professor of Microbiology and Public Health), who was able to take time out of her busy schedule to sit in on the afternoon’s talks. A business meeting followed at which the groups’ projects for the future were discussed and future meetings set : in Paris for an informal evening in November 2025, and at Churchill College in July 2026.

The  pre-dinner reception on the Master’s lawn and High Table were and presided over by Professor Peacock at which she spoke warmly of the importance of wide horizons.

 

To end the weekend, on Sunday morning,  Barry Phipps gave us a visit of the Bill Brown Creative Workshops, followed by lunch at The Punter before going our separate ways.

A History of Collections, the History of Economics as an Academic Discipline – A Cambridge Field Study

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Vient de paraître : ‘The history of collections, the history of economics as an academic discipline: a Cambridge field study’, in Anny King & Paula Laycock (eds.) Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the French Government Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge, Saturday 20th July 2024, Churchill College, Cambridge, with the kind support of the French Embassy, London, pp.76-80.

(See the account of the 2024 meeting here)

Extract from the opening and the closing paragraphs of the paper written for the occasion:

« Following the serendipitous discovery of a first edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations in Poitiers University Library Special Collections in 2009, I embarked upon a project which sought to unravel the whys, hows and wherefores of a collection of early rare economic books in English at Poitiers. The Humanities project for which I was awarded the French Government Fellowship at Churchill College for 2020-2021 resulted from this quest and focused on issues of collection formation and the sourcing of rare economic history books with reference to significant collections and collectors, networking and nodal connections in the world of antiquarian books and academic scholarship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the very period during which Winston Churchill was collecting books about Napoleon.[1]

[1] Allen Packwood, “France and the French – A Tale of Two statesmen – CHURCHILL AND NAPOLEON”, Finest Hour, 157, Winter 2012-13, Page 14. International Churchill Society, February 28, 2015.

(…)

The intellectual environment at Churchill, the access to archives and libraries in Cambridge and London, the tranquil walks from the College to the Library and the other colleges, the quiet, studious and congenial setting, the social occasions – including strawberries and champagne on the Cam – provided the stimuli needed not only to explore Foxwell’s work, but to kick-start the writing of a book. It was in Sheppard Flats, that I was able to clearly establish the structure of the book resulting from this project, provisionally entitled A Wealth of Rare Books.The Making of the Economic History Corpus.  Academics, Bibliographers, Collectors and Dealers in Political Economy in France, Britain, the United States and Germany, 1880s-1930s, and where I wrote the introduction and several chapters in the spring – summer of 2021. The [first draft of the] manuscript, completed in spring 2024, along with several articles, has been submitted for publication. The motivation and encouragement provided at Churchill were crucial to achieving this result. (…)

Les collections remarquables des Bibliothèques universitaires de Poitiers

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Les collections remarquables des Bibliothèques universitaires de Poitiers.
Histoire de la collection. Histoire des collections du Service des collections remarquables.

Dans le cadre de la célébration des 50 ans du Service des collections remarquables et du centenaire du legs Auguste Dubois

Journée d’études les 3-4 avril 2025 à l’Université de Poitiers

Proposée par le Service des collections remarquables (Bibliothèques de l’Université de Poitiers),le MIMMOC, l’Institut d’Histoire du Droit, le FORELLIS

Programme:

Jeudi 3 avril  Faculté de Droit (Amphi Hardouin 14h -17h30)

 Mot d’Accueil : Marianne Faure-Abbad, Mme le Doyen de la Faculté de Droit, Myriam Marcil, Directrice des Bibliothèques de l’Université de Poitiers

L’histoire du Service des collections remarquables et de ses collections

14h. Jean-Pierre Bonnet (Bibliothèques de l’Université de Poitiers) – L’Université de Poitiers et ses livres, de la restauration du premier Empire (1804/1810) à aujourd’hui (2025)

14h30. Anne-Sophie Traineau-Durozoy (Bibliothèques de l’Université de Poitiers) – Le Service des collections remarquables aujourd’hui : état des lieux, enjeux et perspectives

15h. Clémentine Ordzinski et Mélanie Blicq (Médiathèque François-Mitterrand de Poitiers) – Bibliothèques universitaire et municipale de Poitiers : histoires de voisinage

***

16h. Jérôme Grévy (CRIHAM) – Les almanachs, un instrument de politisation au XIXe siècle

16h30. Adrien Lauba (Institut d’Histoire du Droit) – Arthur Girault (1865-1931), Doyen de la Faculté de Droit de Poitiers, théoricien de Droit colonial et donateur du fonds éponyme

17h. Susan Finding (MIMMOC) – Auguste Dubois (1869-1935), Professeur de la Faculté de Droit, testataire du Fonds Dubois.

 

Vendredi 4 avril 9h-17h30 (Campus)   UFR Lettres et Langues (Amphi Varda 9h-17h)

Mot d’accueil : Marion Picker, Directrice adjointe du MIMMOC, Licia Bagini, Responsable des Relations internationales de l’UFR Lettres et Langes

Autour du Fonds Dubois

9h. Anne-Sophie Traineau-Durozoy (Bibliothèques de l’Université de Poitiers) – Le Fonds Dubois, de 1935 à aujourd’hui

9h30. Elodie Peyrol-Kleiber (MIMMOC) – Le Fonds Dubois comme outil d’enseignement : débats sur la pauvreté dans les îles britanniques du XVIIIe siècle

10h Pierre Le Masne (LéP) – Le Fonds Dubois et la pensée économique française au XVIIIe siècle

Collections patrimoniales

11h00 Karen Attar, Curator, Senate House Library, Université de Londres –                                             The opportunities and challenges of curating rare books

An Interview with Karen Attar, SHL Curator of Rare Books - Institute of ...

Collections scientifiques

13h30 Séminaire « Peaux et merveilles » Séquence 3 Les écorchés  Organisé par : Myriam Marrache-Gouraud (FoReLLIS) et Jérôme Laubner (U. Montpellier, IRCL)

Invités Dominique Brancher, Yale University, Irène Salas, EHESS-Oxford University, Stéphane Bikialo, (FoReLLIS), Université de Poitiers

 Service des collections remarquables (La Ruche, Bâtiment A2)

16h30 Anne-Sophie Traineau-Durozoy (Bibliothèques de l’Université de Poitiers) Présentation d’ouvrages choisis

FE2C – Équilibre(s) en études civilisationnelles, un exercice d’équilibriste

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Vient de paraître dans la revue FLAMME (Fédérer Langues, Altérités, Marginalités, Médias, Éthique)  numéro HS N° 2 | 2024   Équilibre(s) en études civilisationnelles

Sous la direction de Élodie GALLET et Lucie GENAY

Entretien avec Susan Finding, directrice de la Fédération pour l’Étude des Civilisations Contemporaines (2010-2018) : Équilibre(s) en études civilisationnelles, un exercice d’équilibriste

Entretien réalisé par Élodie Gallet et Lucie GENAY

Cet entretien avec Susan Finding, première directrice de la Fédération pour l’Étude des Civilisations Contemporaines (FE2C), retrace l’historique de la fédération, sa fondation et son évolution depuis 2010, tout en proposant une réflexion sur la figure de l’équilibriste dans la recherche en civilisation.

Advertising Britain in the 1951 Festival of Britain guide

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Le numéro 29 de MIRANDA vient de paraître, dirigé par Trevor Harris et Béatrice Laurent, sur le thème de ‘Art in strange places‘.

Ma contribution fait suite au numéro des Cahiers du MIMMOC, 20 | 2019  Le ‘Festival of Britain 1951’ : une certaine idée du Royaume-Uni. The Festival of Britain 1951: the cultural politics of display

Advertising Britain in the 1951 Festival of Britain guide

Résumé : Le Festival of Britain de 1951 était conçu pour montrer les fleurons de la production industrielle, scientifique et culturelle du pays, vantant les mérites du mode de vie britannique. Le catalogue officiel du Festival of Britain (1951) qui présente et explique les différents sites et thèmes de l’exposition, comprend soixante-quatre pages en couleur de publicités pour des entreprises britanniques (en grande majorité) et leurs produits. Aucune industrie ou fabricant n’avait le droit de réserver des stands au sein de l’exposition. Les produits et procédés mis en avant avaient été choisis sur des critères artistiques et leur adhésion à la thématique de l’exposition. Les publicités dans le guide, une autre façon de mettre le Royaume-Uni à l’honneur, suivent les mêmes consignes. Dans ces pages, le narratif retenu par le Festival trouve ainsi un écho. Dans ces œuvres artistiques, des références textuelles et visuelles au patrimoine culturel britannique sont légion. On y trouve, tout comme dans l’exposition elle-même, des allusions à un avenir glorieux, aux canons de la littérature, et des tropes esthétiques qui mettent en scène d’un côté une vision futuriste du pays, de l’autre une tradition séculaire.

Abstract

The 1951 Festival of Britain was intended as a showpiece to display the country’s achievements to the world, extolling its way of life. The official Festival guide, as well as containing explanations about the various exhibition sites and exhibits, comprises sixty-four full-page colour adverts for (mainly) British companies and British-made products. No industry or manufacturer was permitted to book exhibition space within the South Bank Exhibition. Exhibits were “selected for the excellence of their design and their appropriateness to the story which is told”. This is likely to have also been the case for the adverts placed in the guide, a further way of putting Britain on display. The overall narrative related by the Festival is found echoed in these pages. In these pieces of artwork, both visual and textual references abound to British “heritage”, to a glorious future, to the literary canon, with artistic tropes projecting both tradition and futuristic visions and, as seen at the time, the place of Britain in the world.

50th Anniversary of Churchill College French Government Fellowships

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On Saturday July 20th, 2024 past and present French government Fellows of Churchill College assembled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the scheme, in the presence of representatives of the College, and the French Embassy in London.

They included members of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA-Saclay), the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), the Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP), the Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INSAE), the Institut national des sciences appliquées (INSA), the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM), and the Universities of Evry,  Paris, Poitiers (yours truly), and Toulouse.

The Fellows were welcomed by the current and former Vice-Masters, Adrian Barbrook and Ken Skiddle, and Professor Dame Athene Donald, Master of the College, seen here addressing the assembled Fellows and guests at dinner.

The current and former Scientific Counsellors at the French Embassy, Minh-Hà Pham (seated to the left of the Master) and Jean Arlat, along with Ludovic Drouin, Attaché Scientifique, were actively involved in the day’s proceedings. Talks on the impact of their stay at Churchill on their research were given by seven former Fellows, all of whom stressed the welcoming and convivial academic environment provided by the college.

A drinks reception was held on the Fellows’ Lawn followed by a Formal Dinner for sixty assembled Fellows – French Government Fellows and their families and guests, and Churchill Fellows who had welcomed them with academic comradeship and personal friendships.

For information about the French Government Fellowships. Enquiries and applications should be made to the Scientific Counsellor at the French Embassy in London. For this and other bilateral French-British programmes.