Highlights from Bridwell Library Special Collections: Nineteenth-Century Prayer Books

Originally exhibited June 7–July 30, 2010
The Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Galleries

Introduction

This exhibition comprises a selection of highlights from Bridwell Library Special Collections. Representing various strengths of the library’s rare book collections, the materials document the role of books in religious practice in selected eras and locales. These materials reflect the uncommonly strong foundation for teaching and advanced research that Bridwell Library provides for students and faculty of Perkins School of Theology and Southern Methodist University as well as the broader community.

A variety of nineteenth-century publications offered especially handsome or innovative presentations of traditional prayer texts. Several of the books included here demonstrate how European and North American printers responded to the increasingly mechanical aspects of nineteenth-century book production by offering fine typography or rich programs of illustration; others reveal how the addition of an elegant binding likewise enhanced the reader’s experience of the prayers.

Credits

Bridwell Library Special Collections