Exhibits Celebrate Books |
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Exhibit Asks "What's On Your Bookshelf?"
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Kalman L.
Levitan |
On display now through December on the 4th floor of Blegen Library are 40-50 books from the Kalman L. Levitan Collection of Miniature Books at the University of Cincinnati.
The collection consists of some 356 miniature books, pamphlets, keepsakes,
and playing cards. Languages include English, Hebrew, Latin, Hungarian,
Polish, Russian, Maori, Spanish, Japanese, French, and Yiddish. There
are flip books, calendars, micro books, prayer books of various religious
denominations, children’s toys, a Victorian-era dance card with
tiny pencil, and tunnel books that reveal a three-dimensional scene
when fully opened. One highlight of the exhibit is a chained Bible printed
in Scotland. Chained Bibles were attached to the lectern for safe keeping.
Kalman L. Levitan was a writer, teacher, retired Air Force colonel,
and a founder of the Miniature Book Society. Rabbi Levitan, a graduate
of the Harvard Law School and Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, served
30 years as chaplain for the Air Force. After his retirement in 1973,
he turned his attention more fully to a wide variety of other pursuits,
including miniature books. At its first meeting in 1983, the Miniature
Book Society elected Rabbi Levitan its first president.
When a child, Rabbi Levitan’s father gave him a pocket-sized Hebrew
prayer book printed in Warsaw in 1903, which became the beginning of
a collection that grew to more than 2,000 volumes, some so small they
came with a magnifying glass. The collection spanned five centuries
and included many rare and precious volumes. His collection was considered
one of the most important of its kind in America, according to David
Bromer, a Boston antiquarian book dealer specializing in miniature books.
In addition to his activity as a collector, Mr. Levitan published his
own miniature books and wrote and edited volumes about miniature books.
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| Some of the miniature books on
exhibit. Photo by Melissa Cox Norris |
In recent years, Rabbi Levitan began to sell much of his collection to other collectors. Collectors eagerly seek miniature books with Rabbi Levitan’s bookplate, which reads “Ex Mini-Libris Levitan” and has a Hebrew inscription and an illustration of the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
Following Rabbi Levitan’s death in August 2002 at age 85, his wife, Carol Frank Levitan, generously donated his remaining miniature book collection to University Libraries. Mrs. Levitan graduated from Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati with a degree in history. Along with the gift of the miniature book collection, Mrs. Levitan also donated funds to help process it. This rich collection, when fully cataloged, will be available in University Libraries’ Archives and Rare Books Department for consultation and research by scholars and book artists from around the world.
To learn more about the history of miniature books, visit <www.libraries.uc.edu/source/minibooks.html>.