Crawford,John, 1913-

Book collector, born Parkersburg, West Viginia. Crawford's father was a partner in a Tulsa, Oklahoma company which manufactured equipment used in the oil industry. He was educated privately and at the Ashville School in North Carolina. Following his graduation from Brown University in 1937, Crawford traveled around the world for one year. Settling on the East Side of Manhattan, he devoted himself to collecting and bibliophilic activities. He became a member of the Grolier Club in 1947, and club member Bruce Rogers designed his bookplate. Two foci of Crawford's collecting interests were William Morris and the Kelmscott Press as well as Chinese calligraphy and landscape painting. His donation of the Morris collection to the Pierpont Morgan Library became the occasion for its exhibit "William Morris and the Art of the Book," mounted in the fall of 1976. He donated his Chinese collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.