The Club was established in 1884 by a group of seven New York City book collectors and named in honor of the French bibliophile, Jean Grolier (1479-1565) with the object, as stated its constitution, "of literary study and promotion of the arts pertaining to the production of books." In the early years the collecting interests of a number of members included works on paper, especially prints (including etchings, lithographs and mezzotints), and the Club acquired many, by both gift and purchase, It mounted a number of priint exhibitions. Member Edward G. Kennedy, author of the standard catalogue of the etchings of James McNeill Whistler (1910), endowed a fund to support the print collection. In 1979 renewed interest among the membership for works on paper and a concern to improve the physical condition of the collections, led to the creation of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Prints, Drawings and Photographs at the Club's annual meeting in January 1979). Some years later the Ad-Hoc Committee obtained permanent status. In 1998 it mounted "The Taste of 1884," an exhibition that evoked one mounted in May 1884 of nineteenth century European and American prints. A small number of outstanding but ourt-of-scope items were sold in 1981 and in 1988 Committee reassessed the print collection of almost 12,000 items and disposed through sale and gift of duplicates and many out-of-scope items. The remaining collection of ca. 4,000 prints are primarily portraits of persons relevant to the Club's interests: printers, authors, publishers, collectors, and graphic artists.
From the description of Records, 1979- (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 145382423
