Caxton Club

The Caxton Club is a private social club and bibliophilic society founded in Chicago in 1895 to promote the book arts and the history of the book. To further its goals, the club holds monthly (September through June) dinner meetings and luncheons, sponsors bibliophile events (often in collaboration with the Newberry Library and with other regional institutions) and exhibitions, and publishes books, exhibition catalogs, and a monthly journal, The Caxtonian. The Caxton Club is a member club of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies.

History
The Caxton Club was founded in 1895 by a group of fifteen bibliophiles to support the publication of fine books in the style of the then-new Arts and Crafts Movement. The club's name honors the fifteenth-century English printer William Caxton. The founders included John Vance Cheney, Edward E. Ayer, Martin A. Ryerson, James Ellsworth, Charles L. Hutchinson, and Washington Irving Way and Chauncey L. Williams (of Way & Williams).

In 1976, women began to be admitted as members of the Caxton Club, marking a departure from the common practice in gentlemen's clubs of excluding women before that era. Mary Beth Beal is notable for being the Caxton Club’s first female President in 1985-1986.

In 1995 the Caxton Club centenary was celebrated with publication of The Caxton Club, 1895–1995: Celebrating a Century of the Book in Chicago which has been characterized as a "significant addition to the history of American bibliophily."

The Club published several fine editions in partnership with the Lakeside Press of Chicago.

The Club awards scholarships and grants to students and researchers in the book arts.

Notable members

 * Sydney E. Berger -- educator, librarian, rare books expert
 * Thomas Kimball Brooker - book collector, businessman
 * Gwendolyn Brooks – author, poet
 * Francis Fisher Browne – editor
 * Lee Pierce Butler – bibliographer, librarian, professor
 * Michèle V. Cloonan - librarian, professor
 * John Y. Cole - founding director of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress
 * Charles Deering - businessman, art collector, philanthropist
 * Robert B. Downs - librarian, author
 * Alexander Wilson Drake – artist, collector, critic
 * James Ellsworth – banker, industrialist
 * Charles Lang Freer – art collector, industrialist, philanthropist
 * Michael Gorman – librarian
 * Frederic Goudy - printer, artist and type designer
 * Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden – book collector and scholar
 * Nancy Gwinn - director Smithsonian Libraries
 * Theodore Wesley Koch - librarian, translator


 * Henry Eduard Legler – activist, librarian
 * Frank Orren Lowden – 25th governor of Illinois, United States representative IL, candidate Republican presidential nominations 1920, 1928
 * Beverly Lynch - librarian
 * William Mulliken – Olympic swimmer
 * Audrey Niffenegger – author and artist
 * Stanley Pargellis - Director of the Newberry Library, 1942 to 1962
 * Lawrence Clark Powell -librarian
 * Sarah M. Pritchard – librarian
 * Carl B. Roden – librarian
 * Ralph Fletcher Seymour – artist, author, publisher
 * David Spadafora - historian, President, Newberry Library
 * Vincent Starrett – author and newspaperman
 * Peggy Sullivan - library historian, librarian
 * Robert Wedgeworth – librarian and executive
 * Frank Lloyd Wright – architect

Publications
In	the	course	of	its	history, the Caxton	Club has	published	formal	publications	and	other	printed pieces. These include The French Bookbinders of the Eighteenth Century, The Cowboy in American Literature by J. Frank Dobie, Tales for Bibliophiles. and Imaginary Books and Libraries.

A complete	listing	of	the publications is available here:	club’s	publications.