1930s

In 1926, world-famous magician Harry Houdini died of peritonitis following a ruptured appendix. Before his death, he had planned to write several books on varied subjects, including his own career and magical secrets. Fortunately, he had discussed these ideas and shared his notes with Bernard Ernst, president of the Society of American Magicians. Ernst arranged for Walter B. Gibson— a fellow magician, the creator of the pulp fiction character The Shadow, and Houdini's ghost writer— to prepare Houdini’s Escapes.

The Thompson Trophy air race (1929-1961) was an annual aircraft speed race with a course set up around pylons. It was an especially prestigious event during the great air race period of the 1930s. This unique limited-edition publication covers the year’s winners from 1929 to 1936.  It has a gold cover and colorful illustrations of the winning aircraft, which are beautifully preserved.  Each illustration of a winning aircraft was designed to be suitable for framing. The book is held together with a spiral binding that is a concern for future preservation.

Gather out of Star-Dust: A Harlem Renaissance Album is a tribute to the Harlem Renaissance, a period of tremendous artistic and cultural achievement among African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s, with New York City's Harlem neighborhood at its epicenter. The book is also based on a current exhibit of the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Yale University.