Past Events

 The Washington Rare Book Group invites you to join us for our Annual Year-End Meeting and Presentation:   The Armenian Palimpsest Investigation By Dr. Khachik Harutyunyan May 31, 2022, 8:00 p.m. (please note unusual event time!)  Dr. Harutyunyan will be joining us from Armenia to present his latest research on the 10th - 11th century Armenian palimpsest manuscript in the Dibner Library collection (Smithsonian Libraries and Archives). He will introduce briefly the Armenian alphabet, manuscript heritage, and Armenian paleography then will discuss…

The WASHINGTON RARE BOOK GROUP invites you to join us in-person for a return to our traditional September event: Collector’s Night! For the very first time since the pandemic, the Washington Rare Book Group invites members and friends to join us in-person at the Dibner Library to view and discuss some special materials collected by our very own members. Space is limited! Members can choose from two time slots in order to prevent overcrowding.  Hosted by Lilla Vekerdy, Head of…

The Washington Rare Book Group invites you to join us for our next virtual lunchtime lecture: To Each Generation its Own: Building and Reimagining the Nation’s Rare Book Collection By Mark Dimunation Friday, October 28, 12pm   Mark Dimunation was appointed Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress in 1998. As Chief, Mr. Dimunation is responsible for the development and management of the Rare Book Collection, the largest collection of rare books in North America.…

Happy New Year WRBG! Hello all, We hope you’ve had a safe and happy holiday season, and we welcome you back for a new year of programming with the Washington Rare Book Group. As mentioned in our holiday letter, the January event is going to continue our newest tradition, the WRBG book discussion. This year, we will look at Index, a history of the: a bookish adventure from medieval manuscripts to the digital age. This book by Dennis Duncan is…

The WASHINGTON RARE BOOK GROUP invites you to join us in-person for: A visit to the U.S. Naval Observatory Library Tuesday, February 28th, 2023 5:00-7:00 PM Members of the Washington Rare Book Group are now welcome to register for our February in-person event at the U.S. Naval Observatory Library in Northwest DC. During this evening visit to one of the nation’s oldest scientific institutions, we’ll hear about the history of the Observatory, see some of its oldest telescopes, and visit the…

The Washington Rare Book Group invites you to join us for our next virtual lunchtime lecture:   Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place By Michelle Margolis   Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place is a digital project aggregating data about the movement of printed Jewish books from the hand-press period (printed until 1800) through the present day. At this session, Michelle will discuss the Footprints project and some of the challenges and successes in looking deeply at individual copies of…

The WASHINGTON RARE BOOK GROUP invites you to join us in-person for a visit to the Library of the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE Please join us for the WRBG’s first-ever visit to the library of the Smithsonian’s new(-ish) National Museum of African American History and Culture.   The group will be limited to 15 people, so sign up soon!   One of 21 libraries in the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives system, the National Museum of African American…

The WASHINGTON RARE BOOK GROUP (WRBG) Invites you to join us for our annual meeting including a talk by Ryan Zohar, Middle East Studies Librarian at Georgetown University and one of WRBG’s recent Rare Book School Scholarship recipients. When: Wednesday, June 14th , 2023 at 11:00 a.m. Where: Rosenwald Room, Library of Congress (LJ-230, across from the Rare Book Reading Room) Our speaker, Ryan Zohar, is Middle East Studies Liaison & Reference Librarian at Georgetown University. He holds a BA…