Presidents’ Day

February 14, 2025

Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. It was initially established in 1879 to recognize President George Washington. Now, it serves as a day to remember and celebrate all U.S. presidents, past and present, as we reflect on the leaders who have shaped the United States. What better way to do that than by exploring the publications that offer insights into their administrations and legacies?

You can learn about presidential history by visiting the GPO Government Bookstore, where you will find official resources about current and past Presidential administrations. The Public Papers of the Presidents series, produced by the Office of the Federal Register within the National Archives and Records Administration, is a great way to do this. The Public Papers historical collection of primary source documents includes the Presidents’ public messages, statements, and speeches.

The GPO Online Bookstore – Easy Access to Federal Publications

HOW DO I OBTAIN THESE RESOURCES?

Sign up to receive promotional bulletin emails from the US Government Online Bookstore.

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy a vast majority of eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Order by Phone or Email: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

Find more than a million official Federal Government publications from all three branches at www.govinfo.gov.

About the author: Blogger Trudy Hawkins is the Senior Marketing & Promotions Specialist in GPO’s Publication & Information Sales Office supporting the U.S. Government Online Bookstore (https://bookstore.gpo.gov).

Leave a Comment » | Executive Branch, Presidents, The White House, U.S. History | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Trudy Hawkins

The Fine Art of Bookbinding

December 30, 2010

The Washington Post ran an interesting article the other day about hand binding at GPO – specifically, the finishing our Bindery does for the White House on presentation copies of the Public Papers of the President – including hand-tooled goatskin leather, marbled edges, and silk moiré endpapers. Happily, this kind of artistry is still valued by the Government, even in this digital age.

For many years, apprentice printers at GPO have studied bookbinding as one of the graphic arts. Since binding is a material rather than a digital process, reading the 1950 edition of GPO’s Theory and Practice of Bookbinding (left) still provides a pretty good introduction to the work we do today for such publications as the Public Papers and Jefferson’s Manual of parliamentary procedure, developed by Thomas Jefferson and still used by the House of Representatives (here’s a nice video on the handwork involved in binding the Manual).

Take marbling, for instance. According to Theory and Practice of Bookbinding, “marbling and gilding are complicated processes and a bookbinder who can do both well is a rarity. In fact, the majority of modern bookbinders can do neither” – and that was in 1950! As is evident in the post article and the video, we still know how to do it today.

This 60-year old guide to binding also covers even more esoteric book arts. In fore-edge painting, the top edge of a book is scraped and tied, and a watercolor picture is painted on the fanned edges (how cool is that?). Do you need some goffering? That’s a decoration produced by denting the edge after it’s gilded. I don’t know if GPO has ever done fore-edge painting, but the apprentices here had to know ALL of the terms and techniques of their craft.

When you’re in an arts and crafts mood, or if you’re like me and enjoy all kinds of obscure information about books and their making, the Theory and Practice of Bookbinding is well worth a browse. You can find copies of  various editions on used book Web sites at very reasonable prices, or in a library.

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!

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Posted by govbooktalk