1961 - Ken Nesheim
I began my formal relationship with rare books and manuscripts as a student assistant at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA 1958-61. After graduation in 1961, and following a year as the first Lilly Library Fellow in Rare Book Librarianship at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, I became a manuscript cataloguer at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery 1962-63. Between August 1963 and 1980, I was the Assistant, later, the Associate Director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
My duties at these various institutions were chiefly concerned with the acquisition and accessioning of rare books and manuscripts throughout the United States and abroad. This included bibliographical searching and ordering from antiquarian booksellers. While at Yale University, along with administrative duties, I served 17 years on the Beinecke Library’s Rare Book Purchasing Committee; as the Library’s coordinator for the production of four of its major publications: The printed catalogues of the Mellon alchemical manuscripts, Carey Playing Card Collection, Gimbel Dickens Collection, facsimile edition of Antonio Pigafetta’s account of Magellan’s circumnavigation; as adviser to the Jared Eliot Associates (undergraduate book collecting club) and Chair, judges committee of the Adrian Van Sinderin Prizes in Book Collecting. As Associate Director, I was the library’s administrative officer responsible for managing the deep-freezing program. See The Yale Non-toxic Method of Eradicating Book eating Insects by Deep-freezing. Restaurator 6: 147-164 1984 Munksgaard, Copenhagen.
From 1980-84, I was employed as Associate, Laurence Witten Rare Books, Southport, Connecticut, where I was associated with the proprietor in all phases of the business: Buying and selling, bidding at auction, writing and editing catalogue descriptions, managing production of printed sale catalogues, researching dealer’s catalogues and auction records, pricing stock and preparing valuations for clients. In 1985, I began my book and manuscript appraisal business. Since then, I have remained active and have prepared several hundred large and small appraisals for libraries, institutions, and individuals. I am a member of the Grolier Club of New York City, the Yale Club of New York City, Mory’s Association, New Haven, CT, Club of Odd Volumes of Boston, MA, Elizabethan Club, New Haven, CT, Columbiad Club, Meriden, CT, and Associate Fellow, Trumbull College, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
email address: bk.titles@comcast.net
