The book featured here is Black Friday by Frederic Stewart Isham (1886-1922) with binding design by Rome K. Richardson, published in 1904 in New York by Grosset and Dunlap. It is from the Richard Minsky Collection at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library. The cover design features stylized stock ticker tape machines and basket receptacles in a repeating pattern — a distinctive nod to the modern.

Visit Publishers’ Bindings Online, 1815-1930: The Art of Books for images of this book and over 5,000 more, along with a huge variety of research and teaching tools, fun and fascinating things to read, and lots of cool things to look at — something for everyone. And that includes a nice little graphic to remind us (not that we need it) that it’s Friday!