Acknowledgements
This book is the result of several years of exchanges among the editors, the contributors, and a wider group of scholars that shared their work and expertise at two international symposia. The first event was hosted by the Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library in 2018 and consisted of public presentations of original research, not only by the contributors to this volume, but also by other speakers, session chairs, and commentators whom we would like to thank publicly here: Georgia Barnhill, Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, Mazie M. Harris, Jason Hill, Peter Jaszi, Michael Knies, Lía Munilla Lacasa, Jessica Lake, Christopher J. Lukasik, Anne McCauley, Jessica Silbey, Nora Slonimsky, Amy Sopcak-Joseph, Eva E. Subotnik, Sandra M. Szir, Anne Verplanck, and Amy Werbel. The second meeting, hosted by Columbia University Global Centers Paris (Reid Hall) in 2019, took the form of a workshop featuring intensive discussion and peer review of the draft chapters for this book.
These symposia — and the present book — would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. On behalf of all participants, we would like to express our gratitude to both organizations for their funding. Crucial support also came from the Institut universitaire de France (IUF), which enabled us to defray expenses associated with the two symposia and the preparation of this book.
We would like to thank our colleagues for their help in planning the two events. At Winterthur, these include Giovanna Urist, who provided expert assistance with several grant applications; the late Linda Eaton, Senior Curator Emerita of textiles, who supported our project; and Janice Kraft and Jean McCuskey, who were crucial to the success of the first symposium. We are also grateful to the late François Brunet, who as head of the Laboratoire de recherches sur les cultures anglophones (Université de Paris/ CNRS, UMR 8225), supported this project from the beginning, and to LARCA’s Jean-Marie Boeglin, who provided indispensable administrative support. The Paris workshop was facilitated by the staff of Columbia Global Centers Paris, especially Loren Wolfe and Krista D. Faurie. Courtney Traub of WordTailors provided expert copyediting on a tight deadline. We are grateful for the anonymous peer reviewer who offered detailed comments on the individual chapters. Finally, we owe thanks to Alessandra Tosi for her encouragement and advice throughout the publication process, and to the superb editorial staff of Open Book Publishers, including Lucy Barnes, Anna Gatti, and Melissa Purkiss. As this book was going to press, we learned the sad news of the passing of William St Clair, Chairman of Open Book Publishers, whose scholarly contributions to the history of intellectual property and access to knowledge and culture were formidable.