Steven Galbraith Headshot

Steven Galbraith

Curator

The Wallace Center - Cary Library
Academic Affairs
Adjunct Faculty

585-475-3961
Office Location

Steven Galbraith

Curator

The Wallace Center - Cary Library
Academic Affairs
Adjunct Faculty

Bio

Steven K. Galbraith is Curator of the Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Graphic Arts Collection. He has a Ph.D. in English Literature from Ohio State University and an M.L.S. from the University at Buffalo. Prior to coming to RIT, he was the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Books at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, the Curator of Early Modern Books and Manuscripts at The Ohio State University, and a reference librarian at the University of Maine. He is the author of works on early English printing, book conservation and digitization, and English Renaissance literature.

585-475-3961

Personal Links
Areas of Expertise

Currently Teaching

MUSE-361
3 Credits
From ancient clay and wax tablets, to scrolls and medieval manuscripts, to printed books and iPads, this class examines the history of books from 2300 BCE to the present. Students study books not only as vehicles for texts, but also as physical artifacts that carry with them important evidence of the cultures that produced and read them. Using the Cary Graphic Arts Collection as their research laboratory, students investigate the evolution of books through hands-on interaction with artifacts both ancient and modern, while also pondering what forms future books might take.

In the News

  • November 18, 2020

    side-by-side images of a 15th-century manuscript, one showing regular text and the other showing text that had been erased.

    RIT students discover hidden 15th-century text on medieval manuscripts

    RIT students discovered lost text on 15th-century manuscript leaves using an imaging system they developed as freshmen. By using ultraviolet-fluorescence imaging, the students revealed that a manuscript leaf held in RIT’s Cary Graphic Arts Collection was actually a palimpsest, a manuscript on parchment with multiple layers of writing.

  • October 21, 2019

    Inscription above glass doors with wood fram reads: Melbert B. Cary Jr. Graphic Arts Collection.

    Master stone carver John Everett Benson awarded Goudy Award

    John Everett “Fud” Benson, a master stone carver, calligrapher and type designer, is the 2019 recipient of the Frederic W. Goudy Award for Excellence in Typography, given to an outstanding practitioner in type design and related fields. Presented by the Cary Graphic Arts Collection, the award is dedicated to the continued progress of the printing field in the spirit of the great printers of the past.