McCune Rare Book and Art Collection is located at the John F Kennedy Library in Vallejo.
The McCune Collection contains representations of famous printing from 15th century through the 20th century. This includes a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible as well as other early printers.
Some of the early printers represented in the collection are Johann Gutenberg, Nicolas Jenson, Adolf Rusch, Sweynheym & Pannartz, Conrad Fyner, J. Pruss, Anton Koberger and Johann Gruninger. We also have books printed by the Elzevir family, John Baskerville, Bodoni, Robert and Andrea Foulis, John Pine, and others.
The collection also includes hundreds of rare books from the 15th to 20th centuries. This includes the Kelmscott Chaucer (1896), Byrne's Euclid (1847), Baskerville Bible (1763), Doves Bible (1903), Don Quixote (1780) by Spanish Royal Academy of Madrid. We have all the books issued by the Book Club of California. Other printers represented are Grabhorn, Nonesuch, John Henry Nash, Henry Evans, Golden Cockerel Press, Ashendene, Plantin Press and a number of books designed by Bruce Rogers.
There are also Henry Evans botanical prints. An additional benefit is that we have a good collection of books and magazines on the process of printing, as well as having one of the largest collection of binding tools west of Chicago. We have an 1852 Albion Hand Press, which we are hoping to start to use for printing classes.
There is no charge to visit the collection. There is free parking in the library parking lot and we are just a short walk from the ferry terminal. Although our normal hours of operation are only the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month from 2-4 pm, we are more than happy to make special arrangement to tour the collection if you can give us a little bit of notice.
