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Online Event

WATCH PARTY: Lowell Thing, Cover Treasure: The Adventures of a Margaret Armstrong Collector

Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - 12:00 PM | online | open to the public | free of charge | drop in

Join us for the streaming premiere of this documentary-style slideshow. These images and comments were presented live on October 1, 2020. This video features all the visual content, with the speaker's remarks rendered as onscreen captions. There is no sound.

To browse the slides alone, click here.

After this date, the recording will be available on this page.


The foremost expert on the book art of Margaret Armstrong talks about her life and career, with stunning images from his own comprehensive collection of her bindings. Mr. Thing places Margaret Armstrong within the special art of the decorated cloth book cover and its Golden Age, illuminates what is unique and admirable in her work, and tells his own story as a passionate collector in a community of collectors.

Formerly a technical writer at IBM, Lowell Thing is a past President of the Friends of Historic Kingston and has chaired the Kingston Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission. He is the author of The Street That Built a City – McEntee’s Chestnut Street, Kingston, and the Rise of New York (Black Dome Press, 2015). A longtime library enthusiast, he has served on the board of the Mid-Hudson Library System. He has collected books with Margaret Armstrong covers for over 30 years and expects to publish a book about her life and art soon.

This event is part of our exhibition season for The Book Beautiful: Margaret Armstrong & Her Bindings. Learn more about the exhibition, and visit our online gallery, here.