 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (May 2024) |
Janet Cook Lewis | |
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| Born | June 17, 1855 Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | January 18, 1947 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Cooper Union |
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Janet Cook Lewis (June 17, 1855 – January 18, 1947) was an American portrait painter, librarian, and bookbinder who specialized in book conservation and restoration. She was known as the "Doctor of Books". Lewis discovered a process for preventing disintegration of the bindings of books, the larger part of her active life having been spent in applying this treatment to the collections found in U.S. private libraries. Though she was educated as an artist, she was the first, and in her day probably the most reliable authority, on the subject of leather bindings and their preservation.[1]
Lewis was an organizer and president of Toledo Woman's Exchange, 1884-90. During the period of 1890-96, she worked as a painter of portraits. Lewis was a pioneer worker in the interests of a woman's apartment house; in 1896, the Martha Washington Hotel was the outcome of the work done. She was a private secretary and librarian to Mrs. Richard Morris Hunt, and Lewis' later success was in the preservation of leather developed through the work in the Richard Morris Hunt Architectural and Art Library, where she served as librarian at least until 1914. She served as a consultant to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Union League Club, and to the Vatican Library.[2] She was the organizer and treasurer of the Pen and Brush Club.[3]
- ^ "LEWIS, JANET COOK". The Biographical Cyclopaedia of American Women ... Vol. 2. Halvord Publishing Company. 1925. pp. 190–94. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Weidman, Jeffrey; Oberlin College Library (2000). Artists in Ohio, 1787-1900: A Biographical Dictionary. Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-616-6. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
- ^ Leonard, John W. (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. p. 489. Retrieved 6 November 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
