Though registered, I missed Renate Mesmer's presentation at the William Anthony Conservation Lecture Series on Halloween 2024. Thank you to the friendly colleagues at Iowa for putting it online recently.
In her lecture, Renate spoke about her path in From an Apprenticeship in Traditional Hand Bookbinding to Conservation, a path that started with her apprenticeship in Germany after leaving school after the 10th grade (at 16 years old), the more traditional path, and alternative to university [qualification (Gymnasium)] or after. Her description of those experiences also reminded me of what could have been in the case of my apprenticeship. The biggest takeaways for me – repetition and then more repetition, life-long learning, and giving back.
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| The works and daily/weekly journal (Berichtsheft) of an apprentice. Bonus image at center of a Sprungrücken. |
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| View the lecture on YouTube here. |
