To research and photograph the practically invisible requires a unique technology and a curious intellect. A half century ago Thomas Gravell began a life-long study by collecting examples of early American watermarks. In 1979, he and George Miller published an interim edition which illustrated over 700 examples together with some thumbnail histories of the paper mills that produced them.
Using all the original 1979 watermarks, now in the Special Collection Department of the University of Delaware Library, this edition adds more than 300 new watermarks found by Mr. Gravell during the past twenty years. In all, 1,057 watermarks have now been computer enhanced and triple-indexed for better identification. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Walsh of the Folger Library edited a great deal of new information from leading scholars and enthusiasts.
This new corpus of research corrected and updated the numerous mill histories, indexes, glossary, and bibliography.
This expanded and revised edition of American Watermarks, brings to the paper and autograph scholar the latest information available on early American watermarks in a clear, concise work that should become a basic reference in its field.