Bookplate Acknowledging Gift to the Boston Public Library from the 20th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Memorial Fund, 1890-1910

Bookplates show ownership, but they can also tell us more. Often pasted on the inside of a book's front cover or endpaper, these printed labels contain the owner's name and sometimes the words "ex-libris" (Latin for "from the library of"). Coats of arms, crests, other decorative images, poems, mottoes, and even font type provide insight into the beliefs, passions, and interests of the book's owner.