William Matthews was an American

bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...

once called "the most famous bookbinder America has produced".A scan from a book describing him thus is widely available online but is of uncertain original provenance
link
is to

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

's use of the image. Matthews was born in Scotland in 1822.Guide to the Thelma E. Smith collection on the William Matthews family ARC.091
"

Brooklyn Historical Society The Center for Brooklyn History (CBH, formerly known as the Brooklyn Historical Society) is a museum, library, and educational center founded in 1863 that preserves and encourages the study of Brooklyn's 400-year history of Brooklyn, history. Th ...

. Accessed December 4, 2019. In 1833 he was enrolled in the London Orphan Asylum After leaving he apprenticed with

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

bookbinders Remnant and Edmonds. In December 1843 be emigrated to

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

where he married Julia Elizabeth Marle, daughter of bookbinder William Marle. Matthews was naturalized an American citizen in 1850, showed his work at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial and died in 1896.

References

Bookbinders 1822 births 1896 deaths {{US-artist-stub