In Memoriam: Miriam Owen Irwin 1930-2021
In 1980, I was the rare books cataloger at Auburn University in Alabama and was tasked with cataloging a group of miniature books that had just appeared in my workflow. Always fascinated with miniature things, I was delighted. On my way home from work a few days later, I passed a doll house shop and stopped in find some tiny volumes published by Mosaic Press in Cincinnati. My first miniature book purchases were Corals of Pennekamp and Betsy Ross. A year later, I found myself in a new job at the University of Cincinnati. I looked up the owner of the Mosaic Press, Miriam Irwin, in the telephone book and gave her a call. She invited me to visit her at her home in suburban Wyoming, and we had a great time talking about life in my newly-adopted city. When she learned of my recent purchase of her books, she declared, “You’re a collector!” to which I replied, “Oh no, I’m just interested in them.” The rest is history.
Miriam had an aunt that had a dollhouse collection. She was intrigued by the little books furnishing the dollhouse, but noticed most were either blank or fake books. She proclaimed she could do a better job, so she established Mosaic Press in 1977 in Cincinnati. Most of the publications of Mosaic Press are dollhouse size, although a few titles are smaller and a few larger. She worked with Hugo Grummich at his Cincinnati Bindery to design and bind her books completely by hand. Most of the books issued by the press were bound by Hugo and his wife Diana. Today, their sons Karl and Frank carry on the family business of binding all kinds of books, and containers for them (including miniatures) at their Cincy Bindery, located in the same building occupied by their father. In later years, Miriam bound many of her books herself in her Bibelot Bindery. Karl Grummich recalls that Miriam was a good business negotiator and a favorite client of his parents. His brother Frank is a master binder who was trained in Vienna, Austria. Together they continue the high quality binding traditions established by their father.
Mosaic Press published over 40 titles that are held today by more than 140 libraries worldwide, as well as in the hands of private collectors and miniaturists globally. Mosaic Press titles are still being offered at mosaicpress.com by Miriam’s husband Ken.
In 1983, Miriam learned that a fellow miniature book publisher, Ian Macdonald of the Gleniffer Press in Paisley, Scotland, would be visiting the United States that summer. She invited him and several other publishers of miniature books to her family farm in Tipp City, Ohio, for the Labor Day weekend in early September where they could all meet, many for the first time, and talk about their mutual interests. Everyone who was invited accepted.
Soon other publishers and collectors asked to be included in the gathering. Mrs. Irwin contacted collector Dr. Kalman L. Levitan who suggested having two meetings, with the second one for collectors to be held in nearby Englewood, Ohio. The idea was conceived of holding the world’s first miniature book fair at the farm in Tipp City, north of Cincinnati.
On September 3, 1983, twenty-six collectors met at a hotel near Dayton and organized a miniature book society. The following afternoon at the Tipp City farm, the two groups held a joint meeting, presided over by Glen Dawson of Dawson’s Book Shop in Los Angeles. They all decided to form a single group of publishers and collectors, the Miniature Book Society. Kalman L. Levitan was elected the first Chairman. This meeting was named the Grand Conclave by Mr. Dawson’s wife, Mary Helen. Although I did not attend this first meeting, I did attend the miniature book fair, which, as I recall, was held entirely outdoors under shade trees on the farm on a beautiful sunny Sunday. A few years ago, Miriam gave me a videotape of the weekend’s events, filmed by Miriam’s brother, who had just gotten a new video camera and wanted to try it out. She asked if I could transfer it to DVD, which I did. Imagine my surprise when on the video, I saw myself walking to the fair with a friend all those years ago! Most people had no idea the video existed.
Miriam served as President of the MBS from 1987-1989. She hosted Conclave VII in the Cincinnati suburb of Sharonville in 1989, as well as serving as co-host of Conclave XX in Covington, Kentucky (another Cincinnati suburb) in 2002.
The daughter of Dr. John Milton Owen and Faith Studebaker Owen, Miriam Owen Irwin was born June 14, 1930. She was on the editorial staff of The American Home magazine until it ceased publication, and she moved to Cincinnati in 1966. Shortly thereafter, she served as an emergency medical technician for the city of Wyoming for five years. The most recent conclave she attended was in Boston at Conclave XXXII in 2014. Her last years were taken from her by Alzheimer’s dementia; she died February 7, 2021 at age 90. She is survived by her husband Kenneth John Irwin, her son Christopher Owen Irwin and her granddaughter Jennifer Jo Irwin of Brooklyn, New York. She leaves behind her extended family, including the Studebaker family (of Studebaker automobile fame), which formed the Studebaker Family National Association near Tipp City, Ohio. She served as its archivist for many years.
She is remembered with admiration, gratitude, and fondness by miniature book collectors and publishers everywhere as a trailblazer whose legacy lives on in her publications and in the worldwide community of the Miniature Book Society.
Written by Mark Palkovic
Source: Article written and published with the permission of the Miriam Irwin Family.