Last weekend at the 44th California International Antiquarian Book Fair in San Francisco, the ABAA held a raffle in support of the Elisabeth Woodburn Fund.  For those who are unfamiliar, the Elisabeth Woodburn Fund is non-profit charitable fund established by former ABAA President Elisabeth Woodburn in 1990.  It is overseen by the Trustees of the Benevolent Fund and the Executive Director of the ABAA, and gives financial assistance for scholarly research and education relevant to the antiquarian book trade, such as scholarships to the Colorado Antiquarian Bookselling Seminar and the California Rare Book School, contributions to the ILAB Bibliographical Prize, and support of the Bibliographical Society of American and the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.  The Elisabeth Woodburn Fund also houses the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest Fund, which was created to encourage and educate new book collectors and to support the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, which is now cosponsored by the ABAA. The raffle prize was a photo collage celebrating 50 Years of ABAA Fairs.  Emeritus member Barney Rosenthal supplied the photographs, which were taken at the 1961 New York Fair, and he also compiled and signed the collage.  Barney was also kind enough to come to the Fair on Sunday to draw the winning ticket and present the collage to the winner. 

ABAA member Sam Hessel was the lucky winner, and he generously donated the piece to Headquarters for archival purposes—thanks again, Sam!  A big thank you to Barney for all his work and continued involvement in the Association. Below are some pictures of the drawing and the presentation to Sam.