Rare Books and Ancestral Machines

Kelsey Elder
2026

0 hero image
1 TOC
The table of contents introduces the book’s dual typographic voices while organizing its progression across essays, interludes, and object galleries.
2 section Divider
A high-contrast chromatic and typographic intervention that marks thematic transitions, preceded by cropped details of the objects that follow.
3 essay
Editorial spreads juxtapose historical artifacts with contemporary scholarship, using typographic hierarchy to stage a dialogue between human and machine.
4 interlude
The interlude subverts the book’s color system, isolating and bridging distinct entries — such as the Botanical Collection — to create moments of close reading and historical specificity.
A rapid flip-through of selected spreads foregrounds the evolving narrative of human–machine interaction, revealing how image, annotation, and text interweave across key moments.

Rare Books & Ancestral Machines is a richly illustrated handbook that documents and interprets the Posner Center for Special Collections at Carnegie Mellon University. Published to mark the Center’s reopening, the 600-page volume presents over one hundred rare books, manuscripts, and early technologies alongside eight interpretive essays, offering an abridged yet deeply researched view of the collection’s scope and significance. Designed to reflect the spatial logic of the Posner Center itself, the book employs a system that stages a dialogue between two typographic voices, echoing its central premise: the intertwined histories of human–computer interaction. Full-bleed details of collection objects punctuate the editorial text, creating unexpected juxtapositions across objects and time. Compact in format (5.125 × 7.5") yet expansive in scope—from 100 CE to the advent of AI—the handbook uses a typographically driven design system to weave together archival material, historical context, and contemporary discoveries.

Publication Design
Kelsey Dusenka
Publication Design
Kelsey Elder
Text & Curation
Samuel V. Lemley
Creative Director
Heidi Wiren Kébé