Daily AncestorBookbinder
A bookbinder sewed or glued printed sheets together and fitted them with covers to make books, and also bound blank ledgers and record books.
Binders worked on two kinds of books: printed books, and blank books meant for writing in, such as account ledgers, logbooks, guestbooks and diaries. The covers could be plain paper or boards covered in cloth or leather.
Machine binding came in during the 1800s with the industrial revolution, alongside machine papermaking and faster leather tanning.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1940 census
Jos. Lang, 30, Bookbinder
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Bookbinder." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/bookbinder. Last checked 2026-10-10.