Spring Blossoms: Margaret Armstrong’s Decorated Publishers’ Bindings

Margaret Armstrong (1867–1944) was an author, book cover designer, field collector, and botanical illustrator. She was among the most influential designers of her time and a source of inspiration for other female book cover designers and future generations including Amy M. Sacker, Lee Thayer, and Marion Louise Peabody.

Armstrong’s first book cover design, Sweet William by Marguerite Bouvet, was published in 1890. Early in her career she met reluctance placing her designs with publishers, as the field of book cover design was dominated by men. To surmount this challenge, she signed her early submissions “M.N. Armstrong.” However, the years 1892–93 were groundbreaking for women book cover designers: several important exhibitions in prominent clubs and at the World’s Columbian Exposition featured women designers and paved the way for the success they enjoyed during the next decades.

As Armstrong’s career as a book designer progressed, her designs became more fluid and individualized, reflecting the book’s subject. With her increasingly colorful, striking book covers, she was in demand as a designer and worked for twenty-one different publishers producing approximately 270 book cover designs.

Spring Blossoms: Margaret Armstrong’s Decorated Publishers’ Bindings, Watson Library’s first online exhibition, presents a selection of books with covers designed by Armstrong from the 1890s to 1913. The exhibit highlights four themes: designs that invoke the patterns of stained glass, the lavender series of publications by Myrtle Reed, designs featuring flowers and plant forms, and lesser-known book covers.