Join us at Household Books, in partnership with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, for a hands-on papermaking workshop exploring how history is recorded, preserved, and reclaimed through everyday materials.

This workshop is inspired by the Freedom Center’s recent acquisition of the personal memoir of Elleanor Eldridge, pictured below. Elleanor Eldridge was a free Black woman and nineteenth-century businesswoman and landowner. Her memoir inspired this community-centered workshop to invite participants to reflect on the power of individuals to document their own lives. Trudy Gaba, Social Justice Curator at the Freedom Center, will provide historical context on Elleanor Eldridge’s life and legacy, grounding the workshop in the importance of personal narratives during times of erasure and revisionism.

Participants will be guided through the fundamentals of bookbinding, focusing on accordion and saddle stitch techniques while working collaboratively in a studio setting. By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with their own handmade books, ready to be used for journaling, artmaking, or future creative projects.

Check back for registration information.

Trudy Gaba walks through multiple worlds. She is a practicing visual artist who also works as a curator and historian, weaving together all of these identities into her praxis. Her artistic pursuits are driven by her research investigations into the archives and collections of Black history. She presently works as the Social Justice Curator at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, where she tells stories about the profound ways people flourish in and fight back against oppressive and extractive systems that were never designed to see them succeed.

Trudy holds a master’s degree from the University of Edinburgh, where her research focused on the courtly arts of India— with a particular focus on illuminated manuscript painting from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Before joining the Freedom Center in 2023, she served as the Curatorial Assistant of South Asian Art, Islamic Art and Antiquities at the Cincinnati Art Museum for five years. There, she assisted the department in the acquisition, research and display of the museum's collections from South Asia, the Islamic World, the ancient Middle East and the ancient Mediterranean.

Household Books is a used bookstore and literary venue with a focus on connection, curation and community. We believe in the lasting power of books — as objects, as art, and as carriers of culture. Founded by Bobby Minelli in Cincinnati, and located in the vibrant neighborhood of College Hill, we sell used and rare books, host events and pop up shops, build custom curated libraries, and carry the torch of book culture in whatever ways suit the cause. We champion the joy of analog discovery and believe the micro-luxury of used book hunting can support larger necessities in the way of third space and cultural access.