James studied history and art history at Johns Hopkins University and Tufts University before beginning his career in book conservation at Harvard University. He studied bookbinding at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, and is the President of the Guild of Book Workers.

He is currently the Chief Conservator of the Boston Athenaeum, a private membership library founded in 1807. He is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. James is also an advisor to the bookbinding program at the North Bennet Street School, and in 2006, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from NBSS.

He has taught bookbinding and conservation workshops for the Paper and Book Intensive, the Garage Annex School for Book Arts in Easthampton, MA., the North Bennet Street School, the Weissman Preservation Center at Harvard, the Guild of Book Workers, the New England Museum Assoc., the Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record at the University of Texas at Austin, and the San Francisco Center for the Book.

Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, spoke about her new best seller, People of the Book, at a lecture and book signing in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall on February 5th. Proceeds benefitted the Art Conservation Department. Due to some very fortunate friendships and partnerships with local organizations, we were able to welcome Ms. Brooks to the department. Leslie Zemsky organized the event and arranged for numerous co-sponsors.

Inspired by Brooks’ years as a Wall Street Journal war correspondent, People of the Book traces the history of the Sarajevo Haggadah, an ancient Hebrew illuminated manuscript that has survived centuries of purges and wars. The event also featured a display of a Haggadoth from the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library and a Koran from the Buffalo Museum of Science treated by Katherine Beaty (’05) for her 695 project.