As a starting point, curator Teri Williams utilized the six small volumes and Stone's translation, creating a visually rich and stimulating environment that almost felt like Schäffer's personal study. Using thoughtfully selected texts, several treasured volumes from the Museum's Rare Book Collection, and other intriguing artifacts, the exhibition showed how concern over rapidly increasing consumption of paper, coupled with a shortage of traditional papermaking fiber (linen and cotton rags), led to experimentation with alternative fibers for paper production. Viewers to the exhibition were immediately drawn to the enormous paper wasp's nest on display that illustrated the observational discovery by French naturalist René de Réaumur that paper could be formulated from wood. The Museum's volume of Réaumur's Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des insectes (1742) was opened to the pages featuring magnificent engravings of the interior and exterior structures built by the "world's first papermakers." Réaumur's work certainly inspired Schäffer to find non-rag papermaking fibers. Also on view were enlargements of botanical illustrations from Schäffer's volumes The Paper Quest of Jacob Christian Schäffer reviewed by winnie radolan "The Paper Quest of Jacob Christian Schäffer, Experiments in the Production of Paper Without the Use of Rags or Only a Small Amount of Them, Six Volumes, Regensburg, 1765–1771" Robert C. Williams Paper Museum at Georgia Tech, Atlanta October 12, 2006–January 19, 2007 reviews summer 2007 - 45 Display featuring portrait of Schäffer along with several of his original volumes. All photos by Teri Williams and courtesy of Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Atlanta. which invited us into Schäffer's world, along with his own words, such as one text panel in which he tells us: "…and I started again to make paper from poplar downs, and shavings and sawdust and so forth. And what sweet satisfaction did I feel when I saw that everything came out better than I had imagined." How fortunate that the Museum was able to display multiple editions of the six diminutive volumes throughout the exhibit! Volumes 1 and 2 were opened to show a title page, an engraving, and a charmingly hand-colored illustration of plant materials. A slightly fanned fore edge of one book, allowed a peek at multiple paper samples. From volumes 3 and 4, the Museum presented one marbled- and one leather-bound cover, an exquisite sample of lace made from paper thread, and a hand-colored botanical illustration. Volumes 5 and 6 were opened to another striking hand-colored title page and tipped-in samples of cloth woven from paper thread. The volumes contain a treasury of these marvelous gems! Schäffer's eight-year paper odyssey was but an interlude in a life filled with a desire to explore many aspects of the natural world. To provide a compelling view into the mind of this eighteenth- century man of science, the Museum presented a "curiosity cabinet" including items that might have been in Schäffer's own library. Shelves were filled with jars of plant samples, baskets of rags, a telescope (all from the Dard Hunter Collection) as well as a stuffed crow, mounted butterflies, a human skull, and other oddities (on loan from Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta). Perhaps Schäffer's first view of just such a cabinet spurred his lifelong interest in the natural world. The exhibition was further enriched by books from the Museum's Rare Book Collection that exemplify other pioneering works in the search for non-rag papermaking materials. Among those on display were rare volumes by Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande, Jean-Étienne Guettard, G.A. Senger, and Matthias Koops. This wonderful and informative exhibit transported viewers into an eighteenth-century world of curiosity concerning all things natural and the spirit of scientific inquiry. Those of us who began our fascination with papermaking in our kitchens with blenders, dishpans and vegetables can acquire a real appreciation of our papermaking heritage and genealogy by learning more about this 250-year-old "garden papermaker." In fact, outside the gallery was photographic documentation from a related program, the July 2006 Teacher's Workshop on Papermaking with Plant Fibers. An adjoining display case featured an array of plant papers made by a brand-new generation of papermakers who have been inspired by Schäffer's works and are following in his footsteps. This show is scheduled to be presented in the fall of 2007 as the inaugural exhibition at the new Wisconsin River Papermaking Museum, located in Wisconsin Rapids. Afterwards, the show will be available to travel. For more information, please contact Cindy Bowden at the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum. Ed. 46 - hand papermaking Wall display describing Schäffer's research into René de Réaumur's suggestion that papermakers study the ways of the "world's first papermaker," the wasp. Two copies of original texts on view. Open volume shows hand painted illustrations of the materials used in Schäffer's experiments along with a paper sample. A cabinet of curiosities filled with objects from the Museum's Dard Hunter Collection and from the Fernbank Science Center—items that might have been in Schäffer's own library.