Founded in 2012, the Baskerville Society is run by the Typographical Hub at Birmingham City University in conjunction with the Centre for West Midlands History.
Dedicated to the study of the eighteenth-century typographer, printer, industrialist and Enlightenment figure, John Baskerville, the society is an international and cross-disciplinary enterprise which considers his contribution to the eighteenth-century and the broader study of printing history and culture. The society's first bi-annual conference, 'John Baskerville: art, industry and technology in the Enlightenment', was held in Birmingham in April 2013. The second conference, 'The Beauty of Letters: text, type and communication in the eighteenth century', which was co-sponsored by the Bibliographic Society and the Centre for West Midlands History, took place at the University of Birmingham on the 14th - 15th March 2015.