Robert Muma

Life and work

From the Society's biography of him, assembled from its own newsletters and chiefly from the tribute the Ontario Crafts Council's Craft News published when he received an honorary membership in the Canadian Crafts Council. Other lines come from the sources named under each.

Background

Robert Muma was born in 1907 at Coldstream, near London, Ontario. Nature, art and making things with his hands were the three major interests of his life; he had been interested in nature, taxidermy, drawing and crafts since childhood.

From the biography “Charter Member, 1950”.

His son's memorial page gives the day of his birth as 27 November 1907.

From World of Mosses, memorial page (maintained by his son, Walter Muma), n.d., accessed 20 October 2026, http://worldofmosses.com/robertmuma/index.html.

Work

In 1947 he founded Mumart Studios of Creative Leathercraft in Toronto, a business offering custom bookbinding and general leathercraft products under the registered trade name Mumart. By 1952 he had also been consultant on tooling to Clarke and Clarke Leathers for three years, and had shown at their annual C.N.E. exhibitions. After the Canadian Handicrafts Guild scholarship of 1959 he devoted his full time to bookbinding, operating his own studio in Toronto. As a master bookbinder he restored old bindings and created modern ones. He did work for Princess, later Queen, Elizabeth II, the Governor General, Col. Sam McLaughlin and the St. Lawrence Centre, and extensive work for the Buffalo Reference Library Rare Book Room, the Royal Ontario Museum Library, and the New Brunswick Provincial Archives after they were damaged by the flood of the Saint John River. He counted as his most significant contribution to book restoration the discovery of a method of removing the leather spine of an old book in one piece, so that it could be replaced on the new leather spine and retain its original character.

From the biography “Charter Member, 1950”.

He belonged to the Guild of Book Workers from about 1958 to 1965: the Guild's Fall 1965 membership report lists his resignation, and its journal had reported him a member by 1963. The 1969-70 Journal article on his spine-conservation method was written after he had already resigned, though he continued to be read and published in the Guild's journal afterward.

From Journal of the Guild of Book Workers vol. IV no. 1 (Fall 1965), p. 29, membership report, https://guildofbookworkers.org/sites/default/files/journal/gbwjournal_004_no1.pdf; vol. 1 no. 3 (Spring 1962-63), p. 17; and vol. VIII no. 2 (Fall 1969 - Winter 1970), pp. 25-28, the author note calling him “a former member of the GBW” by 1970.

As a scientific illustrator in the late 1920s he illustrated a book on the evolution of animal dentition by Dr B. Bensley of the University of Toronto's Zoology Department, and the Royal Ontario Museum's 1929 handbook ‘The Mammals of Ontario’; he held a post as illustrator in the university's biology department.

From Judy Hernandez, 'Robert Muma: The Moss Man of Toronto', Plant Press vol. 4 no. 1 (March 1986), reprinted on mumart.ca, https://mumart.ca/robertmuma/mossmanoftoronto.html.

He retired in 1975 after 25 years of custom bookbinding in Toronto.

From Plant Press vol. 4 no. 1 (March 1986), via mumart.ca, https://mumart.ca/robertmuma/mossmanoftoronto.html.

A letter of his, reported in the Guild of Book Workers' journal, describes his Toronto bindery as producing presentation pieces given to Queen Elizabeth, President Eisenhower and others, and notes that painful arthritis had lately restricted his work.

From Journal of the Guild of Book Workers vol. 1 no. 3 (Spring 1962-63), p. 17, report of the Vice-President at Large (Thomas W. Patterson), https://guildofbookworkers.org/sites/default/files/journal/gbwjournal_001_no3.pdf.

In spring 1963, for about two months until 1 June, his assistant was Mike Wilcox, a 23-year-old English binder from Bristol trained at Bristol College of Technology and Baynton's of Bath, who then left for a job at the Royal Ontario Museum; Muma wrote that he had learned many valuable methods from him.

From Journal of the Guild of Book Workers vol. 1 no. 3 (Spring 1962-63), p. 17, https://guildofbookworkers.org/sites/default/files/journal/gbwjournal_001_no3.pdf.

A members' report dated 30 January 1961 (printed Fall 1962) gives a fuller account of his path into bookbinding: about sixteen years earlier (c. 1945) his interests had ‘fused’ in bookbinding in leather; ill health later made him give up his job in a local bindery and he started a school for binders and leather workers; presentation bindings, one for Queen Elizabeth, brought him the scholarship to study in New York with Laura S. Young and Gerhard Gerlach, when he joined the Guild; he found it hard to exhibit in the United States because arrangements with both governments had to start about six months ahead.

From Journal of the Guild of Book Workers vol. I no. 1 (Fall 1962), pp. 26-28, report of the Vice-President at Large, https://guildofbookworkers.org/sites/default/files/journal/gbwjournal_001_no1.pdf.

Study

Except for six months at one art school and six weeks at another, he was entirely self-taught. He trained as a bookbinder in several of Toronto's larger binderies.

From the biography “Charter Member, 1950”.

His only formal bookbinding training was a six-week course in the Graphic Arts Department of Columbia University, New York, taught by Gerhard Gerlach and Laura Young. Younger Ontario binders regarded him as ‘the grandfather of Canadian bookbinding’.

From Bernard Mulaire, '20th Century Bookbinding', Ontario Craft vol. 8 no. 1 (Spring 1983), pp. 19–23, https://bernardmulaire.ca/articles/article_actuel05_bookbind.php.

Teaching

He gave private and group lessons at the Mumart studio; Edith Melchior trained under him there in 1955–56 and was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the studio. He taught at Red Deer, Alberta, for four weeks in each of the summers of 1960, 1961 and 1962. In Spring 1978 the Ontario Crafts Council's Craft Resource Centre announced that it had received from him a complete set of his Mumart series of books and demonstration charts for Mumart Leathercraft Techniques 1948–60.

From the biography “Charter Member, 1950”.

Art

He illustrated university texts and nature stories.

From the biography “Charter Member, 1950”.

Seventy-four of his moss watercolours and sketches are reproduced on World of Mosses, alongside his moss book and note-cards.

From World of Mosses, n.d., accessed 20 October 2026, https://worldofmosses.com/.

His Guild of Book Workers article (‘Conserving the Leather Spines of Old Books’, 1969-70) describes the method itself: he coated the old spine with Lewiscraft Leather Cement, a PVA latex sold in Canada, so that a tight back of thin calf could be lifted whole; after rebacking he pasted the old spine onto the new leather and rolled the latex film off with alcohol and water. He wrote that he had then been in book restoration for about ten years and had used the cement for over 18 years.

From Journal of the Guild of Book Workers vol. VIII no. 2 (Fall 1969 - Winter 1970), pp. 25-28, https://guildofbookworkers.org/sites/default/files/journal/gbwjournal_008_no2.pdf.

Writing

He wrote Color Decoration and Finishing of Leather (1952) and Color in Leathercraft (1954), and published the Mumart Leathercraft Designs. His portfolios of Canadian Leathercraft Designs and Color in Leathercraft, published and sold extensively in both Canada and the U.S., brought advanced students to his summer classes from Halifax to Wisconsin and Long Island to Regina; at their peak, proceeds from his books and technical articles accounted for about one-third of his income.

From the biography “Charter Member, 1950”.

Interests

Macro photography took him to the world of mosses. At 69 he said it was time to retire and do something else new and strange: to seriously collect and identify some of the over 400 species of mosses of Ontario.

From the biography “Charter Member, 1950”.

Fields

As a child he was tutored in plant identification by a naturalist neighbour, Al Wood. He began serious moss study after a Federation of Ontario Naturalists meeting at Red Bay (Bruce Peninsula), c. 1976. By 1986 his herbarium held more than 2,000 specimens (350–400 species) from several continents, partly through the American Bryological & Lichenological Society's members' exchange. He led moss workshops for the Toronto Field Naturalists and U of T botany students.

From Plant Press vol. 4 no. 1 (March 1986), via mumart.ca, https://mumart.ca/robertmuma/mossmanoftoronto.html.

In the press

The Toronto Star reported his Fellowship at the 1953 Annual Meeting.

From “Leathercraft Body Holds Annual Meet”, the Toronto Star, 19 June 1953, p. 30.

Publications

He wrote and illustrated ‘A Graphic Guide to Ontario Mosses’ (1985), first published by the Toronto Field Naturalists, and reviewed by Harry Williams in Plant Press 3(3):110.

From World of Mosses, ‘A Graphic Guide to Ontario Mosses’, Foreword and Acknowledgements, accessed 26 October 2026, https://worldofmosses.com/ggom/ggomFwdAcknArea.html; Plant Press 3(3):110.

His articles include ‘Discovering the Mosses’, ‘Let's Make a Moss Garden’ and ‘How to Grow Your Own Moss’ in Ontario Naturalist vol. 19 (Winter 1979, the last issue before it became Seasons), and ‘Mosses in Your Wildflower Garden’ in Wildflower magazine (Summer 1986).

From mumart.ca; World of Mosses, n.d., accessed 20 October 2026, https://worldofmosses.com/miyg/index.html.

His spine-conservation article was cited (reference 5) by N. S. Baer, N. Indictor and W. H. Phelan of the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in ‘Shelf Life of Commercial Poly(vinyl acetate) Emulsions for use in Paper Conservation’, Journal of the Guild of Book Workers vol. X no. 1 (Fall 1971).

From Journal of the Guild of Book Workers vol. X no. 1 (Fall 1971), pp. 36-38, https://guildofbookworkers.org/sites/default/files/journal/gbwjournal_010_no1a.pdf.