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Printing Ephemera collection

Special Collections and Archives

Printing Ephemera collection

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Special Collections and Archives

Printing Ephemera collection

You are here

Printing Ephemera collection

Finding Aid

Prepared by Kyler Culver, September 22, 2003; Updated November 2017


Inclusive Dates: 1563-1985
Extent: 1 cubic foot (1 flat oversized box)
Physical Location: 11th floor


Scope and Content: This collection contains numerous broadsheets featuring aspects of the printing trade, including, but not limited to, prospectus advertisements for and original pages from rare books or reproductions of rare books. Also included are typeface and illustration samples from various publications.


Folder 1 -- Contents

Wallpaper samples: William Morris patterns?

1. Set of wallpaper samples, each appx. 11" x 17"-notes in pencil, verso.

a. Celandine #329
b. "Michaelmas daisy #490. Made in England."
c. Michaelmas daisy #491
d. Willow #49
e. Willow #59a
f. Willow #70
g. Willow #483
h. Willow #484
i. Willow bough #210
j. Willow bough #229
k. Willow bough #230

2. Article: Floud, Peter "Dating Morris Patterns" Architectural Review (July 1959) 13-20

Folder 2 -- Contents

Publisher Prospectuses, announcing upcoming special editions

1. Morison, Stanley. Four Centuries of Fine Printing: Five Hundred Masterpieces of the roman letter reproduced in finest collotype-selected and with text by Stanley Morison. Edition of 440 copies and 10 special copies. Ernest Benn Ltd. [Benn Bros. Ltd.] London, undated

2. Kokoschka. Saul and David. A suite of 41 lithographs numbered and signed by the artist, drawn between 1965 and 1968. "Each lithograph is contained in a folder with the relevant extract from the Old Testament in the Authorised Version of the Bible." Printed from the stone by J.E. Wolfensberger, Zurich. undated

3. The Kelmscott Chaucer with a companion volume of Burne-Jones drawings by Duncan Robinson. London: Basilisk Press, undated

4. Bodoni. Oratio Dominica. Two-volume tribute and reproduction to original Oratio which reprinted the Lord's Prayer in 155 languages, 1806; first volume, the discourse of Pope Paul VII to the United Nations general assembly, prefaced by U Thant Sec. Gen. (who signed 400 of 700 copies); second volume, reproduction of original, which was offered to dedicate journey of Pius VII to Napoleon in Paris. Produced and offered by Franco Maria Ricci of the Typis Bodonianis, Parma, 1967, to raise relief funds for the recently flooded Bibloteca Nazionale di Firenze.

5. William Blake Trust, London. Facsimile of Blake's Illustrations of Dante, 1978. Published by Trianon Press, Clarivaux, Jura, France and distributed by Maggs Bros. Ltd., Berkley Square, London.

6. Press of A. Colish. The Artist's Limited Edition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick; with thirteen illustrations by LeRoy Neiman and with a preface by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. 1975.

7. Powell, H.M.T. Over the Santa-Fe Trail to California: The Journal and Drawings of H.M.T. Powell, 1849-1852. San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1931. Grabhorn Press.

8. Hayden, Robert. The legend of John Brown [poem]. With 22 screenprints by Jacob Lawrence. Ives-Sillman, for The Founders Society, Detroit Institute of Arts. 1979.

9. The Shepherd's Calendar of John Clare. A commemorative edition of 500 numbered copies with illustrations by John Lawrence. ISBN 085999-073-0. London: Paradine, c. 1978.

10. Public Record Office [England]. The Domesday Book: A new and faithful facsimile of the manuscript, complete translations, extensive indices and maps. London: Alecto Historical Editions, c. 1985.

11. Trinity College, Cambridge. The Trinity College Apocalypse. London: Eugrammia Press, 1964.

12. Verein Schweizerischer Lithographiebesitzer [Union of Swiss Lithography-owners]. Die Bibel von Moutier-Grandval [Moutier-Grandval Bible; British Museum codex Add. 10546]. With numerous articles prefacing. Bern, 1969.

Folder 3 -- Contents

Specimen sheets-Eastern Corp., Bangor, Maine

1. Cards, 8 ½" x 11"

a. "Types cast for Binny and Ronaldson"
b. "Eastern's Mill Brand Line"

2. Broadsheets, 17" x 22"

a. "A specimen of types originally cast in Philadelphia by Binny and Robinson"
b. "A specimen sheet of Centaur type"
c. "A specimen sheet showing almost all of the 'lost' Goudy types"
d. "A specimen sheet of Goudy Old Style"
e. "A specimen of Lutetia type"
f. "This is a specimen of Lydian and Lydian Bold"
g. "A specimen of Fairfield type"
h. "This is a specimen sheet of Futura type"
i. "This is a specimen sheet of Garamont"
k. "This is a specimen sheet of a few sizes and weights of Gill's Perpetua-Monotype"
l. "A specimen of Radiant typeface family"
m. "A specimen sheet of Bulmer Roman and Italic types"
n. "A specimen sheet of Caslon Roman and Italic types"
o. "A specimen sheet of Bernhard Modern"
p. "This is a specimen sheet of monotype Baskerville"

Folder 4 -- Contents

Keepsakes from the antiquarian library of Mark A. Slotkin. All entitled "Original leaf dated ____ A.D." underneath an authentic page from a book whose title-page is reprinted facing; all 17" x 23" Full information from title-pages given below.

1. A table of all the publick  and private statutes from the beginning of the reign of King George the Second to the present year 1734 p. 45

2. Massorah Rabbinical Bible [Title page entirely in Hebrew]

3. Buxtoni, Johannis Tiberias sive commentarius… Basileae 1665 [text in Hebrew]

4. A.R.M. Ludovici M. Sinistrari Deameno strictioris observantiae… [a book on criminal law and practice printed Rome by Joannis Jacobi Komarck Bohemi] p. 377-8

5. Prophetae priores [after Greek ('Prophetai prootoi') and Hebrew] p. 485-6 [from I Kings 1; Chaldaic, Greek, Latin, Hebrew]

6. Philosophia scholae scotisticae reverendissimi patris crescentii Krisper…seu solida expositio librorum…Scoti doctoris…&c. Matt. Wolff 1735 p. 201-2

7. Hebraica, Chaldaea, Graecaque, & Latina nomina…quae in Bibliis utriusque Testamenti sparsa sunt, restituta… Antwerp: apud Martinum Caesarem, 1534 p. 227

8. Alexandro, R.P.F. Natali. Theologia dogmatica et moralis… Paris: Antonii Dezallier, 1703, p. 303-4

9. Edward, Earl Clarendon. History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, begun in the year 1641. Oxford: the Theater, 1707 p. 213-4

10. Abbatis Generalis. Antiphonale cisterciense juxta novum ordinis breviarum dispositum. Paris: Fredericus Leona, 1690.

11. Iusti Lipsi V.C. Opera omnia. Antwerp: ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1637.

12. Pliny. Secundi historiae mundi libri XXXVII. Lugduni [ie. London]: Ioannem Frellonium, 1563.

Folder 5 -- Contents

Illustration, artwork, and lithographic ephemera

1. Euripides, "What else is wisdom…" from The Bacchae 12" x 18"

2. Coggeshall, Howard, printer, "A Last Will" by Williston Fish first printed Harper's Weekly, 1898. 12" x 19"

3. American Institute of Graphic Arts, New York. Hand-colored facsimile print, St Christopher woodcut, 1423. 1923. With a commentary by Burton Emmett. 6 pp. and cover. 12" x 16"

4. Acorn Press. "Today Christ is born…" Drawing by William Sanderson, calligraphy by Theodor Jung. 11" x 17" Acorn Press, Denver.

5. Plantin, Christoph. "Le bonheur de ce monde," sonnet. Imprimerie Plantinienne. 10" x 17"

6. ----. "The happiness of this world," sonnet. Trans. J.T.R. Gibbs. 8" x 12"

7. Stevens, Henry. "Bas-relief from the entablature in the Jerusalem chamber, Westminster Abbey" [engraving]. With paragraph of commentary by Stevens on "Good taste, skill and severe training..." Typeset by Richard W. Ellis at Georgian Press, New York.

8. Jones, George W. "Reproduction of a Page of the Gutenberg Bible: The 42-line Bible, 1450-1455-6" [Handwritten note: "Jeremiah Part 44, 45 part 46"] Reproduced from McGill University Library. 11" x 15" 1 color, 1black and white page.

9. "The birth of printing" [poster; "An excerpt from Other Men's Ideas"].

10. "Johannes Gutenberg. Presented to the friends of Mills College [California] by Albert M. Bender…" [lithograph]. Sept./Oct. 1939. 16" x 20"

Folder 6 -- Contents

Advertisement broadsheets; 1-4 from Salt House Press, Baltimore, Maryland

1. Turner, Lewis McKenzie. "The Silent Voice" [poem], dated 1935.

2. ----. "The Brain Trust" [poem, surrounded by quotes], dated Jan. 1935.

3. ----. "The National Bard" [parody of congressional act to create a poet laureate]. Two copies, one green- one red-bordered and hand-dated Sept. 1934.

4. ----. "A Declaration of Dependence and Independence" May 1930.

5. "The Naudin types arrive at the Pelican Press [London]" 23 ½" x 35"

6. Notice on establishment of Holiday Press within Lakeside Press of Plymouth Court, Chicago, 1926. 16" x 21"

7. "Old-Fashioned Type Specimens in the Robinson-Pforzheimer collection" New York Public Library, main branch. Fonts of Elrie Robinson, typesetter in St. Francisville, LA. "The Horse-and-Buggy Printer." 22" x 33" Two copies, one with green and one with orange highlight.

8. Notice of workshops on the Arts of the Book at the Logan Press and Paper Mill, Arts-of-the-book laboratory, Ohio State University. 13" x 18"

9. Notice of the William Morris Centenary Exhibition, featuring "A Complete Series of Publications of the Kelmscott Press" 4 March 1934 Mills College, San Francisco CA. Folded packet, three ita altogether.

10. Poster for "Andrew Hoyem, printer. An exhibition of books designed and printed 1961-85 featuring the work of the Arion Press" Thompson Memorial Library, Ohio State University. Dec. 1985-Feb. 1986. 13" x 19"

11. Poster for 21st ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Preconference, "Books and Society in History" 24-8 June 1980, Boston MA. 10" x 17"

12. "A Facsimile (Actual Size) of Caslon's Specimen Sheet. H.W. Caslon and Co., London, reprinted for the Morgenthaler Linotype Company" 17" x 23" [Handwritten note: "Keepsake Nov. 1923"]

13. "A Specimen of Printing Types belonging to Benjamin Franklin Bache's Printing Office, Philadelphia." 19" x 24" Torn in half its breadth.

Folder 7 -- Contents

Student projects (final projects for graduation of a printing apprentice). All broadsheets c. 11" x 17" ; all from The Laboratory Press, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Some stamped "Will Ransom Library Record" with minor details written in by hand.

1. Doherty, Daniel J. Two passages from the journal of Henry Marston.

2. Van Vechten, George W. A Note on John of Speyer: an Extract from 'The Venetian Printing Press' by Horatio F. Brown.

3. Hirsch, Leland M. A Question of Ethics [rebuttal to critical comment of H. Hillman, ed., Inland Printer on Hirsch's projet Literature and Dogma (Arnold)].

Folder 8 -- Contents

1. Francisci Willoughby Icthyographia ad amplissimum virum... Title page from London 1685 edition. Source unknown.