The Book Arts tradition at Yale University, with its emphasis on the artistic and bibliographical tradition of letterpress printing, is both unique and remarkable. Taken as a whole, this concentration, centered on Sterling Library’s Arts of the Book collection and drawing on the incomparable resources of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, comprises one of the most active undergraduate book arts programs in the world, yet one that has historically functioned for the most part with minimal institutional support or official recognition.

The Yale Library Art of the Book Collection

The Arts of the Book Collection (AOB) is a research facility housed in the Sterling Memorial Library. Located in room 177 amid wooden bookshelves with decorative carvings, and just to the left of the High Street entrance, the non-circulating collection contains both examples of, and reference materials about, the arts related to the book. The collection contains information on topics such as printing, binding, book history, illustration, calligraphy, graphic design, paper making and decorative papers, typography and more. Contemporary examples of artists' books and fine printing are housed alongside more traditional publications. Additionally, AOB is the home to several named collections relating to persons who have significantly contributed to the book arts, including those of Fritz Eichenberg, Fritz Kredel, Carl Purington Rollins, and the Overbrook Press. AOB is a non-circulating collection that serves both Yale and the wider book arts communities. AOB welcomes visits from groups and individuals. http://www.library.yale.edu/aob. The collection serves Yale faculty, staff and students, as well as the wider book arts community. AOB welcomes visits from groups and individuals interested in the book arts.

The Bibliographical Press

Sterling Library is also the home of Yale’s Bibliographical Press, a letterpress printing facility that was established at the turn of the 20th century to support Yale’s Arts of the Book collection, keep alive the fine book arts, provide scholars with functional access to Yale’s irreplaceable collections of letterpress-related items, and foster Yale’s unique network of student presses. The bibliographical press is the repository of many collections of extraordinary historical value, including the world’s finest collection of Thomas Bewick wood engravings; all of the original letterpress cuts that illustrated the Merriam Webster dictionary; the unparalleled collection of bookbinding stamps and tools from the Riverside Press; and much more.

The Yale College Presses

From the beginning of Yale’s residential college system in the 1930's, several of the colleges set aside room for print shops which served to support literary works, hobby printing and fine-art projects, as well as special commissions for the colleges including keepsakes, programs and invitations for Masters’ events.

Over the years, various interested alumni and faculty, including August Heckscher, John Hay Whitney, John Hersey, Quincy Porter, Polly Ladamocarski and George D. Vail, helped the process along. By the 1970's, as the tide of commercial printing turned toward offset lithography and letterpress printing became the province of fine presses and graphic artists, Yale’s colleges became the beneficiaries of some of the 20th century's most influential private presses. The entire contents of Frank Altschul's Overbrook Press came to Yale (Pierson), as did Sherman Foster Johnson's Bayberry Hill Press (Trumbull), George D. Vail’s Bethany Hill Press (Branford), and several others.

With ten of the twelve residential colleges having dedicated letterpress shops, plus four additional university-related letterpress shops (the Yale University Press, the Carl Rollins Printing Office of the Yale University Printing Service, the Yale Library's Bibliographical Press, and the Yale Art School's Graphic Design Press), there existed an infrastructure unmatched in the United States, and quite possibly the world. Each shop had from two to six presses, along with associated type and supporting equipment. When this was combined with supportive friends, faculty and alumni, Yale became a key part of the United States book-arts community. Commercial presses like the Stinehour Press, Meriden Gravure Company, and Connecticut Printers, Inc.; master printers like Joseph Blumenthal of the Spiral Press, Stephen Harvard, Harold McGrath and August Heckscher, and Yale-affiliated supporters including Greer Allen, Roland Hoover, Alvin Eisenman, Howard Gralla, and John McCrillis, all stood ready and willing to help the students.

With the supporting infrastructure in place, all that was needed was students, and their interest has come in waves during the past sixty-five years. One year, Jonathan Edwards College might have Lance Hidy (co-founder of David R. Godine, Publisher) who energetically made the J. E. Press the center of college life. Another year might see Con Howe (currently Director of City Planning for Los Angeles) leading a printing community in Pierson that was a centerpiece of the college. In between periods of activity, the printshop infrastructure would remain, fertile ground for the next enthusiastic generation of student printers.

Throughout the years, student interest begat interest and support from the colleges' Masters, and in periods where there was active student involvement in a particular press, that college often chose, with the university’s support, to sponsor credit-carrying courses in book-arts-related subjects, as well as raise funds to acquire additional equipment.

Now, as Yale celebrates its Tercentennial with the dawn of the new millennium, the university has rededicated itself to supporting the book arts. The extensive renovation of all of the undergraduate colleges has provided the Masters and students of many of the colleges with the occasion to revisit the presses and decide for themselves that fine printing and the book arts still have a place in Yale College life. As student printer Matthew Underwood ’03 has put it, “the sound of the Davenport Press is the heartbeat of the college.”

In recent years the undergraduate Honorable Company of College Printers has experienced a renaissance of activity; dozens of alumni, Fellows and supporters have stepped forward to reiterate their willingness to donate time and expertise in support of this student interest; the Masters of the colleges with print shops have organized to strongly support restoration of their presses; and the Yale Library has installed a new Curator of the Arts of the Book Collection with a mandate to revitalize the Bibliographical Press in Sterling Library and support the undergraduate book arts.

In addition to the continuing extensive printing programs at colleges such as Jonathan Edwards, and the enthusiastically expanded shop at Davenport, other colleges whose Masters and students have embraced fine printing and binding include Pierson, Timothy Dwight, Branford, Silliman, Saybrook and Trumbull.

The Yale University Press

Ninety years and seven thousand titles ago, the Yale University Press was founded to become a university extension, its domain "the whole world of letters." Beyond their content, however, these books were distinguished by their looks, for Carl Purington Rollins designed them over three decades, gathering praise all the while. Among its series then and now are the many shelves of volumes of the papers of Walpole and Franklin and Edwards and today's new and ambitious series on the Culture & Civilization of China and the Annals of Communism.

It is to Carl Rollins, along with August Heckscher, that Yale owes much of its tradition of fine printing. He sponsored the founding of the Honorable Company of College Printers, donated presses and type, taught and inspired student printers, and established a long-standing tradition that was carried on by his successor, John O. C. McCrillis, who still serves as the advisor to the Silliman College Press.

The Yale School of Art

The Yale School of Art offers professional instruction in four interrelated areas of study: graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, and sculpture. At Yale, an attempt is made to provide an educational context within which artists and designers of unusual artistic promise and strong motivation can explore the horizons of their own talents in the midst of an intense critical dialogue. This dialogue is generated by their peers, by distinguished visitors, and by a faculty comprised of experienced artists of acknowledged accomplishment. The school’s internationally respected graphic design program is structured to encourage both independent studio work and focused study with resident and visiting faculty. Students are required to build a coherent body of work consisting of experimental design, writing projects, and course work. Each student has a designated work space in the design studio and is granted access to computer labs, bookbinding studio, silkscreen facility and the Graphic Design Press, a letterpress shop overseen by the University Printer. The extensive research and rare book collections of the Sterling and Beinecke libraries and other University facilities are additional resources. There has traditionally been a close relationship between Art School students and faculty, and the undergraduate college presses, with many of the mentors of the various presses drawn from the Art School.

Office of the University Printer and Yale RIS

Created from the merger of the Yale Printing and Graphic Service and the university’s in-plant electronic print shop, Yale’s Department of Reprographic and Imaging Services has evolved into a center offering a wide-range of services. It plays an integral part in the support of Yale's mission of teaching and research by offering to students and faculty support encompassing the publication and dissemination of information. The RIS staff is made up of professionals who bring a depth of knowledge along with institutional memory that shapes Yale's image in the world. RIS draws upon a full spectrum of design, planning, and production talent, incorporating the long history and experience of RIS, the former Printing Service, and students and graduates of the School of Art.

As an integral part of the university, the RIS graphic design group brings an institutional spirit to its commercial enterprise. It visually organizes and announces campus events - daily life of the colleges, symposia, curricula, commencement, and athletics. With that as a collective trust, RIS is committed to the Yale community at large, upholding its worldwide reputation in book arts and typography.

RIS works in close collaboration with the Office of the University Printer, carrying forward a tradition of design and production dating back to the days of Carl Purington Rollins, who held the offices of both Design Director of the Yale University Press and University Printer. The current University Printer, John Gambell, is the latest in an unbroken line of letterpress printers to occupy this position, including University Printer Emeritus Greer Allen, who as a student at Yale worked closely with Rollins himself, and Roland Hoover, proprietor of his own fine press issuing letterpress editions. John Gambell also holds an appointment as Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art, and, as befits the chief designer of Yale’s image in this electronic age, was responsible for the look and feel of Yale’s home page on the Internet.