#roycrofters

Marbled Monday

This book is somewhat unassuming on the outside, with is brown leather and subtle gold tooling and stamping, but on the inside has the most beguiling marbled endpapers! The book is Elbert Hubbard’s Scrap Book: Containing the Inspired and Inspiring Selections Gathered During a Life Time of Discriminating Reading for His Own Use. We hold three copies of the book—this is copy 2 and the only copy we hold with this binding. 

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher who founded the Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community in Aurora, New York in 1895. Hubbard fashioned himself somewhat after William Morris as a socialist craftsman, although he later abandoned socialism. Hubbard and his wife Alice died in the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915 when the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. 

Elbert Hubbard’s Scrap Book was published in 1923 by The Roycrofters in Aurora, New York. It is a collection of passages by notable figures that Hubbard had collected during his life. The marbled papers are in a Serpentine pattern, similar to those we shared a few weeks ago on our copy of  Romanae Historiae Compendium... . These papers feature teal, reddish brown, and cream colors swirled together in a sort of zig-zagged pattern. 

View more Marbled Monday posts.  

Thanks to Jim Theler for this week’s post –

Historic Solstice-Marking Petroglyph in Perrot State Park

The petroglyph shown here is located on a bluff in Perrot State Park. Research by Alton Fisher (1987) and Bill Green (1992) indicates that this petroglyph was almost certainly carved by Towne L. Miller, who was the cook on the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) archaeological expedition working in Trempealeau County in 1928.  

Fisher nicely summarizes the petroglyph’s origin in his Abstract (Fisher 1987:388):

“A petroglyph carved on the face of a sandstone outcrop on the east shore of Trempealeau Bay within Perrot State Park is believed by some to be a prehistoric solstice marker. Competent archaeologists familiar with the locale did not report its presence prior to mid-summer 1928. The petroglyph shares many graphic elements with the logo of the Roycroft Shop, which existed in the early decades of this century. The chef of the Milwaukee Public Museum’s archaeological field camp which was located in the Trempealeau area in 1928 had been a member of the Roycrofters before World War I and sometimes used their logo to mark his personal possessions. It is very probable that he carved the petroglyph.”  

The Roycrofters were artists and craftspeople associated with the Arts and Crafts movement that greatly influenced American design in the early 1900s. The Roycroft community was founded by Elbert Hubbard, who was an interesting character. An online search will bring up all kinds of information on the movement, its participants, and their lasting impression on American culture. The lasting impression on a bluff in Perrot State Park is one we wouldn’t condone today! But it gives us an unusual and interesting glimpse into events nearly a century ago.

Fisher, Alton K. 1987 Probable Origin of the Solstice-Marking Petroglyph in Perrot State Park. The Wisconsin Archeologist 68(4):388-395. 

Typography Tuesday

HUNTER TYPE & DESIGN

Dard Hunter -- Senior, Junior, and Dard III -- are most well-remembered as giants in the revival of hand papermaking in America. With the possible exception of Timothy Barrett, their contributions to American hand papermaking are unparalleled. But they are also remembered as accomplished type designers and letterpress printers. The Hunters’ proprietary typefaces, shown in the top image, were not only designed by Dard Sr. and Dard Jr., respectively, but they also cut their own punches, made their own matrices, and hand-manufactured their own types from their own hand-made moulds.

Dard Sr. began his career in 1904 as one of Elbert Hubbard’s Roycrofters Arts and Crafts community in East Aurora, N.Y. There he became fascinated by modern design, particularly contemporary Viennese design, and by 1910 he was the principal designer for Roycroft publications, dramatically altering the look of their books and other products. This can be seen in the three Roycroft books above, Justinian and Theodora (1906), Woman’s Work (1908), and So Here Cometh White Hyacinths, (1907).

In 1911, Hunter struck out on his own, founding the Mountain House Press and Papermill in Chillicothe, Ohio, and immediately began work on a new font of type in between making his own paper. By 1915 he had designed, cut, and manufactured a complete set of type. By 1916, he completed his first commission in his own type, the Chicago Society of Etchers’ The Etching of Figures. In the same year, he completed his second commission for the Society, Frank Weitenkampf’s The Etching of Contemporary Life (the title page above is reproduced in the 1997 keepsake,Twelve Treasures from the Library of the Book Club of California; the text page is reproduced in the 1998 book, American Proprietary Typefaces).

In 1940, Dard Jr. completed his own font of type, seen above in his Specimen of Type as reproduced in American Proprietary Typefaces. The culmination of the work done by father and son is their monumental 1950 publication Papermaking by Hand in America, which uses Dard Jr.’s type, and for which he cut seventeen new ornaments. Dard Sr. set the type himself directly from his notes, while Dard Jr. did the presswork. Dard Jr.’s special place in the history of typography is being the youngest to make a font of type completely by hand (21), besting his father by eight years. Today the tradition carries on at Mountain House with the work of Dard Hunter III.

Roycroft was a reformist community of craft workers and artists which formed a part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States. Elbert Hubbard founded the movement in 1885 in East Aurora, New York, near Buffalo. Participants were known as Roycrofters. The work and philosophy often referred to as the Roycroft movement, had a strong influence on the development of American architecture and design in the early 20th century.

Elbert Hubbard had been influenced by the ideas of William Morris on a trip to England. His championing of the Arts and Crafts approach attracted a number of visiting craftspeople to East Aurora, and they formed a community of printers, furniture makers, metalsmiths, leathersmiths, and bookbinders. A quotation from John Ruskin formed their "creed":

A belief that working with the head, hand and heart and mixing enough play with the work so that every task is pleasurable and makes for health and happiness. (From Wikipedia.

Elbert Hubbard (June 19, 1856 – May 7, 1915)

American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Hubbard is known best as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. (Wikipedia)