Overview
Papers from annual gatherings of the Typocrafters, an organization of printers and others interested in typography. The papers include programs, photographs, and printed keepsakes.
Dates
- Creation: 1937-2000
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use.
Most of this collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository (except for the oversize items no. (29) and no. (32)). Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine retrieval policies and times.
Extent
3 linear feet (2 cartons and 1 portfolio volume)The collection, assembled by Paul Duensing, includes printed material and some photographs from annual meetings 1947-2000. A few years are missing and the material is sparse before 1958. There are also some miscellaneous documents 1937-1946. Correspondence is included from 1974 and 1981 when the conference was organized by Duensing. Some of his other papers, not strictly related to the Typocrafters, are also included.
Organizational history
The Typocrafters came into being in 1937 as "a society of midwestern typographic designers" (subtitle of an early leaflet, item 1). Annual meetings have taken place ever since, interrupted only briefly by World War II. In more recent times, the organization has become "a group of men and women devoted to the preservation of taste, dignity, appropriateness and effectiveness in typography and graphic design. ... There is no formal structure to this group; there are no requirements for membership other than interest and attendance. Some attendees produce a keepsake for exchange, others do not" (Paul Duensing, The Typocrafters, 1981).
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Papers of the Typocrafters
- II. Other papers of Paul Duensing
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Physical Location
b, pf
Immediate Source of Acquisition
*1999M-69, *2000M-62, *2001M-39. Gift of Paul Hayden Duensing, 1040 Julian Crossing, Watkinsville, Georgia 30677; received 1999-2002.
Separated Materials
Some printed works of Paul Duensing that were also keepsakes have been removed and cataloged separately as printed books. For these see HOLLIS.
General note
Most of this collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: J. F. Coakley.
- Title
- Typocrafters (Group). Typocrafters (Group) papers: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00162
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu