Back to Private Press File overview
TW.G. Lyon founded the Talbot Press in 1912 in Dublin, Ireland. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
The Talisman Press was owned by Robert Greenwood. It started in Denver, Colorado, in 1955, but later moved to San Jose, Los Gatos, and Georgetown, California. The editors were Newton Baird and Greenwood, and the press focused on literature, publishing a magazine called The Talisman between 1952 and 1958. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
In 1953 Roger Levenson founded the Tamalpais Press in Berkeley, California. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Tamazunchale Press was the private press of Charlotte Messenger Smith of Newton, Iowa, founded in 1983. An avid book collector, Smith discovered miniature books after her collection of antiquarian books grew too large for her home. Tamazunchale Press was the first in Iowa to specialize in miniature books. Smith died in 2002.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Edward Dewitt Taylor and Henry Taylor operated a printing business in San Francisco, California, from the early twentieth century into the 1960s. Their firm became renowned for its fine printing, and they completed several commissions for the Book Club of California. They went into business with John Henry Nash in 1911, forming a partnership called Taylor, Nash & Taylor. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Nash, John Henry, Taylor, Nash & Taylor, and Book Club of California.
The Taylor brothers formed a partnership with printer John Henry Nash in San Francisco, California, in 1911. Known for their fine printing, the partnership did well despite the differing styles of Nash and the Taylors. In 1914 Taylor, Nash & Taylor printed the first book published by the Book Club of California, A Bibliography of the History of California and the Pacific West 1510-1906, by Robert Ernest Cowan, and gained both acclaim and criticism for its production. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Nash, John Henry and Taylor & Taylor.
W. Thomas Taylor owns the Kairos Press, but also sells rare books and is the financial backer for publications at other private presses to be sold at his shop in Austin, Texas. In books printed under the W. Thomas Taylor imprint, Taylor is usually credited as the designer, and Bradley Hutchinson is the printer. The business began making books in 1986.
See also Kairos Press and the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Nicholas and Mary Parry produce four or five books per year in small editions at the Tern Press, which they founded in 1974. Areas of interest include British literature, natural history, and modern poetry. The press was originally located in London, England, but relocated to Market Drayton, Shropshire, in 1980. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Thatchcot was the house of Hal and Violet Trovillion, the proprietors of the Trovillion Private Press, and was sometimes used as an imprint.
See also Trovillion Private Press and the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
This press is named after the collection of maps considered to be the first modern atlas, made by Abraham Ortelius and printed in 1570 in Antwerp, Belgium. The press is located in Amsterdam. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Hugh Barclay is the proprietor.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Located in New York. The Thistle Press printed books for the Limited Editions Club. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Limited Editions Club.
Located in Eugene, Oregon. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Alan Kornblum, Cinda Kornblum, David Duer and E.A. Buck founded the Toothpaste Press in West Branch, Iowa. The press later moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and became the Coffee House Press. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Coffee House Press and the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
In 1907 Luther Brewer established the Torch Press in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he had been editor of the Daily Republican newspaper. Although Brewer died in 1933, the press continued to produce books, cards and other ephemera prolifically into the 1950s under the direction of Edward Misak. In addition, the Torch Press Bookstore became one of the largest west of Chicago, and specialized in both new and antiquarian books and memorabilia. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
The Tragara Press is located in Edinburgh, Scotland. The proprietor is Alan Anderson. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Gotthard de Beauclair founded the Trajanus Press in Frankfurt am Main in 1951. The press is best known for developing the Trajanus typeface, still commonly used in book design.
Founded in the 1950s in Paris by Arnold Fawcus, the Trianon Press is best known for its remarkable collotype facsimiles of artwork, early printing, and other works. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Trovillion Private Press was founded in 1908 by Hal and Violet Trovillion in Herrin, Illinois. The couple focused on reprinting texts from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and published fifty books between 1908 and 1958, when they retired from printing. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Tryst Press was established in Provo, Utah, in 1993. The press specializes in fine letterpress books and ephemera.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Adrian Wilson founded The Press in Tuscany Alley in San Francisco in the late 1950s. He became well known for his fine books and ephemera, including theater programs produced for the company in which his wife, Joyce Lancaster Wilson, participated. Both of the Wilsons edited and authored books about the history of books and printing, and Joyce Wilson was also responsible for writing, designing and illustrating several children's books at the press. After Adrian Wilson's death in 1989, the press operated for several years as part of the printing history program at San Francisco State University under the direction of Peter Rutledge Koch, a former student of Adrian Wilson. The press had closed by the time of Joyce Wilson's death in 1996. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Wilson, Adrian, Koch, Peter Rutledge, and the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Harry Reese, a professor in the book arts program at the University of California - Santa Barbara, founded the Turkey Press in 1974. His wife, Sandra Liddell Reese, also works at the press. The Reeses specialize in poetry, prints, and artists' books, especially focusing on innovative book structures. The press is now located in Isla Vista, California.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Don Gray established the Twowindows Press in 1967 in San Francisco, California. The press moved to Berkeley, California, in 1980. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
R.T. (Terry) Risk publishes books under the Typographeum Press imprint in Francestown, New Hampshire. The press has been in operation since 1979.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
The Typophiles are not a private press, but rather a group of printers, book collectors, and bibliophiles who meet in New York in order to promote printing and the graphic arts. The group began informally around 1932 and was initially led by Paul A. Bennett, a printer and designer. The society is responsible for the publication of many keepsakes, chapbooks, and ephmera, and the printing is generally done by small private presses. The typophiles also published several bound works on printing and the history of type. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Presses that have done printing for the Typophiles include: Dogwood Press, Spiral Press, Oxford University Press, Peter Pauper Press, Marchbanks Press, Southworth-Anthoensen Press, Peter Beilenson, and Anderson, Ritchie & Simon.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Alan Brilliant founded the Unicorn Press in 1966. It was first located in Greensboro, North Carolina, but moved to Santa Barbara, California. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Untide Press was founded by William Everson and his fellow residents at Camp Angel, Oregon, a camp for conscientious objectors during World War II. The name was a reaction to the camp's official newspaper, The Tide. The high level of talent among the artists and writers housed at the camp contributed to the quality of the press's publications. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Upstairs Press is the press of the Washington State University Libraries in Pullman, Washington.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Ursus Press is located in New York.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
USC Fine Arts Press is the press of the arts program at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Lloyd and Myrtis Whydotski are proprietors of the Vagabond Press, located in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Charles Ricketts made his first foray into publishing by designing some of Oscar Wilde's books to be printed at the Ballantyne Press. In 1896, Ricketts founded his Vale Press with the financial backing of William Llewellyn Hacon, a prominent English lawyer. The financial partnership that resulted also served as a publisher for the Eragny Press. Ricketts's books used his own typefaces, handmade paper, fine bindings, and engraved illustrations to create books that were works of art. Ricketts designed forty-six books for the Vale Press, and presswork continued to be done by the Ballantyne Press. The Vale Press closed in 1904.
For materials in the collections of MU Libraries, see Ballantyne Press. See also Eragny Press.
Frederic and Bertha Goudy operated the Village Press from 1903 until 1939. Originally founded as a partnership between Goudy and Will Ransom, the press burned only five years after it opened, destroying the business. Goudy reopened the press after World War I, and it remained in business until another devastating fire in 1939, which destroyed many of Goudy's type designs as well as ending the printing business.
A bibliography and history of the Village Press were published shortly before it closed; click here to see a list of materials about the press and materials published by the press in MU Libraries.
See also Goudy, Frederic.
Kurt H. Volk began his typography business in the late 1930s in New York. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Peter Beilenson and Edmund B. Thompson founded the Walpole Printing Office in 1929 in New Rochelle, New York. Named after the eighteenth-century author and private press owner Horace Walpole, the press specialized in limited editions. After three years, Thompson left the firm, Beilenson's wife Edna became his business partner, and the printing office was moved to Mount Vernon, New York. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Beilenson, Peter, and Peter Pauper Press.
Carol J. Blinn started the Warwick Press when she served as an apprentice to Harold McGrath at the Gehenna Press in 1973. The press is located in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Gehenna Press and the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Washburn College (now Washburn University) is a publicly funded university located in Topeka, Kansas.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Located in Baltimore, Maryland. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
The press of the Special Collections Department at the University of Virginia Library. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
The proprietor was Frederick B. MacMahon.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Jadwiga Jarvis and Mike Hudson are the proprietors of the Wayzgoose Press, which is located in Sydney, Australia. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Located in Toronto, Canada. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Although mostly self-taught, Emil Rudolf Weiss is known as one of the best type designers of early twentieth-century Germany. One of his most important contributions is the development of a readable German textbook font to replace the difficult Gothic types still used in German books at that time. Click here for materials about Weiss in MU Libraries.
Rowley S. Atterbury founded the Westerham Press in 1950. As the name suggests, the press was originally located in Westerham, Kent, England. Before being acquired by the St. Ives company in 1987, the press built up a reputation as a printer of color fine art reproductions and art books. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
The White Owl Press was founded in London in the 1930s. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
White Rabbit Press was located in San Francisco. Click here for a list of materials about or printed by the press available at MU Libraries.
Whiteknights Press is the printing arm of the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading in England. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
John and Rosalind Randle established the Whittington Press in 1972. Located near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, England, the press focuses on limited editions of illustrated books.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Dan Keleher is the proprietor and printer. The press did printing for the Limited Editions Club. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Adrian Wilson was one of the foremost fine printers in San Francisco, California. A poet and conscientious objector during World War II, Wilson was sent to a camp for artists in Oregon, where his first introduction to printing was made with the writers and printers of the Untide Press. His Ark Press was founded in 1947 and lasted until 1948, when he went to work with Jack Stauffacher at the Greenwood Press. Wilson was also involved with the imprints At the Sign of the Interplayers and At 343 Front Street, as well as working for the University of California Press. His Press in Tuscany Alley was noted for its fine printing and craftsmanship. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Untide Press, Greenwood Press, Tuscany Alley, Press in, and the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
John Wilson founded his press around 1823 in Glasgow, Scotland. The press moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1846 and to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1865. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
David Holman was the proprietor of the Wind River Press, located in Austin, Texas. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
W. Gay Reading is the proprietor of the Windell Press of Lexington, Kentucky. Reading is also a former director of the King Library Press at the University of Kentucky.
A discussion of the press and related presses can be found in The Private Press Tradition in Lexington, Kentucky and Fine Printing In Lexington.
See also King Library Press, the Reading Lion Press, and the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Windhover Press is located at the University of Iowa at Iowa City and was the first university fine press. It was established by Kim Merker in 1967. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also Stone Wall Press and the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Melbert B. Cary, Jr., established his Press of the Woolly Whale in 1928 in New York City. His intention was "to publish only those texts which appeal strongly to us," and the press published around 50 books before it closed in 1942. The choice of texts and subject matter was often humorous, but the press always used the finest materials and craftsmanship. Cary was also the president and founder of the Continental Typefounders Association to import and sell European type in the United States.
Cary's life and work at the press have been summarized in Melbert B. Cary, Jr. and the Press of the Woolly Whale, Rochester, N.Y.: Cary Graphic Arts Press, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2002. This book also includes a bibliography of the press. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Conrad Ross is the printer and proprietor of Wycross Press in Auburn, Alabama. The press is devoted to experimental printmaking and fine limited editions of prints and books.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Cincinnati, Ohio. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
See also the listing in the Press Ephemera Collection.
Neil Shaver founded the Yellow Barn Press in 1979 after taking a class from Harry Duncan (of Abbatoir Editions and the Cummington Press) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Shaver's books are noted for their taste in design and high craftsmanship, and he focused on books about the history of books and printing. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
ZLocated in Frankfurt, Germany. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
Curt Zoller is the proprietor of the Zoller Press, which is located in Whittier, California. Click here for a list of materials available at MU Libraries.
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Published by: Special Collections
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Friday, January 23, 2009