Finding aid for the J.E. Woodhead collection of Roycroft Press and Elbert Hubbard materials 0162

Finding aid prepared by Natalie Camacho
USC Libraries Special Collections
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, California, 90089-0189
213-740-5900
specol@usc.edu
2014 March


Title: J.E. Woodhead collection of Roycroft Press and Elbert Hubbard materials
Collection number: 0162
Contributing Institution: USC Libraries Special Collections
Language of Material: English
Container: 1
Physical Description: 0.84 Linear feet 2 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1896-1915
Abstract: This small collection contains letters, essays, broadsides, clippings, and photographs, created by and for Elbert Hubbard, an American writer, publisher, and philosopher, and founder of the Arts and Crafts community of Roycroft. The materials were collected by J.E. Woodhead in the course of his book collecting activities. In addition to publications produced by Hubbard's Arts and Crafts community, Roycroft, and by the Roycrofters, it also contains letters from the Hubbards to the J.E. Woodhead and his wife regarding Roycroft publications.
creator: Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915
creator: Roycroft Shop.
creator: Woodhead, J.E., (John Edward), 1840-1918

Related Archival Materials

J.E. Woodhead papers, Collection no. 0004.

Preferred Citation

[Box/folder# or item name], J.E. Woodhead collection of Roycroft Press and Elbert Hubbard materials, Collection no. 0162, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Conditions Governing Access

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.

Biographical note

Elbert Hubbard was born on June 19, 1856 in Bloomington, Illinois and was raised in Hudson, Illinois. He began his career as a travelling salesman with the Larkin Soap Company. In 1895, he founded Roycroft, an Arts and Crafts movement community, in East Aurora, New York. Roycroft was an outgrowth of the private press founded by Hubbard in collaboration with his first wife, Bertha. Hubbard and his second wife, Alice, died on May 7, 1915 at the sinking of the Lusitania.
J.E. (John Edward) Woodhead was born in Leeds, England on August 2, 1840 and died in Chicago on October 24, 1918. A successful businessman, Woodhead developed an interest in book collecting, and established a 4000-plus volume private library. He also served as Secretary of the World's Congress Auxiliary Section of Weights, Measures, and Coinage at the World's Columbian Exposition; was a founder and officer (secretary) of the Cosmic Publishing Company, publisher of "Mind in Nature"; a founding member of the Western Society for Psychical Research (founded 1885 in Chicago); and the founder and manager of the National Letter Return Association (1885-1895).

Scope and Content

This small collection contains letters, essays, broadsides, clippings, and photographs, created by and for Elbert Hubbard, an American writer, publisher, and philosopher, and collected by J.E. Woodhead. In addition to publications produced by Hubbard's Arts and Crafts community, Roycroft, and by the Roycrofters, it also contains letters from the Hubbards to the J.E. Woodhead and his wife regarding Roycroft publications. J.E. Woodhead, a Chicago businessman, was an avid book collector. Also included in this collection is Hubbard's best-selling essay, A Message to Garcia (1.2, 1.3, 2.6).

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915 -- Archives
Roycroft Shop. -- Archives
Woodhead, J.E., (John Edward), 1840-1918 -- Archives
Book collectors--Illinois--Chicago--Archival resources
Brochures
Clippings
Ephemera
Letters
Photographs
Publishers and publishing--New York (State)--Archival resources

 

A Message to Garcia

Box 1, Folder 2

A Message to Garcia copy 234 1899

Scope and Content

Best-selling essay by Elbert Hubbard set in the context of the Spanish-American War.
Signed by Elbert Hubbard.
Box 1, Folder 3

A Message to Garcia copy 898 1899

Scope and Content

Best-selling essay by Elbert Hubbard set in the context of the Spanish-American War.
Signed by Elbert Hubbard.
Box 2, Folder 6

A Message to Garcia copy 899 1899

Scope and Content

Best-selling essay by Elbert Hubbard set in the context of the Spanish-American War.
Signed by Elbert Hubbard.
 

Correspondence

Box 1, Folder 5

Correspondence between Elbert and Bertha Hubbard and Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Woodhead 1896-1912

Box 1, Folder 6

Letter from Elbert Hubbard laid in Ralph Flewelling's copy of Lamb's Essays of Elia 1896 December 19

Scope and Content

Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb.
Box 2, Folder 5

Letters from Bertha Hubbard to Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Woodhead 1896-1899

Box 2, Folder 3

Letters from Elbert Hubbard to Nellie Woodhead; Roycroft Publication Brochures 1896-1900

Box 1, Folder 9

Newspaper clippings 1899-1915

Scope and Content

Includes clippings about the sinking of the Lusitania.
 

Photographs

Box 2, Folder 2

Photographs in an envelope addressed to J.E. Woodhead 1905

Box 2, Folder 7

Portraits of Elbert Hubbard 1898-1899

 

Roycroft Publications

Box 1, Folder 7

Illustrations for Little Journeys to the Homes of American Authors

Box 1, Folder 4

Lecture Notices

Box 1, Folder 1

List of the Books Made by the Roycrofters at the Roycroft Shop which is in East Aurora, Erie County, New York, MDCCCXCVIII 1898

Scope and Content

2 copies.
Box 2, Folder 4

Miscellaneous Roycroft Pamphlets and Brochures

Box 2, Folder 1

Roycroft Brochures and Advertisements

Box 1, Folder 8

Roycroft Mementos

Scope and Content

Possibly belonging to Grace Woodhead.