Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Scope and Contents
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Frederic W. Goudy Collection,
Dates: 15th
century-1979.
Date (bulk): 1923-1947.
Collection number: D.Mss.0005
Creator:
Goudy, Frederic W. (Frederic William),
1865-1947
Donor:
Drake, Dorothy M. (Dorothy Margaret),
1904-1999
Donor:
Duvall, Florence E. (Florence Elizabeth),
1903-1971
Donor:
Foster, Joseph A. (Joseph Arnold),
1905-1987
Donor:
Strouse, Norman H. (Norman Hulbert),
1906-1993
Extent:
16 linear feet (22 boxes).
Repository:
Scripps College. Ella Strong Denison Library. Claremont, CA 91711.
Abstract: Print items, proofs, typescripts,
manuscripts, patterns, correspondence, photographs, memorabilia, ephemera, and other
materials relating to the work and life of printer, artist, and type designer Frederic W.
Goudy (1865-1947) and, in particular, his relationship with Scripps College. The materials
include print copies, manuscripts, typescripts, drafts, and proofs of writings and speeches
by Goudy, and original drawings, tracings, patterns of types, bookplates, lettersheads,
monograms, and ornamented initial letters designed by him. The collection also contains
broadsides, handbills, and other materials published by the Village Press, founded and
operated by Goudy and his wife, Bertha M. Goudy, from 1903 until 1939; keepsakes of the
"Pilgrimage to Deepdene", the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the founding of the
press (1938); examples of printings utilizing Goudy type by presses other than the Village
Press, in particular the Aries Press, Earl H. Emmons' Maverick Press, and the work of Howard
Coggeshall; printed keepsakes and tributes to Goudy, primarily on the occasion of his
birthday; and periodical and newspaper articles and short monographs written about Goudy,
including obituaries, appreciations, and tributes published in the years immediately
following his death in 1947. The materials also include the original drawings, cardboard
patterns, rubbings, lead sheets, and matrices Goudy created for the Scripps College Old
Style type (both Roman and Italic faces), and first proofs of the type; a small number of
materials relating to Bertha M. Goudy; photographs; and one of Goudy's cloth work
hats.
Physical Location: Ella Strong
Denison Library.
Language of Material: The materials in the collection are
in English.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
This collection is open for research with permission from Ella Strong Denison Library
staff.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Denison
Library.
Preferred Citation
[description of item], Box #, Folder #, Frederic W. Goudy Collection (D.Mss.0005). Ella
Strong Denison Library, Scripps College, Claremont, California.
Acquisition Information
The collection was begun in approximately 1941 with donations to Denison Library from
Frederic W. Goudy, supplemented by his correspondence, 1938-1947, with Denison librarian
Dorothy M. Drake. The collection received further donations from Phil Townsend Hanna and
Professor Joseph A. Foster in 1947; from Frances E. Duvall--a music teacher, former Pomona
College student, and Goudy's amanuensis in the last years of his life--between 1947 and
1950; and from Norman H. Sprouse in 1981.
Accruals
No addition to the collection is anticipated.
Processing Information
Processed by Michael Palmer, MLIS, with the assistance of Evelyn Gonzalez, Ella Strong
Denison Library, January-April 2016.
Biography
Frederic William Goudy was born in Bloomington, Illinois, 18 March 1865, the son of John
Fleming Gowdy (who later changed the spelling to the traditional Scotts “Goudy”),
superintendent of schools in Bloomington, and Amanda Melvina Truesdell. Goudy began his
life as an independent adult as a cashier and bookkeeper for a department store in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1888; shortly afterwards he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and
then to Chicago, where he held a number of bookkeeping positions, visiting bookshops,
meeting bibliophiles, becoming acquainted with the Arts and Crafts movement (in
particular, the work of William Morris’s Kelmscott Press), and learning printing and
typography on the side. In 1895, in collaboration with Cyrus Lauron Hooper, Goudy
established the short-lived Booklet (later renamed Camelot) Press, and obtained the
commission to print the second volume of the fortnightly magazine,
The Chap Book, published by Stone and Kimball, which was widely praised for its
fine design. In 1896, after the collapse of the press, Goudy designed his first typeface
for commercial use, Camelot, purchased by Dickinson Type Foundry in Boston. In 1897, he
married Bertha M. Sprinks, and in 1899 finally set himself up as a free-lance designer. In
1903, together with his wife and Will Ransom, Goudy set up the Village Press, in Park
Ridge, Illinois. The venture was modeled on the Arts and Crafts movement ideals of William
Morris, and utilized a typeface, Village, originally created that same year for the
Chicago clothing manufacturer, Kuppenheimer & Company. The first work printed was a
reprint of “Printing”, an essay by William Morris and Emery Walker originally published in
Arts and Crafts Essays by Members of the Arts and Crafts
Exhibition Society
(1899). Goudy soon bought out Ransom, and moved the press,
first, in 1904, to Hingham, Massachusetts, and in 1906 to New York City, where, in January
1908, all Goudy’s equipment and designs was destroyed by fire. The Goudys revived the
press in 1912, moving it the following year to a house on Deepdene Road, Forest Hills
Gardens, Long Island, where it remained until 1923, when it was removed to a property,
renamed “Deepdene” by the Goudys, in Marlborough-on-Hudson, New York.
Goudy was the third most prolific designer of metal type in the United States, with 122
designs completed, and 90 typefaces cut and cast. His earliest was Camelot (1896); his
first significant typeface was for the Lanston Monotype Machine Company, E-38, sometimes
known as Goudy Light (1908). In 1911, Goudy produced Kennerley Old Style and Forum, the
former for the H. G. Wells anthology,
The Door in the Wall and
Other Stories
, published by Mitchell Kennerley. Both were highly successful, and
brought him to the attention of the American Type Founders Company (ATF), who commissioned
him to design what became known as Goudy Old Style, which was an instant success upon its
release in 1915. ATF expanded the “Goudy family” of types, using in-house designers, into
the late 1920s, but Goudy received no profits from these later designs, as he had sold the
copyright for a flat fee, and had not entered into a licensing agreement. Goudy then
entered into a relationship with Lanston Monotype, for whom he served as art director from
1920 to 1940, and for whom he designed a number of types, including Garamont (1921), one
the most popular during his lifetime. However, he retained his independence as a type
designer, accepting commissions from foundries, corporations, institutions, and
individuals, and from 1926 onwards, he cut the matrices for all his types at his Village
Press and Foundery at Deepdene, until a fire in January 1939 destroyed his equipment,
designs, and several of his completed types. Despite the loss, Goudy continued to design,
although at a much reduced rate, until his death. He was also a prolific lecturer, who was
reputed to seldom turn down an invitation to speak, and the author of 59 works, including
The Alphabet (1918),
Elements of
Lettering
(1922),
Typologia (1940), and the
autobiographical
A Half-Century of Type Design and Typography,
1895-1945
(1946). He died at Deepdene on 11 May 1947. His wife, Bertha, who had
played a critical role as compositor for many of the publications of the Village Press,
had predeceased him in 1935.
Goudy's connection to Scripps College began in the summer of 1938, during a visit to
California to consult with the University of California on the type (University of
California Old Style) he was designing for them. A business friend in Los Angeles, who was
also a friend of Scripps librarian Dorothy M. Drake, was called away unexpectedly, and
asked Drake to entertain Goudy. This began a friendship and extensive correspondence that
lasted until Goudy's death in 1947. Goudy returned to California on University of
California Press business in May 1939, and addressed a convocation at Scripps. By the
summer of that year, Goudy and Drake were corresponding about a special type design for
Scripps College; the earliest surviving drawing for this type is dated 31 July 1939. Goudy
originally proposed a fee of $2850 for the type, but later settled for $1000. Scripps
College president Ernest Jaqua authorized Goudy to proceed with the casting of the type in
February 1941; the money was provided by Mrs. Catherine Coffin Phillips, California
author, and grandmother of a member of the Scripps College class of 1941. In June 1941,
the Class of 1941 presented its class gift, the Washington hand press on which Ward
Ritchie had learned to print; Goudy visited the college in September for the formal
presentation of his type. In 1944, the college commissioned Goudy to design an italic to
accompany the roman type; Goudy had just finished designing and cutting the patterns for
this type at the time of his death in 1947. The original drawings, patterns, and matrices
were secured for the college by Joseph Arnold Foster, who had joined the Scripps faculty
in 1946, to teach Humanities, American Literature, and printing.
Bernard Lewis, Bruce Rogers, Frederic W. Goudy,
Behind the Type,
The Life Story of Frederic W. Goudy
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1941).
Judy Harvey Sahak,
Dorothy Drake and the Scripps College
Press
(Claremont, California, 1992).
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in the following 14 series:
- Series 1: Works by Frederic W. Goudy.
- Series 2: Works on Frederic W. Goudy.
- Series 3: Village Press.
- Series 4: Goudy types.
- Series 5: Presses and publications utilizing Goudy type.
- Series 6: Other presses and publications.
- Series 7: Printed birthday and other tributes.
- Series 8: Exhibitions and events in honor of Frederic W. Goudy.
- Series 9: Announcements and reviews, booklists.
- Series 10: Frederic W. Goudy and Scripps College.
- Series 11: Scripps College Old Style type.
- Series 12: Photographs and pictures.
- Series 13: Bertha M. Goudy.
- Series 14: Miscellaneous.
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of materials relating to the work and life of printer, artist, and
type designer Frederic W. Goudy, and, in particular, his relationship with Scripps College.
The materials include print copies, manuscripts, typescripts, drafts, and proofs of his
writings and speeches; original drawings, tracings, patterns, and layouts by Goudy of
various types, bookplates, lettersheads, monograms, and ornamented initial letters; and
samples of various types designed by Goudy. The collection also contains materials published
by the Village Press, founded and operated by Goudy and his wife, Bertha M. Goudy, from 1903
until its destruction by fire in January 1939. These works include broadsides, handbills,
and other short works, as well as proofs and imperfect printer's sheets of sections of
several larger works. The Village Press materials also include keepsakes of the "Pilgrimage
to Deepdene", the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the founding of the press, held at
Marlborough, New York, on 23 July 1938.
The collection contains examples of printings utilizing Goudy by presses other than the
Village Press, in particular the Aries Press, Earl H. Emmons' Maverick Press, and the work
of Howard Coggeshall. In addition, the collection contains printed keepsakes and tributes to
Goudy, primarily on the occasion of his birthday; and periodical and newspaper articles and
short monographs written about Goudy, including a substantial number of obituaries,
appreciations, and tributes published in the years immediately following his death in
1947.
The materials documenting Goudy's relationship to Scripps College include manuscript
letters (1938-1949) from Goudy to Denison librarian Dorothy M. Drake, as well as the
original drawings, cardboard patterns, rubbings, lead sheets, and matrices Goudy created for
the Scripps College Old Style type, and first proofs of the type, pulled and annotated by
Goudy during his visit to Scripps College in September 1941.
Materials relating to Bertha M. Goudy include an original drawing of a border designed by
her, and two photographs of her.
Photographs in the collection include images of Goudy by Doris U. Jaeger (1919) and
Clarence H. White (1923); photographs of the cascade and Goudy's house and workshop at
Deepdene, Marlborough, New York, prior to the fire of 29 January 1939; Goudy in his cloth
work hat (one of which is part of the collection); formal portraits of Goudy in academic
rRegalia; Goudy and his favorite cat, "Marmlade"; and snapshots of Goudy taken during his
September 1941 visit to Scripps College.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library’s online public access catalog.
Drake, Dorothy M. (Dorothy Margaret),
1904-1999
Duvall, Florence E. (Florence Elizabeth),
1903-1971
Foster, Joseph A. (Joseph Arnold),
1905-1987
Goudy, Frederic W. (Frederic William), 1865-1947
Printers--United States
Printing--United States--History--20th century
Scripps College. Press
Strouse, Norman H. (Norman Hulbert),
1906-1993
Type and type-founding--Specimens
Type and type-founding--United States.
Type and type-founding--United States--History--20th century
Type designers
Typefaces (Type evidence)--Goudy Scripps