Edmund B. Thompson / Hawthorn House Collection, ca. 1920s-1984

Summary

Extent:

.8 linear feet (2 document boxes)

Language:

English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains material relating to Edmund B. Thompson and his printing career, mainly at his Hawthorn House (Windham, Connecticut). Included are checklists, correspondence, photographs, and printing specimens (mainly by Hawthorn House).

Additional copies of Hawthorn House imprints have been cataloged separately and can be searched on Pegasus, the UCSB Libraries online catalog.

Related Thompson/Hawthorn House material also may be found in the Hobart Oliver Skofield Collection (Printers Mss 1).

Biographical / historical:

Edmund B. Thompson (1897-1974) began his career with William Edwin Rudge in the 1920s. In 1929 he joined Peter Beilenson as a partner in the Walpole Printing Office (New Rochelle) but in 1932, suffering from poor health, he moved to the quiet of Windham, Connecticut where he set up Hawthorn House in his home. There he and his wife set type by hand, printing for others and publishing Thompson's own works such as A Printer's Common-place Book (1937).

Acquisition information:

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund B. Thompson, ca. 1965-1977, and Hobart O. Skofield, ca. 1970s-1984.

Physical location:

Del Sur

Location of this collection:

UC Santa Barbara, Special Research Collections

UC Santa Barbara Library

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US

Contact:

(805) 893-3062

special@library.ucsb.edu

Website