Continental Typefounders Association scrapbooks
Scope and Contents
The Continental Typefounders Association scrapbooks consist of six bound volumes containing prospectuses, advertisements, letterhead, announcements, printed type specimens, pamphlets, circular letters, price lists, press clippings, off-prints, photographs, and some correspondence, documenting the first decade of the firm Continental Typefounders Association. In addition to corporate history, the volumes show, through announcements, news clippings, and his published writings, Cary's national and international travels to lecture on type design, his encouragement of the incorporation of modern typefaces in advertising, and his lobbying to reduce the tariff on imports (1929-1930). The scrapbooks also contain a range of material on the life and work of type designer Frederic W. Goudy, whose Village Foundry typefaces were distributed exclusively through the Continental Typefounders Association.
Dates
- Creation: 1925 - 1936
Creator
- Cary, Melbert Brinckerhoff (Collector, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open to researchers.
Biographical information on Melbert B. Cary
Melbert Brinkerhoff Cary Jr. (1892-1941) was born in New York, educated at Groton School and Yale University, and died in New York. He was president of Continental Type Founders Association and the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and proprietor of the private Press of the Woolly Whale. His professional and personal interests in printing led him to collect printer's manuals and type specimens, as well as exemplars of the printer's art.
Historical Information on The Continental Typefounders Association
The Continental Typefounders Association, Inc. was organized in New York City in 1925 by Melbert B. Cary Jr. Its aim was to import from Europe the best new designs in type, initials, borders, and ornaments being developed by foundries on the continent, but cast to American type height and using the American point system primarily so that designers and printers in the United States could use fresh and modern faces for commercial advertising. Officers included Cary as president, Douglas C. McMurtrie as vice president, Franklin Woodruff as treasurer, and Warren A. Ransom as secretary; Frederic W. Goudy also served as a vice president. The firm's offices were at 248 West 40th Street (1925-1928) and afterward on East 45th Street; they briefly maintained a Midwest office, Continental Typefounders of Chicago, Inc. (1930-1933).
Extent
1.5 Linear Feet (6 boxes)
Language
English
Overview
Six bound volumes containing prospectuses, advertisements, letterhead, announcements, printed type specimens, pamphlets, circular letters, price lists, press clippings, off-prints, photographs, and some correspondence, documenting the first decade of the firm Continental Typefounders Association.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically in six volumes.
Scrapbooks
- Volume 1, 1925-1927
- Volume 2, 1928
- Volume 3, 1929
- Volume 4, 1929-1931
- Volume 5, 1931-1935
- Volume 6, 1935-1936
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, 1969
Processing Information
Collection was processed by staff of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection, date unknown. Finding aid created by Ella von Holtum in April 2020.
Subject
- Goudy, Frederic W. (Frederic William) (Person)
- Continental Typefounders Association (Organization)
- McMurtrie, Douglas C., 1888-1944 (Person)
- Title
- Continental Typefounders Association scrapbooks
- Status
- In Progress
- Subtitle
- Cary Graphic Arts Collection
- Author
- Ella von Holtum
- Date
- April 2020
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection Repository
