#Tomoye Press

[uwmspeccoll]

It’s Fine Press Friday!

Today we will be discussing Weather Opinions, a book with quotations on various “weather subjects”, compiled and arranged by Jennie Day Haines, published in 1907. The book consists of a variety of passages and poetry associated with the weather of each month. Each month is accompanied by illustrations of the astrological sign associated with the month in the headers. Between the months, there are similar quotations about greater weather patterns or seasonal phenomena. Also included in the book is a color frontispiece made by printmaker Gordon Ross (1873-1946).

The book was printed on Normandy Vellum with typography by John Henry Nash (1871-1947) at the Tomoye Press in New York City; it was published by Paul Elder & Company. Nash worked on typography and book design with Paul Elder (1872-1948), who was in charge of the publication and selling of the books the two created until 1911, when the partners had a falling out and Nash left the Press.

Our copy is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

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– Sarah S., Special Collections Graduate Intern

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[uwmspeccoll]

It’s Fine Press Friday!

A few days ago we presented Max’s staff pick of the week on images of influential printers/typographers/publishers. Among the individuals highlighted was the important California printer and fine-press publisher John Henry Nash. Today we present one of Nash’s publications: the 1923 printing of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s autobiographical story The Silverado Squatters that Nash produced in San Francisco for the New York publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons.

John Henry Nash (1871-1947) was a Canadian who learned printing in Toronto, immigrated to San Francisco in 1895, and soon established  the Tomoye Press with publisher and bookseller Paul Elder. They ended their association in 1911, and in 1916 Nash embarked on his long solo career in fine printing, almost single-handedly establishing San Francisco's fine-press tradition, a tradition that continues to this day. The Great Depression took its toll on Nash, however, forcing him to close shop in 1938. He lectured at the University of Oregon for a while before retiring in 1943. He died in 1947. 

The Silverado Squatters was printed by Nash in an edition of 380 copies from unidentified hand-set types on handmade paper with the watermark “John Henry Nash.” The illustrations are by Howard Whitford Willard. Stevenson’s story was originally published in London by Chatto and Windus in 1883. It is derived from a trip that he and his new wife Fanny Vandegrift took to California's Napa Valley in 1880. Unable to afford a proper hotel, he and his wife lived in a bunkhouse as squatters in an abandoned mining camp named "Silverado." That area today is part of the Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. 

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#Fine Press Fridays #John Henry Nash #Robert Louis Stevenson #letterpress #Howard Whitford Willard #illustrations