Papers, 1835-1922.

ArchivalResource

Munsell, Joel, 1808-1880. Papers, 1835-1922.

Papers, 1835-1922.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/207159190

This collection contains a variety of papers, 1835-1922, of Joel Munsell. The octavo volumes include Munsell's annotated copy of Typographical Miscellany, in which newsclippings relating to printing history and various manuscripts have been pasted. Among the latter are receipts, a copy of circulation figures for New York newspapers in 1816, notes concerning the sale of newspaper firms, a letter, 14 May 1835 (p. 114), of John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) to Hezekiah Niles (1777-1839) requesting extra sheets to an unidentified volume, and an exchange of letters, September 1856 (p. 128), between George Bruce (1781-1866) and Munsell concerning Adam Ramages's improvements in the old screw printing press. There are three octavo volumes compiled by Munsell titled, "Chronological Record of Printing, 1804-1856," containing handwritten information and newsclippings concerning the history and literature of printing, and six volumes titled "Typographical Collections, consisting of Fugitive Pieces relating to Printing and its Cognate Arts," 1853-1859. Munsell copied in these volumes articles from various periodicals that "show the progress of printing and the arts subservient thereto, during the second quarter of the nineteenth century." Included is information on silk printing, wood engraving, and books in the Middle Ages. There are also five volumes of Charles H. Timperley's A Dictionary of Printers and Printing with the Progress of Literature Ancient and Modern (1839) with a sixth volume in the chronologically arranged set by Joel Munsell. This latter volume ends with 1842, while the span dates of the title page are 1839-1857. All six volumes are interleaved with Munsell's annotations, and some contain newsclippings and letters. The final octavo volume was compiled in 1867 by Munsell's son, Charles Munsell (1852- ), later an Albany bookbinder, and was published the following year as Collection of Songs of the American press and other poems relating to the art of printing. The folder contains letters and reminiscences, 1858-1873, of various printers relating to the history of their profession, which served to aid Munsell in his compilations. There is a list of temperance newspapers in the U.S., 1851; information concerning a sketch of George Bruce; and non-contemporary copies of petitions, 1788, of people seeking appointment as printers of New York state laws and journals. The folder also contains newsclippings, 1860s-1922, relating to printing history.

17 v. ; octavo.1 folder (37 items)

American Antiquarian Society