Merrymount Press Records

This collection contains of the business records of the Merrymount Press and the related papers of its founder Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941). The bulk of the collection consists of financial volumes; correspondence with customers, publishers, illustrators, craftsmen, and suppliers; bills; estimates; and scrapbooks with specimens of work. While the majority of the correspondence is comprised of letters, there are occasionally proofs, specimens, and cloth, paper, fabric samples, etc., found with the correspondence. The records reflect Updike's involvement with printing across the United States and in Europe, though much of his work was produced for clients in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York City. Some of the correspondence reflects Updike's personal interests including Rhode Island history and churches and charitable work with poor children as well as prison inmates.

Correspondence, 1893-1906

Incoming correspondence for 1893 to 1906 is arranged chronologically in boxes and there is currently no name index. Consequently, a researcher searching for correspondence by a specific individual or company needs to look in all folders within an applicable date range. Copies of outgoing correspondence are held in chronological letter books (Volumes 1-31), each with a front alphabetical index. There is also one letter book containing miscellaneous personal correspondence of Updike dating from December 1903-January 1907 (Volume 32). Much of the correspondence in Volume 32 relates to Updike's involvement in various plans to develop a press for Harvard University.

Correspondence, 1907-1952

For 1906-1952, original incoming letters, carbon copies of outgoing correspondence, bills, and estimates are grouped in correspondent files arranged according to the year in which the first communication was received by the Press. This filing system was created to work with an alphabetical card catalog (Boxes 321-322) that contains correspondent names, addresses, and group numbers. In some cases the cards also have cross references to related groups. The origin of this organizational schema remains unclear, but its idiosyncrasies impact the ability to find material.

There are over 2000 entities assigned individual group numbers in this system. The group numbers were presumably assigned before the material was transferred to the Huntington Library in 1958, and the group numbers were written in blue pencil at the top of each piece of paper along with a sequential item number. (Note: in some cases, items were misfiled or sequential item numbers were incorrectly assigned; consequently the blue handwritten numbers may not be entirely accurate.)

This finding aid provides the group number, correspondent name, and the date range of included documents. It does not provide an indication of piece count, and it should be noted that a file may contain only letter or it may contain hundreds of pieces. In addition, the group name typically reflects the main correspondent represented in the file, but in some cases there is related correspondence with other individuals, companies, or organizations.

Most of the entities represented are customers of the Press, but numbers were also assigned for individuals and companies doing business with the Merrymount Press or its owner Daniel Updike (such as the Edison Electric Company, tax offices, and investment firms); or for individuals with whom Updike had personal communication. Updike, Bianchi, and Bianchi's son Daniel Berkeley Bianchi also have correspondence files that provides information about the activities of the business. Daniel Bianchi (Group 2214) worked as a representative for the Press in New York beginning in the late 1930s, as did Vrest Orton in 1934-1935 (Group 2176), and their files provide reports of meetings with customers.

While most groups are named for individuals or organizations, some materials are filed by type including:

Note: Groups are also referred to as folders on the physical boxes.

Financial volumes

The financial volumes include day-books, journals, cash books, invoice books, sales books, ledgers, and job books (Volumes 33-141). In addition there are books of copies of receipts generated by the Merrymount Press to customers (Volumes 197-200), as well as volumes recording cash receipts/disbursements related to the estate and trust of Edward Perry Warren (Volume 201-203). Updike was a trustee of the Warren trust, and these volumes are complemented by files found in the correspondence series. There is also what appears to be a personal cash book for Updike, 1902-1903 (Volume 205)

Specimen books

The collection also includes an extensive set of scrapbooks of minor printing done by the Press containing specimens of small jobs such as bookplates, envelopes, pamphlets, and programs (Volumes 142-180). There is also a scrapbook of small advertising jobs produced by Houghton-Mifflin Co. while D. B. Updike worked for them in the 1880s and early 1890s (Volume 184). In addition there are scrapbooks of minor printing, design examples, and type specimens maintained by the Press (Volumes 185-196).

Additional materials

The collection also contains other materials created by or owned by the Merrymount Press. This includes 30 publishing dummies, mostly for books printed by the Pres (Volumes 206-234), including The Book of Common Prayer; decorative and marbled endpaper samples (Box 327); two volumes containing clipped press notices from newspapers about the Press (Volumes 235-236); some publications/articles about Updike and the Press (Box 328); and 17 catalogs, chiefly bookseller sales catalogs, which are primarily related to printing and typography (most of these catalogs contain the Merrymount Press bookplate). There are also miscellaneous typescript manuscripts (Boxes 325-326) consisting of: "Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy" by Adam H. Dickey [typescript manuscript with pencil corrections and annotations], 1927; a translation from the German of Music Printing with movable type in the 16th century. Leipzig, 1892 [typescript manuscript]; "Humanistic Script" (Chapter III) by Stanley Morison [typescript manuscript]; and "Printing Types" manuscript and notes by D. B. Updike, 1937.