Abrams, Harry Nathan (23 February 1905–25 November 1979), publisher and art collector, was born in London, England, the son of Morris Abrams, a shoe store proprietor, and Amelia Rosenberg. In 1913 the family moved from London to New York City, where Abrams studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Art Students League....
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Abrams, Harry Nathan (1905-1979), publisher and art collector
Anne F. Collins
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Day, F. Holland (1864-1933), publisher, photographer, and bibliophile
Estelle Jussim
Day, F. Holland (23 July 1864–06 November 1933), publisher, photographer, and bibliophile, was born Fred Holland Day in Norwood, Massachusetts, the son of Lewis Day, an industrialist, and Anna Smith. The only child of wealthy parents, young Day was educated largely by private tutors. The family split their time between their Norwood house and an apartment in Boston, at that time considered the Athens of America. At fifteen Day accompanied his mother to Denver, where she recuperated from a lung disease. It was in Denver that he made his first sustained contact with a large colony of Chinese, and their art and material culture made a lasting impact on him. He began to draw with Chinese inks and brushes and purchased many Chinese artifacts; he remained fascinated by Oriental culture to his dying day. This fascination was abetted by the world-class Oriental collections at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts....
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Doolittle, Amos (1754-1832), engraver
Kate Steinway
Doolittle, Amos (18 May 1754–31 January 1832), engraver, was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, the son of Ambrose Doolittle and Martha Munson (occupations unknown). Doolittle apprenticed under Eliakim Hitchcock, a silversmith, but he may have taught himself to engrave copper plates. By 1774, he was living in New Haven, where he remained until his death. He appears to have prospered, owning a house and shop on College Street in which he rented out a large room to individuals and organizations, including the Masons, who met there from 1801 to 1826. Doolittle was himself a dedicated Mason from 1792 until his death....
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Goudy, Frederic William (1865-1947), typographer and printer
Michael Golec
Goudy, Frederic William (18 March 1865–11 May 1947), typographer and printer, was born in Bloomington, Illinois, the son of John Fleming Goudy, a real estate broker, and Amanda Melvina Truesdell. The family moved to Shelbyville, Illinois, where, when he was sixteen, he received a commission to paste Bible verses to a classroom wall. He designed and cut some three thousand letters himself. In 1884 his family moved to Highmore, South Dakota (then part of the Dakota Territory), where his father was appointed federal probate judge. In 1888, after an attempt to establish a loan and mortgage company, Goudy moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to work as a bookkeeper for a department store. A year later he moved to Springfield, Illinois, but soon decided to return to South Dakota. As it happened he ventured no further than Chicago, Illinois....
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Johnson, Eunice W. (4 April 1916–3 January 2010), fashion show producer and director, publishing company executive, and philanthropist
Margena A. Christian
Johnson, Eunice W. (4 April 1916–3 January 2010), fashion show producer and director, publishing company executive, and philanthropist, was born Eunice Walker, one of five children to Nathaniel Walker and Ethel McAlpine Walker in Selma, Alabama. Her father was a prominent physician in Selma, while her mother was a high school principal, who additionally taught art and education courses at Selma University, a private historically African American Bible college. Her maternal grandfather, Rev. Dr. William H. McAlpine, was the university’s co-founder and its second president, as well as the first president of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. (...
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Johnston, Thomas (1708?–08 May 1767), engraver, organ builder, and decorative painter
Ronald D. Rarick
Johnston, Thomas (1708?–08 May 1767), engraver, organ builder, and decorative painter, was a prominent . His parentage and place of birth are unknown. Several artists and artisans named Thomas Johnston (or the variant Johnson) were active in eighteenth-century America and England, and early references sometimes confuse them. Nevertheless, his is one of the better-documented careers among craftsmen of colonial Boston....
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Lynes, George Platt (1907-1955), publisher and photographer
Barbara L. Ciccarelli
Lynes, George Platt (15 April 1907–06 December 1955), publisher and photographer, was born in East Orange, New Jersey, the son of Joseph R. Lynes, a clergyman, and Adelaide Sparkman. Aspiring to a literary career, at age eighteen Lynes wrote to Gertrude Stein, beginning a long correspondence. In 1925 he visited her and ...
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Nash, John Henry (1871-1947), printer, bibliophile, and typographer
Stephen L. Levine
Nash, John Henry (12 March 1871–24 May 1947), printer, bibliophile, and typographer, was born in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada, the son of John Marvin Nash, a mechanical engineer, and Catherine Cain. Though withdrawn from public school at age sixteen to begin his practical education by learning his father’s trade, Nash insisted on becoming a printer. He began his career in 1888 with an apprenticeship at James Murray and Company, a Toronto printing firm. Despite his thorough training and seeming determination to become a printer, Nash left the business after a few years and embarked on the life of a bicycle racer. A major fad in the 1890s, bicycle racing offered the opportunity for wealth and fame, and both appealed to him. He traveled the racing circuit from around 1890 to 1892, when his passion for the sport waned and he decided to go back to printing. Nash returned to Toronto to work for Brough and Caswell and then for Milne-Burgham Company, where he remained until 1894. In the winter of 1894 he left Toronto to work for App-Stotts in Denver, Colorado; he stayed there a mere four months, after which he relocated to San Francisco....
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Revere, Paul (1734-1818), craftsman, patriot, and businessman
Nina Zannieri
Revere, Paul ( December 1734–10 May 1818), craftsman, patriot, and businessman, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Paul Revere, a goldsmith, and Deborah Hichborn (or Hitchborn). Revere’s father, born Apollos Rivoire, emigrated from France to Boston in 1715 at the age of thirteen and apprenticed with John Coney, a prominent local gold/silversmith. Shortly before his marriage he changed his name, first to Paul Rivoire and then to Paul Revere. The son’s birth date has long been the source of confusion since only his baptismal date, 22 December 1734 OS and 1 January 1735 NS, is recorded. Revere’s early life, fairly typical of boys of his day and economic status, included basic schooling at the North Writing School. During his teens he entered into a formal agreement with fellow North End youths to ring the bells at Christ Church for a fee. Revere’s own words, “My Father was a Goldsmith. … I learned the trade of him,” confirm that as the eldest surviving son, he apprenticed with his father, thus beginning his most enduring occupation. Though overshadowed by the fame of his son, the elder Revere’s skill as a gold/silversmith may actually have equaled that of his son. The younger Revere noted that his father died “in the year 1754, he left no estate, but he left a good name.” Just nineteen years old, Revere ran the shop with the help of his mother. In 1756 he received a commission as a second lieutenant of artillery and spent the better part of a year on an unsuccessful expedition to capture the French fort at Crown Point on Lake Champlain....
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Revere, Paul (1734-1818)
Maker: Charles Févret de Saint-Mémin
In
Paul Revere. Drawing by Charles Févret de Saint-Mémin. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-7407).
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Tanner, Benjamin (1775-1848), engraver
Ann T. Keene
Tanner, Benjamin (27 March 1775–14 November 1848), engraver, was born in New York City. Little is known of his early life except for his childhood aptitude in drawing, which led to an apprenticeship in his teens to a French engraver in New York named Peter C. Verger. Tanner’s earliest known engravings date from 1792; three years later, while still with Verger, he engraved six folio plates to illustrate Paul Wright’s ...
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Updike, Daniel Berkeley (1860-1941), book designer and printer
Charles Zarobila
Updike, Daniel Berkeley (24 February 1860–29 December 1941), book designer and printer, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Caesar Augustus Updike, a lawyer and state representative, and Elisabeth Bigelow Adams. Updike was an only child born into an old and well-connected New England family, but his father’s death in 1877, when Updike was seventeen, prevented his going beyond grammar school in his formal education. Updike’s intellectual and cultural character, however, was molded by his mother, an antiquary and scholar of French and English literature. Updike also came from an Episcopalian background, and his religion greatly influenced both his character and his later work as a printer....
