Private Presses Collection of Charles Clinch Bubb II

Relieved of some of the pressure to manage themselves like a business, private presses are often more agile and their output more experimental than that of strictly commercial operations. Edition sizes are generally small, usually numbered, expensive, and targeted at friends, book collectors, and the art market.

Historical Context

Printing with moveable type that began in the Renaissance was initially a highly skilled craft, often with very elaborate design, that had to compete aesthetically with hand decorated medieval manuscripts. However as printing became more commonplace in the 16th and 17th centuries, intrinsic aesthetic values generally gave way to the public’s preference for lower production costs and the printer’s zeal to maximize profit. We can date the revival of conscious attempts to beautify printing and experiment with graphic design mostly to the 18th century. In mid-18th century Great Britain following the loosening of restrictions governing printing, we observe Robert Foulis of Glasgow, and John Baskerville of Birmingham who introduced innovations aimed at improving the quality of books and used leading punchcutters to create new typefaces. These new faces were a catlyst for our contemporary preference for fine and strongly vertical Classical lines and owe a debt to a couple of centuries of copperplate engraving. The resulting books much impressed Benjamin Franklin who carried the new look back to North America. Other private presses in England ranged from those started by wealthy art enthusiasts such as Horace Walpole with his Strawberry Hill Press in Twickenham, to those of impoverished artists such as the visionary William Blake. In France, during the last years of the French Ancien Régime the monopoly over typecasting given to the Imprimerie du Roi was also ended. French typecasters such as Firmin Didot and the Didot family offered fresh looking typefaces in 1784, followed quickly in Italy by Giambattista Bodoni. Examples of “transitional typefaces” from all of these 18th century printers, many donated by Frederick Artz, can be found within Special Collections.

Some traditional hand presses resisted the trend; examples include the Middle Hill and Daniel Press of which Special Collections has samples. 

However, by the second half of the 19th century the disintegration of quality in machine-made goods was alarming to connoisseurs. In response, the “Arts and Crafts Movement” arose to protect the applied and decorative arts and keep quality handicraft alive in labor of all types. People were inspired by thinkers such as Walter Crane and John Ruskin. Their concept of high-standard design was linked to the dream of a decent society, one in which the worker was not brutalized by modern factory conditions but would take pride in his skills. The Arts and Crafts Movement promoted the revival of craftsmanship.

The most prolific and influential among the Arts and Crafts adherents was Englishman William Morris. Morris, who had worked at furniture and textile design, was further motivated by Emery Walker’s 1888 lecture condemning commercial book design, and henceforth channeled his passion, and that of like-minded artisans and architects, into founding the Kelmscott Press in 1890. Morris attempted to create books which were works of art in themselves in the belief that, in congruence with their text, they could transmit the values and ideals of their creators through their eye-popping visual beauty.

Kelmscott’s books recall medieval manuscripts, and the Romantic Movement’s emphasis on decoration, floral borders, and other gothic revivals. The singular achievement of Kelmscott Press lay in its emphasis on hand craftsmanship. Morris designed the typeface and drew the letters, stops, initials and borders himself. Illustrations appeared throughout in relief, woodcut, or wood engraving. The glorious title page of Kelmscott books often spanned two full pages, with decorative borders, initials, ornaments, and intricate medieval style colophons. Using only the finest materials, the books were produced on thick, mold-made paper with the deckle edges left untrimmed, the whole often bound in simple limp vellum. British houses that adopted Morris’ gothic style included the Vale, Eragny, and Gregynog Presses, and several American houses, including the Village and Grabhorn Presses. Still other presses followed the example of T.J. Cobden-Sanderson's and his Doves Press which pursued a neo-Classical restraint in its design and based the typography on older Roman alphabets. The output of these presses and many more can be found in our Special Collections holdings.

Private Press Movement

The books of Kelmscott still serve as benchmark for lavish printing, and their fine examples launched a group of followers that cumulatively became known broadly as the “Private Press Movement” that was an artistic force before World War II. The Private Press Movement explored the book’s unique relation to art, poetry, and prose. The Private Press Movement made use of the book’s physical form, layout, and movement as a visual performance of a text. These books borrow from the artistic fashions of their day; Craftsman, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco influences are easily discernible. The frequently anti-establishment nature of private presses further afforded then untested authors, for instance: James Joyce, Laurens van der Post, and T.S. Eliot, an outlet for their work.

Private press works also showcase stunning examples of the freelance illustration and graphic design work of the likes of Will H. Bradley (Wayside Press), Rockwell Kent, Rudolf Koch, Bruce Rogers, Joseph Blumenthal (Spiral Press), Eric Gill, Giovanni Mardersteig (Officina Bodoni), Gotthard de Beauclair, Hermann Zapf, and Henry Van de Velde (Cranach Presse) and others. Oberlin College owns numerous period publications on typography and book design by notable figures such as by Theodore Low De Vinne, Jan Tschichold, Stanley Morrison, Frederick Goudy, and Ruari McLean.

Contemporary Private Presses

Private presses have begun to revive since the 1960s, but have given up the fight against mass production by machines and are more content to coexist in the small niche they have defined, often working in association with Fine Art schools, small poetry publishers, and book collecting clubs. The column “Fine Presses” in Fine Books & Collections, vol. 5 no. 1. (Jan/Feb 2007) p. 31 quotes Rollin Milroy of Heavenly Monkey Press saying: “The contemporary private press field can act like the couture houses in fashion, the place where things get tried, things that aren’t constrained by markets or material costs or mechanized production limitations. There’s never a huge audience for this kind of thing. There’s no place for it most peoples’ lives. But for those it does have a place with, it plays a central, almost defining role.”

The Private press movement has not gone away, but in many instances it has gotten in bed with the creators of Artists Books and academic institution (like Oberlin College Library). There are thousands of private presses listed in the International Register of Private Press Names) ranging from single item samples, to presses with nearly their complete list represented.

Contemporary sources for current information about Printing and the Book Arts include:

Oberlin College Library Letterpress Studio

Fine Press Book Association Has a list of contemporary private presses and links to related organizations

College Book Art Association Links to workshop and conferences, opportunities, news, and information.

Written by Ed Vermue. Last updated August 2026.