Printers and their papers

Above and below: The University Reporter before and after redesign by John Peters in 1954. From MS.Add.9929.A8.

The North Front corridor display cases are currently showing an array of works associated with some of the most important printers and typographers of the twentieth century, whose papers have been collected by the Library over the last fifty years.  Included are familiar names like Stanley Morison, Francis Meynell, Beatrice Warde, and the Curwen Press. Cambridge is represented by the Rampant Lions Press, the Water Lane Press, and by John Peters, who designed much of the output of the Cambridge University Press in the 1950s and 60s. On show are books, broadsides, type specimens, newspaper pages, and many different forms of printed ephemera. The exhibition runs until 13 April.

The University Reporter after redesign by John Peters in 1954.

A five-year project to catalogue the Library’s Printers’ papers is just now nearing its end. To find out more about this group of collections, and to see the finding-aids on line in the Janus catalogue, start by going to the Manuscript Department page, www.lib.cam.ac.uk/deptserv/manuscripts/printers.html. This material can be viewed in the Manuscripts Reading Room.

The Library’s Rare Books department also holds printed collections relating to many of these individuals and firms, including in particular the Meynell, Dreyfus and Morison collections.