Typography Tuesday
Today we present American papermaker and papermaking scholar Dard Hunter’s last published work from his Mountain House Press in Chillicothe, Ohio, Papermaking by Hand in America, completed in late 1950. It is truly Hunter’s magnum opus, with over 300 pages and nearly 200 specimens, illustrations, and facsimiles, documenting the earliest paper mills in America from 1690 to 1811 before the advent of the first papermaking machines in the U.S.
Hunter is arguably America’s most significant hand-papermaker, but he was also a fine type designer and caster, with several of his books personally handprinted not only with his own handmade paper, but also his own type or type designed by his son Dard Hunter, Jr. The typeface used here was designed and cast by Dard, Jr. beginning in 1937, but the entire font was first used in this 1950 publication. The design is quite distinctive – a kind of “old-style face” appropriate to the subject matter – as are the large, red calligraphic initials and the specially-made ornaments used generously throughout the work and forming the decorative patterns on the book’s cloth covers. The edition is limited to 210 copies, and our copy is signed with great flair by Dard Hunter,
View more posts from our Typography Tuesday series.




















