"In 1893, Daniel Berkley Updike (1860-1941) announced that he had opened a printing business at 6 Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts called Merrymount Press (1893-1949). The Press published “...holiday books, privately printed books, ecclesiastical printing, decorations for books, “practical” book covers and minor decorative printing.” The Press’s type and decorations contain many styles, antique and new and from a variety of sources: English, French, Italian Renaissance, early German including “rude decorations of the New England printer; (and) the modern English style set by Morris”.
Merrymount Press derived its name and adopted the Maypole symbol from the area of Merrymount, Massachusetts, now a neighborhood in Quincy. Thomas Morton was an English settler in an area the Native Americans called Passonagessit. The colonists translated this into Merrymount. Morton held several May Day celebrations complete with a Maypole for colonists and Native Americans in the 1600s.
Merrymount Press was instrumental in the Arts and Crafts movement in the field of American book arts. Updike was known as a “scholarly printer” and a “practical master printer” who successfully combined the printing trade with the history of the book to produce a high standard of art." – From the Merrymount Press & The Ordewer Collection of 20th Century American Typography Exhibit 2019 libguide. Read more.
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The Rivals
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Brander Matthews, M. Power O'Malley, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
xxxviii, 131 pages, [18] leaves of plates : frontispiece (hand colored), plates. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections book cover exhibition Bound to Please, fall 2022. A play. Green cloth binding, decorations and lettering stamped in gold, signed by the designer: M.A. [Margaret Armstrong]. "Composition and electrotype plates by D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston"--Title page verso. Publishers paper dustjacket in mylar cover. Gift of Selma Ordewer, in memory of Daniel Berkeley Bianchi.
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The World's Christmas Tree
Charles E. Jefferson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
2 p. ℓ., 44, [1] pages. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections book cover exhibition Bound to Please, fall 2022. CONTENTS: The World's Christmas Tree -- How certain men long ago were led to the King. "Composition and electrotype plates by D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston"--title page verso. Title page printed in red and black, red border frame. Written in ink, front endpage: Helen Cochran, Christmas 1906. Green book cloth binding, decoration, title, author stamped in gold and white on cover. Color printed card (7 x 43/4 in.), inside back cover. Printed on one side, poem, "Peace" by Edward Rowland Sill, printed in gold, green, light blue and black, decorative border on sides. Gift of Selma Ordewer, in memory of Daniel Berkeley Bianchi.
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Cornelii Taciti De vita et moribvs Ivlii Agricolae liber : De origine sitv moribvs ac popvlis Germanorvm liber, De oratoribvs dialogvs.
Tacitus, Sarah Whitman, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[49] pages. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections book cover exhibition Bound to Please, fall 2022. Half-title: Cornelii Taciti opera minora. Edited by M.H. Morgan. Colophon: Huius libri, cui forma est binaria, exempla centum diligenter typis descripsit Magister Daniel Berkeley Vpdike in officina sua quae Hilarimontium dicitur, Bostoniae, in republica Massachusettensi, Martio mense anno salutis M.D.CCCC.IIII. De vita et moribvs Ivlii Agricolae liber -- De origine sitv moribvs ac popvlis Germanorvm liber -- De oratoribvs dialogvs. Edition of 100 copies. Binding, boards. Type, Merrymount. This copy includes an extra printing of the 2nd text page, printed on different paper. Gift of Selma Ordewer, in memory of Daniel Berkeley Bianchi. Bookplate on 1st pastedown paper: Ex Libris Edwin B. Holden. Leather spine, paper over cover boards with author/title stamped in gold. Cover design by Sarah Whitman.
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Four Addresses
Henry Lee Higginson, Sarah Wyman, Daniel Berkeley, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
106 pages, [2] leaves of plates : ports. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections book cover exhibition Bound to Please, fall 2022.
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Amos Judd
John Ames Mitchell, Arthur Ignatius, Amy Richards, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[3], 251, [1] pages : [8] color plates. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections book cover exhibition Bound to Please, fall 2022. Colored title vignette. "D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston"--page [252]. Full cover emboss decoration in gold on cover. Cover designer, Amy Richards. Bookseller's label inside back cover: Brentano's Booksellers & Stationers, Union Square, New York. Gift of Selma Ordewer, in memory of Daniel Berkeley Bianchi.
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The Ruling Passion: tales of nature and human nature
Henry Van Dyke, Clark W. Appleton, Margaret Armstrong, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
x, 295, [1] pages : frontispiece, plates. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections book cover exhibition Bound to Please, fall 2022. CONTENTS: A lover of music -- The reward of virtue -- A brave heart -- The gentle life -- A friend of justice -- The white blot -- A year of nobility --The keeper of the light. NOTE Title page printed in red and black. Blue cloth binding, decorative pattern emboss in green and gold. Decorated cloth binding by Margaret Armstrong. Bookseller's label inside front cover: F. Loeser & Co., Brooklyn, Book Store. This copy withdrawn from the Burnham Library, Bridgewater, Conn. Gift of Selma Ordewer, in memory of Daniel Berkeley Bianchi.
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The Old Gentleman of the Black Stock
Thomas Nelson Page, Howard Chandler Christy, Margaret Armstrong, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
viii, 169 pages, [7] leaves of plates : color illustrations. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections book cover exhibition Bound to Please, fall 2022. Color illustration on title page. "D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston"--Colophon. Light blue cloth cover with decoration emboss in gold, mounted label on cover with silhouette cameos in black and with gold lettering. Decorated cloth binding signed by the designer: MA [i.e. Margaret Armstrong]. Front cover detached from textblock. Gift of Selma Ordewer, in memory of Daniel Berkeley Bianchi.