College and Research Libraries


Typefounding in America, 1787-1825. By 
Rollo G. Silver. Charlottesville: Univ. 
Pr. of Virginia for the Bibliographical So-
ciety of the University of Virginia, 1965. 
xiii, 139p. $7.50. ( 65-19396). 

In the five essays which make up this 
monograph Professor Silver has traced the 
early development and emergence of Amer-
ican typefounding. Although by 1769 there 
were sporadic attempts at typefounding, it 
was not until the Revolution had ended 
that any real interest in a domestic industry 
appeared. When that time arrived the per-
sons best qualified to direct the fledgling 
industry were European emigrants. Thus, 
Professor Silver has chosen 1787-the year 
that a Scottish typefounder was first known 
to be active in this country-to begin his 
chronological coverage. By 1825, the year 
with which this study closes, American 
typefounding was firmly established. 

The first chapter, «Typefounding as a 
Permanent Industry," focuses on the 
achievements of two other Scotsmen, 
Archibald Binny and James Ronaldson, who 
produced the first professional and cheap 
American type. Among the persons dis-
cussed in the chapter on "Some Minor 
Typefounders and Punchcutters" are the 
peripatetic Benjamin Franklin and his 
grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, who 
was trained by French typefounders. Un-
fortunately, neither established a perma-
nent firm. Other minor typefounders were 
Francis Bailey of Philadelphia and Samuel 
Sower, whose Baltimore foundry turned out 
a large quantity of type from 1804 to 1820, 
including the popular "diamond." The third 
chapter, "Growth and Expansion," presents 
the achievements of such men as E. W. 
White, George and David Bruce, and Wil-
liam Hager. Hager enjoyed an international 
reputation in the industry as the owner of 
the Bruce Type Casting Machine. The final 
essays, "Inventions and Patents" and "The 
Importation of Type," are closely related, 
for the developments outlined in the for-
mer chapter were to have an influence upon 
the importation of type. Type continued to 
be imported throughout the entire period 

58/ 

Book Reviews 
covered by this work because of the per-
sistent preference of American printers for 
European type, particularly that of Caslon, 
Fry, and Wilson. As a means of partial re-
dress American typefounders turned to tar-
iffs, and a sympathetic government laid 
duties on imported type. By 1825, Ameri-
can typefounding was sufficiently developed 
and protected to begin a period of rapid 
growth, but that, as Professor Silver notes, 
is another story. 

The book is handsomely printed and de-
signed. The thirty-six plates include a good 
selection of specimen sheets; students of 
the history of American printing will find 
this feature particularly useful. The index 
is comprehensive. 

We are often confronted with evidence 
of the contributions of these early type-
founders. For example, much of the type 
used in the text of this work is Monticello, 
the linotype adaptation of Binny's elegant 
roman. One need look no further for an-
other example than a recent issue of Pub-
lishers' Weekly (September 5, 1966, page 
72). The Mergenthaler advertisement on 
that page notes, among other facts about 
the Monticello, that it has been used as the 
text face in eight of the fifty Books of the 
Year of the past five years. Other individual 
examples abound. It is to Professor Silver's 
credit that for the first time there is now 
available a comprehensive study of the con-
tributions of early typefounders in America. 
-Robert D. Harlan, University of Califor-
nia, Berkeley. 

Harper's University: the Beginnings; a 
History of the University of Chicago. 
By Richard J. Storr. Chicago: The Univ. 
of Chicago Pr., 1966. xvi, 411p., illus. 
$8.95. (66-13890). 

How anyone could write a dull history 
of Harper's University is difficult to under-
stand, but Professor Richard J. Storr has 
done just that. As if in apology for some 
criticisms which surely will be leveled by 
his disappointed readers, the author notes 
"the circumstances of its founding, the 
names of the persons associated with it, 



and its ambitious plan were bound to at-
tract the attention and fire the imagination 
of observers ... " (page 399). He further 
notes that his primary objective has been 
to set possibilities against evidence con-
tained in the documents and other materi-
als that survive from the period before 
Harper's death. Storr's implication is that 
he will separate myth from reality. 

The setting of possibilities against evi-
dence is perhaps the book's greatest 
strength and also its greatest weakness. 
With thoroughness and in great detail the 
author sets down almost every facet of the 
University of Chicago's first thirteen years: 
the faculty, the curriculum, the students, 
the extracurricular activities, the deficit fi-
nancing, and the interaction of major fig-
ures involved: William Rainey Harper, 
John D. Rockefeller, Frederick T. Gates, 
and Thomas W. Goodspeed. The documen-
tation from original sources is plentiful and 
the quoting from Harper's official pro-
nouncements and private letters is exten-
sive. This makes the book read like a doc-
toral dissertation, which it is not. 

Despite all this one often has the feel-
ing that Storr has not gone far enough. 
Only after I had gone back and read the 
relevant chapters in Allan Nevins' biogra-
phy of Rockefeller ( 1940, 1953) did I 
really begin to appreciate Storr. To cite 
one case which would interest the readers 
of this journal, Storr mentions the Berlin 
library on page 67 without any description 
of its nature. Again on page 247 the author 
notes that Chicago could not meet the pay-
ments. Many librarians will know that Har-
per bought the entire book stock of the 
Berlin book shop of S. Calvary & Co. early 
in the eighteen-nineties for a large sum of 
money, but will the general reader know 
it? The same is true in a discussion of the 
Bemis case on academic freedom. A cou-
ple of interpretative paragraphs on the 
aftermath (page 85) would have added 
much to the sense of completeness of the 
volume. 

Yet my real quarrel with Storr is that the 
flesh-and-blood William Rainey Harper 
never quite comes through. There is a page 
of description by the novelist Robert Her-
rick (page 236) and three pages from one 
of Harper's seminar students (pages 161-

Book Reviews I 59 

63) which indicate that he was indeed a 
giant of a man. Does one have to play 
down the colorful and interesting personali-
ties and leave history devoid of a sense of 
excitement? Professor Nevins' Rockefeller 
biographies answer "no." One might well 
ask here why no one has ever tackled the 
biography of Harper? 

One of the best parts of the book is un-
doubtedly Harper's agonizing relationship 
with the major donor. Despite the univer-
sity's relative wealth, there was never 
enough money during the early years to 
fulfill Harper's promises to the scholarly 
stars he attracted to the Midway. Most 
university presidents serving new and rap-
idly expanding universities will have little 
difficulty identifying themselves with Har-
per's problem. This may well be Storr's 
major contribution. He notes, quite cor-
rectly, that "had Harper been a cautious 
administrator, the university might not 
have had a brilliant beginning in which to 
cement the loyalties of its supporters; and 
had its principal supporters been Philis-
tines, the university might not have sur-
vived the crisis [of lack of funds] without 
losing its distinctiveness." However, neither 
the chief donor, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., 
nor his agent, Frederick T. Gates, show up 
very well in this book. Perhaps they should 
not, but the cause of disagreement between 
Harper and Rockefeller was one of funda-
mental point of view rooted deeply within 
Rockefeller's character. On the whole one 
could wish for more such evaluations as 
indicated in the quotation above. 

Although there is a lot about religion, 
its total impact upon the "Baptist univer-
sity" is not brought out as much as one 
could hope. Harper, was, after all, a dis-
tinguished Old Testament scholar and one 
of the few times Rockefeller expressed him-
self publicly he gave the Lord credit for 
his wealth and asked if, under these cir-
cumstances, he could withhold it from Chi-
cago. The relating of graduate work at 
Chicago to that of other institutions leaves 
something to be desired, despite the au-
thor's earlier work in this field. While he 
notes that Harper's plan of affiliating the 
Midwestern colleges with the University 
of Chicago failed, he makes little of Chica-
go's impact on the emerging Midwestern 



60 I College & Research Libraries • January, 1967 

state universities which Rockefeller and 
Gates thought was profound-another ex-
ample of telling too much yet not enough. 

Academic librarians will be further disap-
pointed at the lack of attention to the de-
velopment of the university libraries. Data 
certainly was available in the McMullen 
( 1949) and Archer ( 1954) dissertations 
for a few paragraphs on this topic. 

Storr does mention the fact that Melvil 
Dewey was offered the librarianship but 
turned it down. In a Hash of interpretation 
he adds, "Harper never did find a first-class 
university librarian-and this perhaps was 
his greatest and most puzzling failure as an 
academic organizer." Harper's failure may 
not be unrelated to the fact that money for 
books and equipment was often at a premi-
um. A central university library, named for 
Harper, had to wait until after his death. 

No doubt Chicago alumni will want this 
book, a~ will most university libraries. Col-
lege librarians and those with only a mild 
interest in the history of higher education 
can pass it up without much trauma.-Ed-
ward G. Holley, University of Houston. 

Library Co-operation. By G. Jefferson. 
New York: London House & Maxwell, 
1966. 160p. $4.95. (66-15264). 

Library cooperation, forever extending 
and developing, is the kind of topic on 
which a new book is always welcome. Mr. 
Jefferson himself remarks that since the 
War there has been probably more talk 
about library cooperation than about any-
thing else in librarianship. In a larger sense, 
of course, cooperation among libraries is 
all part of the current world mood; politi-
cally, economically, and socially, it seems a 
matter of enlightened fact that "United we 
stand, divided we fall." 

Quite apart from any of this, Mr. Jeffer-
son's admirable survey is welcome in its 
own right. Following a general history of 
library cooperation (in three parts: from 
the beginnings to 1931, from 1931 to 1945, 
and postwar developments), he describes 
the present British national network for in-
terlending, with its two-tiered pattern of 
national central library /regional library bu-
reaus· interlending, and direct lending 
through the national central library of uni-
versity and special libraries. His next group 
of chapters deals with cooperative acquisi-

tion, cooperative storage, and exchange and 
redistribution. He then turns his attention 
to scientific and technical literature, treat-
ing first the national schemes for its co-
operative provision, and then the local 
schemes. Mr. Jefferson is aware that in co-
operative ventures the needs and problems 
of the various types of library differ widely; 
hence he goes on to devote a chapter to 
special libraries, another to academic li-
braries, and finally one to public libraries. 
His remaining three chapters cover the 
tools of cooperation (such as bibliographies 
and union catalogs) ; international coopera-
tion; and, in conclusion, plans and prospects 
for the future of library cooperation. He 
supplies a bibliography, the sections of 
which parallel his arrangement of chapters, 
and an index. 

It is a pity that the American publishers 
of this book do not make clear in its title 
that Mr. Jefferson is really concerned only 
with British library cooperation. True 
enough, the Farmington Plan and the Scan-
dia Plan and the activities of the Deutsche 
Forschungsgemeinschaft are described in 
the chapter on cooperative acquisition, and 
US schemes for cooperative storage are 
fully treated in the subsequent chapter; but 
this is only because acquisition and storage 
are such important aspects of cooperation, 
and Mr. Jefferson would not have been able 
to find much to say regarding either of 
these if he had confined himself to Britain's 
less significant efforts. 

Nevertheless, this book is a most cre.dit-
able achievement. The material is succinct-
ly marshalled and agreeably presented. The 
author is not concerned with exhortation or 
high-Hying: just good sense, sound judg-
ment, and above all, a conviction that "the 
interlibrary loan, like patriotism" is not 
enough, but that library cooperation must 
be regarded as having an everwidening con-
notation.-]ames Thompson, University of 
Glasgow. 

Manual of Procedures for Private Law 
Libraries. By Elizabeth Finley. (2d ed. 
AALL Pub. Ser. no. 8.) South Hacken-
sack, N.J.: Fred B. Rothman, 1966. xl, 
176p. $8.50. (66-15518). 

This book is an introductory work for be-
ginners and those with a little experience 
working in private law libraries. The em-