Providence Public Library’s collection of books on printing was begun in 1910 with the purchase of over a thousand duplicate books from the St. Bride Library in London. The purchase was made at the suggestion of Mr. Daniel Berkeley Updike of Boston, and he contributed generously to the fund drive that enabled the Library to make the purchase. Mr. Updike, who died in 1941, was the proprietor of the Merrymount Press and the author of the classic work Printing Types: Their History, Forms, and Use, first published in 1922. He bequeathed his personal collection of books on printing to the Library, and later several other gifts and purchases strengthened the collection. Today the collection contains over 7,500 volumes, 600 letters and other manuscripts, hundreds of prints (mostly portraits of printers, typefounders, booksellers and publishers), much printed ephemera and some artifacts including three printing presses, a wooden type case, a set of punches and two sets of matrices for the Montallegro and Merrymount types which Mr. Updike commissioned for his own use. The collection is particularly strong in early type specimen books. They date from the 16th century, and about 400 of them were printed before the 20th century. The collection is also strong in Mr. Updike’s own Merrymount Press, in books designed by Bruce Rogers, and in books printed by Giambattista Bodoni. Current collecting is focused on typography of Asia, India and Eastern Europe. Books can be found by searching the library's online catalog.
Sammelband volume that includes the 1823 Pouchée specimen bound with undated specimen pages by Caslon & Livermore and Thorowgood foundries. Portions bound upside-down relative to the Pouchée specimen.
Alonso Victor de Paredes's manual of printing has been described as "the first handbook on printing composed in a vulgar [i.e. non-Latin] language." Although the title page provides no imprint, the book was likely printed in Madrid, sometime around 1680 (making it a predecessor to Joseph Moxon's 1683 handbook). This copy was once in the personal collection of Daniel Berkeley Updike, and it is one of only two copies now known to exist (the other is located at the University of Valencia). There is speculation that the book's handwritten annotations were made by Paredes himself, planning revisions or corrections for a future edition.
The images in the Daniel Berkeley Updike Collection of Book Trade Portraits were taken from a set of portraits mounted on paper and inserted into four large binders, with the title "Portraits of Printers & Booksellers" in gilt lettering on each spine. It is believed that the binders were purchased from the Chiswick Book Shop in June of 1960, and altogether they include over 400 depictions of printers and booksellers, as well as other members of the book trade. The portraits are one portion of the Providence Public Library's Daniel Berkeley Updike Collection, one of the premier American collections of books and other materials relating to the history of printing, especially typography. Initial project supervision by Richard Ring. Metadata and scanning supplied by Robin Camille Davis, Janaya Kizzie and Zachary Lewis.
