REPORT ON THE DIVISION OF GRAPHIC ARTS. 

 By R. P. Toljian, Assistant Curator. 



There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that the improvements 

 in the division of graphic arts are following logical lines. This 

 year the exhibits of printing and the reproductive arts have been 

 almost entirely rearranged according to the plan approved in 1920. 

 Historical and technical specimens are now together for the first 

 time. Certain new material has added to the completeness of the 

 exhibits. 



Eighty-eight new accessions were received, being an increase of 30 

 over last year; but these numbered only 1,014 specimens, as compared 

 with 2,296 for the previous year. There is usually power in num- 

 bers, and last year was a banner year, still this year's specimens are 

 fully as important and valuable, considered from a scientific stand- 

 point. 



The most important individual gift was that of Dard Hunter, of 

 Chillicothe, Ohio. It was a very comprehensive exhibit showing the 

 sixteenth century methods of making type. The entire exhibit is the 

 work of or was prepared by Mr. Hunter, who designed and cut the 

 punches, struck the matrices, cast the type on a hand mold of his own 

 make, set the type, and printed on a handpress two books on paper 

 of his own manufacture. Last year the division received the paper 

 exhibit and the two books and this year the type material. The 

 combined material gives an excellent idea of the early methods of 

 making paper and type. Mr. Hunter is now writing a book on the 

 history of paper, which he will print from the same type and on 

 his own paper, so that the entire book will be the result of his labors 

 alone. Illustrated accounts of his work and the Museum exhibit 

 have been published in many papers and magazines throughout the 

 world, and his article on " Seventeenth century type making " in 

 the Quarterly Notebook is a clear and brief description of early 

 methods of type making. Mr. Hunter has just recently included an 

 old composing stick, dated 1604, and a mold used in the famous 

 Caslon foundry about 1750 in his other donations. 



The Inland Printer, of Chicago, gave 12 portraits of famous an- 

 cient printers, which add something of historical interest to the 

 collection. 



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