Douglas Crawford McMurtrie was born in Belmar, NJ, on July 20, 1888. McMurtrie attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he solidified his lifelong interest in typography. He worked for a number of presses during his career, often in the role of typography director. In addition, McMurtrie served as editor for the Works Progress Administration's American Imprints Inventory project, which attempted to document materials printed by early American presses. McMurtrie also had a personal interest in the history of printing and on his own time created lists of early American imprints from many cities and states. As a result of these efforts, he published numerous bibliographies, as well as several works on the history of printing. His ultimate goal was to compile his life's work to create a four-volume set entitled A History of Printing in the United States. McMurtrie died on September 29, 1944, having finished only volume two of this ambitious project.
Sources:
This collection consists of working bibliographies and checklists created by Douglas C. McMurtrie in his efforts to develop comprehensive lists of early American imprints produced in various geographic regions. The documents date from 1931 to 1935. They contain annotations reflecting the process by which McMurtrie shared his lists and compared them with the holdings of relevant libraries and personal collections. In two cases, individual checklists also include short cover letters regarding this comparison process. All of the documents in this collection are typescripts, although it is not possible to determine if they are originals or carbon copies.
According to the WorldCat database, McMurtrie appears to have developed some of these bibliographies into works published under his name. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) also published titles through the American Imprints Inventory project that in some cases overlap with McMurtrie's work. Due to his involvement with the American Imprints Inventory, it is possible that McMurtrie contributed some of these materials to that project. These documents are labeled solely with McMurtrie's name, however, so that there is no way to verify this connection without additional research.
The papers in this collection are housed in one document box and are arranged alphabetically according to geographic region (city or state). In cases where more than one draft of a bibliography or checklist exists, all drafts have been retained in order to document the process by which McMurtrie assembled and refined these lists. Multiple drafts of individual bibliographies are filed chronologically behind the earliest version. The two cover letters included in the collection have been kept with the individual bibliographies with which they are associated, in order to preserve the relationship between the two documents.
No restrictions.
Transferred in 2005 to Special Collections from the Elizabeth Nesbitt Room in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences Library.
Douglas C. McMurtrie Collection, 1931-1935, SC.GMC.McMurtrie, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh
Douglas C. McMurtrie Collection, 1931-1935, SC.GMC.McMurtrie, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
This collection was processed by Malinda Triller in January 2005.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
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