Dreams of Art & Glory Book Craft by the Roycrofters

Printer's Device

Hubbard, So Here Then are the Preachments Entitled The city of Tagaste: and A dream and a Prophecy, PS2042 .C5 1900 GENERAL

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) was the founder of Roycroft, a reformist community of craftspeople and artists in East Aurora, New York. He referred to himself as an anarchist and socialist. Hubbard began the community in 1895, influenced by the ideas of William Morris, the well-known English designer, printer, and Socialist. Hubbard had been a successful traveling soap salesman before beginning a new career as a writer. Unable to find a publisher for his work, Hubbard founded Roycroft Press as a private press to print the book himself. He selected the Roycroft name due to his admiration of 17th century London printers, Samuel and Thomas Roycroft. Although Hubbard expanded his Roycrofters community to include other craftspeople, such as furniture makers, metalsmiths, leathersmiths, and other artisans, this exhibition focuses on the work of the bookbinding and printing shops. Elbert Hubbard and his wife, fellow Roycrofter Alice Moore Hubbard, died in 1915 when the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. Their legacies live on in the beautifully printed text blocks and handsome bookbindings made by the Roycrofter artisans.