This is the Preachment On Going to Church (1896), with a quarter cream-colored cloth spine, blue-gray paper on boards, and titling gilt stamped near the head of upper board, could be mistaken for a book from the Kelmscott Press. This copy is inscribed by Elbert Hubbard.

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This is the Preachment On Going to Church (1896) is one of the earliest printed books from the Roycroft Press. Both copies in the exhibit were formerly owned by Samuel N. Freedman, who also collected material by Bernard Shaw that forms the Samuel N. Freedman Collection of Bernard Shaw, purchased by Burns Library in 2002.

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Hand and Brain: a Symposium of Essays on Socialism (1898) includes essays by William Morris, Grant Allen, George Bernard Shaw, Henry S. Salt, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Edward Carpenter. This copy, on hand-made Kelmscott paper, is number 338 in an edition of 720.

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So This Then is Christmas Eve (1899) was once owned by Mary Boyle O’Reilly, the daughter of poet, journalist, author, and editor John Boyle O’Reilly. Mary was a journalist and author as well. This copy, bound in suede,contains a hand colored title page as well as illuminated initials.

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It may seem strange for Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians: Schumann (1901) to be part of the Irish collection, but this book is part of a group of about 30 items donated by Martin Broms, about half of which are related to Irish topics.

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The Roycrofters were not the only press influenced by William Morris. Cuala Industries was established in 1908 by sisters Elizabeth Corbet Yeats and Lily Yeats, after they left the Dun Emer Guild, which they had founded six years before with Evelyn Gleeson. Cuala Industries included an embroidery, weaving, and tapestry studio; a printing press; and a bindery. Cuala, like Dun Emer before it, was meant to promote Irish crafts made from Irish materials, and to employ Irish women. The majority of its employees were young local girls. Lily ran the embroidery studio; Elizabeth was the director of the printing and bindery portion of the business; and their brother W. B. was the literary editor. Cuala Press printed 66 titles before it ceased publishing books in 1946, including works by W. B. Yeats, George Russell, and Lady Gregory. Cuala Press had difficulty competing with more modern and industrialized publishers and had frequent financial difficulties. After Elizabeth’s death in 1940, W. B.’s wife, Georgie, took over as director of the Press until her death in 1968. The below books show how, similar to the Roycrofters, the Cuala press was influenced by the Kelmscott Press. The covers, title pages, and colophon of these Cuala Press books all bear a resemblance to the Kemlscott press, and therefore the Roycrofters.

All three of the Cuala Press books in the exhibit were donated by James Augustine Healy, a philanthropist and active proponent of Irish literature who donated materials to Boston College and several other institutions.

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