Dard Hunter
Encyclopedia
William Joseph "Dard" Hunter (November 29, 1883 – February 20, 1966) was an American authority on printing
, paper
, and papermaking
—especially by hand, using the tools and craft of four centuries prior. Hunter produced two hundred copies of his book Old Papermaking, preparing every aspect of the book himself: he wrote the text, designed and cast the type
, did the typesetting
, handmade the paper, and printed and bound the book. A display at the Smithsonian Institution
that appeared with his work read, "In the entire history of printing, these are the first books to have been made in their entirety by the labors of one man." He also wrote Papermarking by Hand in America (1950), a similar but larger undertaking.
Active in the Arts and Crafts movement
, Hunter created and championed many other types of handmade arts and crafts, publishing his own guides, such as Things You Can Make. He experimented with pottery
, jewelry, stained glass
windows, and furniture
. He also founded a correspondence school, the Dard Hunter School of Handicrafts.
, where his father published a gazette and ran a printery. From 1900 to 1903 he attended Ohio State University
. He began his career in East Aurora, New York
with a job at Roycroft
, the Arts and Crafts company of Elbert Hubbard
. In 1908, Dard married Edith Cornell, a pianist
he met at Roycroft, and the couple honeymoon
ed in Vienna
, a location inspired by Hunter's interest in Josef Hoffmann
. Hunter returned to Europe to study papermaking in Italy
, and was graduated from Vienna
's Royal-Imperial Graphic Teaching and Experimental Institute (K. K. Graphische Lehr und Versuchsanstalt).
The couple went to London
in 1911, where he worked as a commercial designer with Norfolk Studios. An exhibit at the London Science Museum provoked his interest in papermaking. In his exploration of primitive and early papermaking (a craft with origins in China
about 105 AD), he would travel to East Asia
and Pacific locales such as Samoa
, Tonga
, and Fiji
.
In 1912, they returned to the United States, and Hunter bought and moved into the Gomez Mill House
near Marlboro, New York
. He built a small papermill there, and crafted his first books on papermaking. Handmade paper was not being produced in America at the time; it had to be purchased from Europe. His English papermaking appliances were three centuries old, and were operated by a wooden water wheel
. Over forty-six years, he wrote twenty books about papermaking, eight of which were hand-printed.
In 1919, the Hunter family returned to Ohio and purchased the 1852 "Mountain House
" in Chillicothe
, which had been built for German winemakers. Hunter used a wing joined to the house for his letterpress printing studio, named Mountain House Press, where he produced eight handmade books, authored twenty books on the topic of papermaking, and was an active publisher between 1922 and 1956. In 1958 he published his autobiography, My Life with Paper.
Hunter opened the Dard Hunter Paper Museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1939, which he considered his greatest accomplishment. It was moved to the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin
in 1954. The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum
now comprises most of the collection of the Institute of Paper Science and Technology, on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology
in Atlanta.
Hunter died in 1966 at Chillicothe, survived by two sons. His wife had died in 1951. Members of his family maintain Dard Hunter Studios at the historic Mountain House, which are open to the public by appointment. The studio provides an online library.
Hunter is buried in Grandview Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio
, USA.
's 2003–2004 exhibition Ninety from the Nineties
.
To promote and continue the tradition of hand papermaking and book arts, Friends of Dard Hunter
was established in 1981.
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
, paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, and papermaking
Papermaking
Papermaking is the process of making paper, a substance which is used universally today for writing and packaging.In papermaking a dilute suspension of fibres in water is drained through a screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibres is laid down. Water is removed from this mat of fibres by...
—especially by hand, using the tools and craft of four centuries prior. Hunter produced two hundred copies of his book Old Papermaking, preparing every aspect of the book himself: he wrote the text, designed and cast the type
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
, did the typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
, handmade the paper, and printed and bound the book. A display at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
that appeared with his work read, "In the entire history of printing, these are the first books to have been made in their entirety by the labors of one man." He also wrote Papermarking by Hand in America (1950), a similar but larger undertaking.
Active in the Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
, Hunter created and championed many other types of handmade arts and crafts, publishing his own guides, such as Things You Can Make. He experimented with pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
, jewelry, stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows, and furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
. He also founded a correspondence school, the Dard Hunter School of Handicrafts.
Biography
Hunter was born and raised in Steubenville, OhioSteubenville, Ohio
Steubenville is a city located along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Ohio on the Ohio-West Virginia border in the United States. It is the political county seat of Jefferson County. It is also a principal city of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, where his father published a gazette and ran a printery. From 1900 to 1903 he attended Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
. He began his career in East Aurora, New York
East Aurora, New York
East Aurora is a village in Erie County, New York, United States, southeast of Buffalo. The Village of East Aurora lies in the eastern half of the Town of Aurora.The population was 6,673 at the 2000 census...
with a job at Roycroft
Roycroft
Roycroft was a reformist community of craft workers and artists which formed part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the USA. Elbert Hubbard founded the community in 1895 in the village of East Aurora, Erie County, New York, near Buffalo. Participants were known as Roycrofters...
, the Arts and Crafts company of Elbert Hubbard
Elbert Hubbard
Elbert Green Hubbard was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Raised in Hudson, Illinois, he met early success as a traveling salesman with the Larkin soap company. Today Hubbard is mostly known as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, an...
. In 1908, Dard married Edith Cornell, a pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
he met at Roycroft, and the couple honeymoon
Honeymoon
-History:One early reference to a honeymoon is in Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him...
ed in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, a location inspired by Hunter's interest in Josef Hoffmann
Josef Hoffmann
Josef Hoffmann was an Austrian architect and designer of consumer goods.- Biography :...
. Hunter returned to Europe to study papermaking in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and was graduated from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
's Royal-Imperial Graphic Teaching and Experimental Institute (K. K. Graphische Lehr und Versuchsanstalt).
The couple went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1911, where he worked as a commercial designer with Norfolk Studios. An exhibit at the London Science Museum provoked his interest in papermaking. In his exploration of primitive and early papermaking (a craft with origins in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
about 105 AD), he would travel to East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
and Pacific locales such as Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
, Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
, and Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
.
Gomez Mill House
The Gomez Mill House is located in the Town of Newburgh, New York, USA, on Mill House Road a short distance off US 9W, just south of the Orange–Ulster county line...
near Marlboro, New York
Marlboro, New York
Marlboro is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 2,339 at the 2000 census.Marlboro is in the southeast part of the Town of Marlborough and also the southeast corner of Ulster County.- History :...
. He built a small papermill there, and crafted his first books on papermaking. Handmade paper was not being produced in America at the time; it had to be purchased from Europe. His English papermaking appliances were three centuries old, and were operated by a wooden water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
. Over forty-six years, he wrote twenty books about papermaking, eight of which were hand-printed.
In 1919, the Hunter family returned to Ohio and purchased the 1852 "Mountain House
Mountain House (Chillicothe, Ohio)
The Mountain House is a historic Gothic Revival house in western Chillicothe, Ohio, United States. It was built by German immigrant Oscar Janssen in 1852, sitting atop a bluff above the Scioto River and the rest of the city of Chillicothe; its location and architectural style were intended to...
" in Chillicothe
Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States.Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio and is located in southern Ohio along the Scioto River. The name comes from the Shawnee name Chalahgawtha, meaning "principal town", as it was a major settlement of...
, which had been built for German winemakers. Hunter used a wing joined to the house for his letterpress printing studio, named Mountain House Press, where he produced eight handmade books, authored twenty books on the topic of papermaking, and was an active publisher between 1922 and 1956. In 1958 he published his autobiography, My Life with Paper.
Hunter opened the Dard Hunter Paper Museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
in 1939, which he considered his greatest accomplishment. It was moved to the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin
Appleton, Wisconsin
Appleton is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is situated on the Fox River, 30 miles southwest of Green Bay and 100 miles north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the county seat of Outagamie County. The population was 78,086 at the 2010 census...
in 1954. The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum
Robert C. Williams Paper Museum
The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum is a research institution and public museum dedicated to the preservation of the history of paper and paper technology...
now comprises most of the collection of the Institute of Paper Science and Technology, on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
in Atlanta.
Hunter died in 1966 at Chillicothe, survived by two sons. His wife had died in 1951. Members of his family maintain Dard Hunter Studios at the historic Mountain House, which are open to the public by appointment. The studio provides an online library.
Hunter is buried in Grandview Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio
Ross County, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 73,345 people, 27,136 households, and 19,185 families residing in the county. The population density was 106 people per square mile . There were 29,461 housing units at an average density of 43 per square mile...
, USA.
Legacy
In addition to books written during his lifetime, Dard Hunter & Son is a tribute to the work of Hunter. The 1998 book was selected and exhibited in the New York Public LibraryNew York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
's 2003–2004 exhibition Ninety from the Nineties
Ninety from the Nineties
Ninety from the Nineties: A Decade of Printing was an exhibition held at the New York Public Library from November 7, 2003 through May 28, 2004....
.
To promote and continue the tradition of hand papermaking and book arts, Friends of Dard Hunter
Friends of Dard Hunter
The Friends of Dard Hunter was established in 1981 to preserve and promote hand papermaking and book arts in the spirit and tradition of Dard Hunter...
was established in 1981.
External links
- Elbert Hubbard, Dard Hunter and the Roycroft Workshops
- Dard Hunter Studios
- Friends of Dard Hunter, a non-profit organization