Arts-Area

Withal the Craft: The Life and Work of Carl Purington Rollins

Headshot of Carl Purington Rollins

April 22 - August 23, 2013 Opening Reception Friday 19 April from 5 to 6.15 pm - all welcome! Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library (Lower Level) 180 York Street, New Haven, CT Guest curator: Chika Ota, Rollins Fellow in Design Communications, Office of the Yale University Printer Carl Purington Rollins was Yale's first University Printer. In the course of four decades, he designed more than two thousand books for Yale University Press as well as most of the University's ephemeral materials, and he introduced the craft letterpress tradition to students with his Bibliographical Press (now -- as originally -- housed in Sterling Memorial Library). Upon his death in 1960 at age 80, Rollins left a rich intellectual legacy of printing and design scholarship and an enormous archive of printed works that feature his distinctive typographic style. Despite having received the highest distinction in his field -- the American Institute of Graphic Arts medal -- and the accolades of his peers, Rollins is virtually unknown today. This exhibition explores his life and works from his early days as printer for a utopian community in Massachusetts to his later work for Yale and numerous academic and graphic societies. It also traces the influence of William Morris on Rollins's early work and explores how Rollins's approach to design continues to influence both the University's visual "brand" and the teaching of design at Yale today.

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