Merrymount Press

The Merrymount Press was a printing company, both scholarly and craftsmanlike, founded and run by Daniel Berkeley Updike in Boston, Massachusetts, and extant during the years 1893–1941. It was perhaps the finest representative of the Arts and Crafts movement in American book arts, influenced by William Morris and founded "to do common work uncommonly well." Updike established his own studio in 1893, first with the idea of designing type fonts, but soon after as a printing company. He called it the Merrymount Press in honor of Mount Wollaston just south of Boston. In 1896, Updike commissioned font designer Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue to design the Merrymount font for an Altar Book for the Episcopal Church. In 1904 Herbert Horne designed Montallegro for him, and noted graphic artist and print designer Rudolph Ruzicka also produced designs for the Press. In 1896 Updike also purchased the Caslon face; other types employed included Scotch Roman, Janson, Mountjoye and Oxford. Merrymount Press was the first American firm to use the Times New Roman font.