Scope and Content Note
The papers of Thomas Maitland Cleland (1880-1964), illuminating multiple facets of his life as a printer, typographer, type designer, artist and illustrator, span the years 1880-1964, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1920-1963. The collection is organized into Family Correspondence , General Correspondence , Speeches and Writings , and Miscellany series.
The collection is almost entirely made up of Cleland's correspondence , 1920-1963, with publishers, clients, and fellow artists and printers. The most extensive exchange is with Daniel Berkeley Updike, founder of the Merrymount Press. There are also letters relating to Cleland's typographic plans for the magazines Fortune and Newsweek and the newspaper PM. Among the correspondents are Merle Armitage, Boris Artzybasheff, George Biddle, Fritz Eichenberg, Rockwell Kent, Fritz Kredel, George Macy, Joseph Pennell (1857-1926), Bruce Rogers (1870-1957), Rudolph Ruzicka, and Edward A. Wilson. Others include Frank Altschul, Fred Anthoensen, Peter Beilenson, Paul A. Bennett,Will Bradley, Abraham Colish, Joseph Cotton, Arthur Sinclair Covey, Robert Dothard, Montague Glass, Alfred E. Hamill, Alger Hiss, Ralph Ingersoll, Francis Meynell, and Oliver Simon.
Attached to many of the letters are Cleland's original drawings, designs, typographical arrangements, specifications, and corrected proofs for books. There are examples of his designs for insignia, emblems, and bookplates that he designed for such clients as the Century Club, the Grolier Club, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Most of the Family Correspondence consists of letters Cleland received from his wife, Elinor Woodruff Cleland.