Guide to the Anthoensen Press Work Orders, 1915-1952
Anthoensen Press Work Orders, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine
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The Anthoensen Press was founded in 1875 as the Southworth Press by the Rev. Francis Southworth. Fred Anthoensen, hired in 1901 as compositor, was, by 1917,the Press's managing director. In 1934, the firm became the Southworth-Anthoensen Press, and in 1944, the Anthoensen Press. After Anthoensen's death in 1969, the Press continued under different managers, including Harry Milliken and Henry C. Thomas who owned the Press until its closure in 1987.
Although the Press printed stationery, catalogs, brochures and other small-format material, it specialized in books and pamphlets for private customers including Bowdoin and other colleges, the Limited Editions Club, Massachusetts Historical Society and other state and local historical organizations, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other museums, and several small or specialty publishers. It printed maritime histories, genealogies, fine press productions and journals like the New England Quarterly. Major works - some by prominent book designers such as W.A. Dwiggins, Bruce Rogers, George Macy and Fred Anthoensen himself - included A.S. Rosenbach's Early American Childrens' Books, the Isaac W. Dyer's Bibliography of Thomas Carlyle's Writings ... and first editions of works by Marianne Moore and Stephen Vincent Benet. See also the papers of Fred Anthoensen and the Anthoensen Press Business Records.
The collection consists of samples of work orders for books, stationery, advertising brochures, pamphlets, business cards, catalogues, journals, greeting cards and other works produced by the Press.