Some of them, particularly the ones on type and typesetting, are excellent resources, very handy to use, and I recommend them highly to all who wish to expand their knowledge, and in particular as starting points for beginners, for whom the books were written. However, they will be valuable for any practitioners, whatever their experience. I have added notes for each book on their potential usefulness to craftspeople at various levels of knowledge.

Much of what was considered apprentice-level knowledge in 1918, when the skills were current and widely taught, is today Ph.D.-level knowledge of a nearly lost craft/technology. The TTS books preserve, and present in a format that facilitates learning, the sort of basic concepts and technical notions that were taken for granted at the time and so weren’t passed on in most published works, since most such works were aimed at experienced people who took the knowledge for granted.
    Most of the TTS books are brief, sometimes very brief. (The page counts given below for each book, with a couple of exceptions, are from the 1918 notice, and these are inflated by about eight pages of information about the TTS series.) Most of the books include glossaries, and review questions for self study.

A 1918 notice listed a total of 64 titles under the following categories, which reflect the order of the listings on this page:

    Part I—    Types, Tools, Machines, and Materials
    Part Ia—  Paper and Printing Plates
    Part II—   Hand and Machine Composition
    Part III—  Imposition and Stonework
    Part IV—  Presswork
    Part V—   Pamphlet and Book Binding
    Part VI—  Correct Literary Composition
    Part VII— Design, Color, and Lettering
    Part VIII—History of Printing
    (Part IX— Cost Finding and Accounting; apparently never published)
    (Part X—  Miscellaneous; apparently never published)

The same list appears in a 1930 announcement. The only differences are that nos. 17 and 42, by A.A. Stewart in the 1918 list, are superseded by volumes by Hugo Jahn; and nos. 19 and 47, listed as “in preparation” in 1918, were published later. (I’m indebted to Kevin Lash for the 1930 information and the knowledge that nos. 19 and 47 were published.)

ABOUT THE LINKS; PUBLICATION AND
CURRENT AVAILABILITY OF THE TTS SERIES:

In the list below, I have provided links to direct downloads, from this site, of free PDFs for 38 of the books—nearly all the titles of interest to those involved in letterpress today. Most or all of the PDFs were digitized by Google; the direct downloads here will save you the considerable trouble of locating individual titles on the Web, and and will save you 38 interactions with Google. These are all the PDFs I could find for this series. I have inspected all the PDFs, and they are all complete and of good quality, with the exception of only two flaws that obscure a few words in the text, and one blurred title page.
     I have linked to the Project Gutenberg page for their epub edition of one TTS book for which I could find no PDF. The epub edition includes images, and, based on a quick examination, seems to be of very good quality. Project Gutenberg also has electronic editions (but not PDFs) of some of the other titles for which PDFs are linked here. I have not inspected these epubs. Only one or two of them are linked here. They can be searched on the Project Gutenberg site.
    For sixteen of the titles that were published, I can locate no PDFs. (If anyone informs me of links to others, or can send good-quality PDFs, I will add them to the list.) I have checked for these in WorldCat, and given the locations of the libraries nearest to Minneapolis in which they can be found. The University of Minnesota apparently has copies of all the books that were published except nos. 1, 19, 28, and 39. (Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97; series catalog listing here.)
    Judging from my attempts to find used hard copies of some of the books for purchase, they are fairly scarce items. The usual print-on-demand reprints are available for some of them; caveat emptor.
    Nineteen of the TTS titles were apparently never published. A 1930 announcement, the latest mention of the series that I have found, lists them as being still in preparation, and I was unable to find them on WorldCat. These titles are greyed out in the following list. They include all the titles in the “Cost Finding and Accounting” and “Miscellaneous” sections, all but two of the titles in the “Design, Color, and Lettering” section, and a few titles in other sections.

————
* “Typotheta” (plural: typothetae) is a Latin word (formed from Greek roots) meaning, literally, “type-setter”. (“Type-thetter” gives you the etymological link.) In the U.S., in the 1800s, many printing and typesetting businesses in the U.S. formed local or regional business associations. Many of these were called “[name of region] Typothetae”. (Others were called “Franklin Clubs”.) In 1887, the local Typothetae formed a national organization, The United Typothetae of America. (Later on, they were joined by the Franklin Clubs.) One of the leading Typothetae was Theodore Lowe De Vinne, who was famous as a scholar and promoter of typography and founder of a firm well known for fine book typesetting. The United Typothetae of America was re-organized in 1940 as The Printing Industries of America, which remains the leading trade association in the graphic arts industry.

PART I—TYPES, TOOLS, MACHINES, AND MATERIALS

2. Compositors’ Tools and Materials. A.A. Stewart, 1918. A primer of information about composing sticks, galleys, leads, brass rules, cutting and mitering machines, etc. 47 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

3. Type Cases, Composing Room Furniture. A.A. Stewart, 1918. A primer of information about type cases, work stands, cabinets, case racks, galley racks, standing galleys, etc. 43 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    A PDF is linked above. There’s also a Project Gutenberg eBook.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

4. Imposing Tables and Lock-up Appliances. A.A. Stewart, 1918. Describing the tools and materials used in locking up forms for the press, including some modern utilities for special purposes. 59 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

5. Proof Presses. A.A. Stewart, 1918. A primer of information about the customary methods and machines for taking printers’ proofs. 40 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    —In addition to the basic information, the following content may be of particular interest: 1) pulling proofs by hand with a planer; 2) use of iron hand presses for proofs, including halftones and engravings; and 3) some very early Vandercook proof presses (the ones we know today were later developments).
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

6. Platen Printing Presses. Daniel Baker, 1918. A primer of information regarding the history and mechanical construction of platen printing presses, from the original hand press to the modern job press, to which is added a chapter on automatic presses of small size. 51 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

7. Cylinder Printing Presses. Herbert L. Baker, 1918. Being a study of the mechanism and operation of the principal types of cylinder printing machines. 64 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    —Valuable information on the basic mechanical workings of these presses. Sort of reminds me of Paul Moxon’s present-day books on the Vandercook.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

8. Mechanical Feeders and Folders. William E. Spurrier. The history and operation of modern feeding and folding machines; with hints on their care and adjustments. Illustrated; glossary.

9. Power for Machinery in Printing Houses. Carl F. Scott, 1918. A treatise on the methods of applying power to printing presses and allied machinery, with particular reference to electric drive. 53 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    —There may be information here that is of value to those restoring any type of old powered machinery: the sort of basic concepts that are taken for granted at the time and so aren’t passed on in most written works.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

10. Paper Cutting Machines. Niel Gray, Jr., 1918. A primer of information about paper and card trimmers, hand-lever cutters, power cutters, and other automatic machines for cutting paper. 70 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

11. Printers’ Rollers. A.A. Stewart, 1918. A primer of information about the composition, manufacture, and care of inking rollers. 46 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    —What printers need to know about this fundamental compenent, which shouldn't be taken for granted. Includes recipes for cooking and molding your own, which had been a basic shop skill ever since rollers were used in printing; it was still current, though declining, in Stewart’s time.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

12. Printing Inks. Philip Ruxton, 1918. Their composition, properties and manufacture (reprinted by permission from Circular No. 53, United States Bureau of Standards); together with some helpful suggestions about the everyday use of printing inks. 80 pp.; glossary.
    —Looks like a particularly useful compendium of basic information that might be hard to find otherwise.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

PART I (CONTINUED)—PAPER AND PRINTING PLATES

14. Relief Engravings. Joseph P. Donovan. Brief history and non-technical description of modern methods of engraving: wood cut, zinc plate, halftone; kind of copy for reproduction; things to remember when ordering engravings. Illustrated; glossary.

15. Electrotyping and Stereotyping. Harris B. Hatch and A.A. Stewart, 1918. A primer of information about the processes of electrotyping and stereotyping. 94 pp.; illustrated; glossaries.
    —Of definite interest to more advanced students of metal type, because these processes had a lot of influence on metal type technology. From the early-to-mid-1800s on, much of the metal type that was set was not printed directly, but used to make stereotype plates or, to a lesser extent, electrotypes. Among other things, some of the oddball spacing and slugs found in composing rooms today were meant for use with these processes. You will also find out what “flong” is.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

PART II—HAND AND MACHINE COMPOSITION

17. Printers’ Proofs. Hugo Jahn, 1925. The methods by which they are made, marked, and corrected, with observations on proofreading. Illustrated; glossary. (Jahn’s book apparently superseded a book of the same title and description by, A.A. Stewart, which was listed, as published, in the 1918 U.T.A. announcement.
    —No PDF of either book found as of 3/18. A copy of Stewart’s is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97. There’s another in the St. Paul Public Library.

18. First Steps in Job Composition. Camille De Vèze, 1918. Suggestions for the apprentice compositor in setting his first jobs, especially about the important little things which go to make good display in typography. 63 pp.; examples; glossary.
    —De Vèze was foreman in the composing room of the De Vinne Press.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

19. General Job Composition. How the job compositor handles business stationery, programs and miscellaneous work. Illustrated; glossary.
    —No PDF found as of 3/18. Listed as “in preparation” in 1918; a 1921 announcement shows it as having been published.

20. Book Composition. J. W. Bothwell, 1918. Chapters from DeVinne’s “Modern Methods of Book Composition,” revised and arranged for this series of text-books. Part I: Composition of pages. Part II: Imposition of pages. 229 pp.; illustrated; glossary. Bothwell was the long-time manager of the De Vinne Press, and became president of the company the year after De Vinne’s death.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

21. Tabular Composition. Robert Seaver, 1918. A study of the elementary forms of table composition, with examples of more difficult composition. 36 pp.; examples.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.
    —A few years earlier, in 1913, Seaver had published a much briefer (15 pages) book on the subject of tabular composition, also titled Tabular Composition, and you can download a PDF of the earlier book from this site too. There’s probably little or no practical content in the earlier book that isn’t in the Typographic Technical Series book. But the briefer book contains things of historical interest that aren’t in the TTS book, and the first page is well worth reading for its description, in terms the Typothetae would probably not have considered suitable for apprentices to read, of the privileged status of the few hand compositors who were skilled in tabular work. Seaver also describes the drastic change in that status that came with the spread of the Monotype machine. The Monotype system was famous for book typesetting, but it was also especially good at tabular work, which it produced much faster (and probably better) than a hand compositor could. But hand-set tabular work remained a valuable skill. In fact, even with digital technology at the beginning of the 21st century, a hundred years after the Monotype began to dominate tabular composition, there were very few people who could do good tabular work, and it was definitely a sought-after skill, especially for financial typesetting. More recently, there has been another technological transformation, with the appearance around 2007 of powerful tabular capabilities in InDesign. But I suspect that this hasn’t really changed things, because the crucial skills in tabular work aren’t technology-related.

22. Applied Arithmetic. E. E. Sheldon, 1918. Elementary arithmetic applied to problems of the printing trade, calculation of materials, paper weights and sizes, with standard tables and rules for computation, each subject amplified with examples and exercises. 159 pp.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.
    —Don’t be deterred by the grade-school basics at the beginning of the book. In 1918, there were a lot of people who had left school before being exposed to this. (Today, of course, everyone is exposed to the basics, but actually learning them is optional.) Most of the content is more advanced, and everyone will find things of interest here. In particular, the sections on arithmetic in typesetting and printing cover valuable concepts and basic information in addition to arithmetic. There is also a section on arithmetic in bookbinding, and an introduction to the use of the micrometer and the Vernier caliper.
    In the shops I worked in, pretty much everybody had a calculator or a proportion wheel handy, and used them often. (The wheel is just as accurate as a calculator for even the most precise typographic work.) But those tools were only for the less simple calculations: most of the time, you did the arithmetic in your head, and hardly even thought consciously about it. You were doing it all the time, because the more use you made of arithmetic, the easier, faster, and better was your work. Accurate arithmetic, where everyone gets the same result, was also—and remains—essential for planning out a job, and for communication, coordination, and effective cooperation in production.

23. Typecasting and Composing Machines. A. W. Finlay, Editor. A brief history of typesetting machines, with descriptions of their mechanical principles and operations. Illustrated; glossary. Section I—The Linotype, by L.A. Hornstein. Section II—The Monotype, by Joseph Hays. Section III—The Intertype, by Henry W. Cozzens. Section IV—Other Typecasting and Typesetting Machines, by Frank H. Smith.

PART III—IMPOSITION AND STONEWORK

25. Preparing Forms for the Cylinder Press. Frank S. Henry, 1926. Pamphlet and catalog imposition; margins; fold marks, etc. Methods of handling type forms and electrotype forms. Illustrated; glossary.
    —No PDF found as of 3/18. A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97. There’s another at Carleton College in Northfield.

PART IV—PRESSWORK

27. Cylinder Presswork. T.G. McGrew. Preparing the press; adjustment of bed and cylinder, form rollers, ink fountain, grippers and delivery systems. Underlaying and overlaying; modern overlay methods. Illustrated; glossary.

28. Pressroom Hints and Helps. Charles L. Dunton, 1918. Describing some practical methods of pressroom work, with directions and useful information relating to a variety of printing-press problems. 87 pp.
    —A lot of basic information here about platen presswork.

29. Reproductive Processes of the Graphic Arts. A.W. Elson, 1920. A primer of information about the distinctive features of the relief, the intaglio, and the planographic processes of printing. 84 pp.; illustrated; glossary.
    —The material on the various engraving processes (copper, steel, and wood), and also on etching, mezzotint, drypoint, and lithography, may be of particular use as background information for present-day craftspeople who aren’t directly involved with these techniques but want to know about them because they are so important in the history of printing and the visual arts. Also a basic overview of the other printing processes, such as offset and gravure.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

PART V—PAMPHLET AND BOOK BINDING

31. Book Binding. John J. Pleger, 1924. Practical information about the usual operations in binding books: folding, gathering, collating, sewing, forwarding, finishing. Case making and cased-in books. Hand work and machine work. Job and blank-book binding. Illustrated; glossary.
    Pleger had previously published a much more extensive work, Bookbinding and its Auxiliary Branches, in four volumes, which looks like a significant resource for bookbinders. I’ve provided more information about this book, and links to downloadable PDFs of these volumes in the Bookbinding section of the Reading page.

PART VI—CORRECT LITERARY COMPOSITION

Books 39, 40, and 42 (Proofreading, Preparation of Printers’ Copy, and The Printer’s Dictionary), go well beyond matters of editorial and typographic style. The first two cover important production procedures. The dictionary is of general interest to anyone involved with printing and type.

32. Word Study and English Grammar. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A primer of information about words, their relations, and their uses. 68 pp.; glossary.
    —Mostly remedial and very basic. However, the guidelines for good writing on pp. 20–24 are certainly worth review—they are better than much else of the nature that I have seen.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

33. Punctuation. F.W. Hamilton, 1920. A primer of information about the marks of punctuation and their use, both grammatically and typographically. 56 pp.; glossary.
    —A worthwhile brief review of basic principles, especially the section on commas, which gets right to the point: it’s all about the sense of the words. Outdated on a few minor points, but far more reliable than many recent guides. Still, your final authority should be something more recent.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

34. Capitals. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A primer of information about capitalization, with some practical typographic hints as to the use of capitals. 48 pp.; glossary.
    —Most is pretty basic but still worth a quick look by way of review. Worth reading through are the introduction (pp. 1–3), and the sections on small caps (pp. 17–21) and “Typographic Use of Capitals” (pp. 22–28).
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

35. Division of Words. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. Rules for the division of words at the ends of lines, with remarks on spelling, syllabication and pronunciation. 42 pp.
    —Page 22, on the tradeoffs between spacing and division on narrow meaures, is worth reading. The rest, including some guidelines on spelling, is pretty basic, and may be found in in already available guides.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

36. Compound Words. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A study of the principles of compounding, the components of compounds, and the use of the hyphen. 34 pp.
    —With regard to compounding, conventional usage, including informed professional usage, has changed enough so that you’re better off using as a guide a more or less recent version of Chicago (though not necessarily the most recent). However, the three-page introduction is worth reading on the subject of the changes in practice in this area, and how the communications professional should respond to those changes. An experienced editor used to thinking minutely about questions of compounding may find the book of real use at the level of general philosophy.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

37. Abbreviations and Signs. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A primer of information about abbreviations and signs, with classified lists of those in most common use. 58 pp.
    —A similar section of a modern reference book would take the place of this, either for study or reference. Of historical interest for some details. The introduction backs up my comments about ligatures, posted elsewhere on this site.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

38. The Uses of Italic. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A primer of information about the history and uses of italic letters. 31 pp.
    —Can be skipped by those in search of practical guidance. Most of the misuses of italic warned against here have long been out of fashion. The rest of the content in this brief book can be found in common style guides.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

(production and technical information of major importance)

40. Preparation of Printers’ Copy. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. Suggestions for authors, editors, and all who are engaged in preparing copy for the composing room. 36 pp.
    —Nineteen small pages of text (excluding front and back matter), which you should definitely read as a basic overview of the importance and general requirements of the topic. Copy preparation is an indispensable component of quality work, and also saves a great deal of the time and trouble commonly spent fixing problems at the typesetting and printing stages, trouble that copy preparation would have prevented with far less effort and cost. This is as true of craft work involving small amounts of type as it is of commercial book work. Copy preparation is also a nearly lost art, except in a few professional publishing organizations.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

41. Printers’ Manual of Style. F.W. Hamilton, 1927. A reference compilation of approved rules, usages, and suggestions relating to uniformity in punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, numerals, and kindred features of composition.
    —I haven’t seen the book, but for reference purposes, the style guides and practical typesetting manuals referenced on the Reading page will probably take its place quite nicely.
    No downloadable PDF found as of 3/18. A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97. Others are in the St. Paul Public Library, and at Carleton College in Northfield. A PDF is searchable in the Hathi Trust online collection, but cannot be viewed or downloaded due to copyright restrictions.

42. The Printer’s Dictionary. A.A. Stewart, 1912. A handbook of definitions and miscellaneous information about various processes of printing, alphabetically arranged. Technical terms explained. Illustrated.
    —An extensive (367 pages) and wide-ranging dictionary of terms. Very good for browsing; contains lots of odd and interesting information, and obscure but still relevant technical details. There is a separate section at the end for bookbinding terms. Among many other things, it is a resource for for the trade-names of a good number of long-obsolete varieties of printing machinery.
    Stewart’s book was superseded in the T.T.S. series by The Dictionary Of Graphic Arts Terms: a book of technical words and phrases used in the printing and allied industries, “compiled by Hugo Jahn,” 1928. Jahn’s book is listed in a 1930 U.T.A. list under the same title as Stewart’s, but I have found a record of it under the longer title given here. No PDF of Jahn’s book found as of 3/18. A copy, probably of Stewart’s book, is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

PART VII—DESIGN, COLOR, AND LETTERING

44. Elements of Typographic Design. Harry L. Gage. Applications of the principles of decorative design. Building material of typography: paper, types, ink, decorations and illustrations. Handling of shapes. Design of complete book, treating each part. Design of commercial forms and single units Illustrations; glossary; bibliography.

45. Rudiments of Color in Printing. Harry L. Gage. Use of color: for decoration of black and white, for broad poster effect, in combinations of two, three, or more printings with process engravings. Scientific nature of color, physical and chemical. Terms in which color may be discussed: hue, value, intensity. Diagrams in color, scales and combinations. Color theory of process engraving. Experiments with color. Illustrations in full color, and on various papers. Illustrations; glossary; bibliography.

46. Lettering in Typography. Harry L. Gage. Printer’s use of lettering: adaptability and decorative effect. Development of historic writing and lettering and its influence on type design. Classification of general forms in lettering. Application of design to lettering. Drawing for reproduction. Fully illustrated; glossary; bibliography.
    This book is referred to as if it had been published, on p. 63 of Siegfried’s book, no. 47, below.

47. Typographic Design in Advertising. Laurance B[enjamin] Siegfried, 1930. The printer’s function in advertising. How advertising is used. The design of publication advertising—layout, analysis of copy, illustrations, attention, emphasis, legibility, display, text. The design of direct advertising—the container, forms of direct advertising. Position advertising—car cards, window and counter displays, posters. Glossary, bibliography. [128 pages.]
    Thanks to Kevin R. Lash of the Firestone Library, Princeton University, for informing me of the existence of Siegfried’s book, and its Hathi Trust listing. (I had thought that the title was never published, since the 1918 U.T.A. announcement listed a different author.)
    This is an 18MB PDF: see below for reasons.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.
    The Hathi Trust page is here. Though the book is in the public domain (according to Hathi Trust) and digitized by Google, it’s not downloadable from the listing page on Google Books, and Hathi won’t let you download the full PDF without a partner institution login. Their single-page download option doesn’t seem to work. This may be because the publication date is later than 1923, so the book’s out-of-copyright status can’t be taken 100% for granted. If anyone makes a plausible case that they hold copyright, I’ll take it down. I copied jpeg images of the individual pages from Hathi and made them into a PDF, but it’s 6 to 9 times larger (18MB) than the other PDFs for that series, and I can’t figure out any way to reduce it and maintain quality.
    The 1918 announcement listed this title as in preparation, with the author as Harry L. Gage, and a different description.

48. Making Dummies and Layouts. Harry L. Gage. A layout: the architectural plan. A dummy: the imitation of a proposed final effect. Use of dummy in sales work. Use of layout. Function of layout man. Binding schemes for dummies. Dummy envelopes. Illustrations; glossary; bibliography.

PART VIII—HISTORY OF PRINTING

50. The Invention of Typography. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A brief sketch of the invention of printing and how it came about. 64 pp.
    —I’ve only glanced at the book. For reasons mentioned in the entries on Gutenberg in the History section on the Reading page, I (and many others) do not endorse Hamilton’s conclusion that Coster should be given priority over Gutenberg. (My impression is that Coster’s credibility has largely vanished over the past few generations. It is not even clear that his work, such as it was, preceded Gutenberg’s in time. See the books on Gutenberg noted in the History section of the Reading page on this site.) However, there may be other content of value in this book, especially regarding the technological antecedents of Gutenberg’s inventions.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97. There’s another at the St. Paul Public Library.

51. Brief History of Printing—Part I. F.W. Hamilton. A primer of information about the beginnings of printing, the development of the book, the development of printers’ materials, and the work of the great pioneers. 63 pp.
    —No PDF found as of 3/18. A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97. There’s another at the St. Paul Public Library. There are probably better sources for this information anyway, because scholarship since the 1920s has expanded and clarified the picture somewhat. See, for instance, the books on Gutenberg and a few other historical topics in the History section on the Reading page on this site. I don’t know of a good primer on the subject that I would recommend, but one may well exist.

52. Brief History of Printing—Part II. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A brief sketch of the economic conditions of the priming industry from 1450 to 1789, including government regulations, censorship, internal conditions and industrial relations. 94 pp.
    —Looks like a very useful history; the focus on economic, political, and legal environment, and on the internal organization of the trade, is not something you will get in most histories of printing.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

53. Printing in England. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A short history of printing in England from Caxton to the present time. 89 pp.
    —Looks like a good brief history, which probably contains material not found in Updike’s standard work.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

54. Printing in America. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A brief sketch of the development of the newspaper, and some notes on publishers who have especially contributed to printing. 98 pp.
    —Looks like a useful history and a valuable supplement to other work on the subject, especially for its information on the internal organization of the trade.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

55. Type and Presses in America. F.W. Hamilton, 1918. A brief historical sketch of the development of type casting and press building in the United States. 52 pp.
    —Looks like a good overview, though much like other accounts I’ve seen elsewhere.
    A copy is in the U. of Minnesota library, Twin Cities Offsite Storage, 019.3 T97.

PART IX—COST FINDING AND ACCOUNTING

PART X—MISCELLANEOUS