A Fine Press Christmas
Some of the newest acquisitions to our Fine Press collection are … Christmas cards! Many fine press printers produce holiday greetings for private individuals, and Special Collections acquires these ephemeral pieces along with books, broadsides, and other output from the fine printers we collect.
The following cards (both recently acquired) were printed for the Ruth and Charles de Young Elkus family by the Grabhorn Press in San Francisco, a distinguished American fine press which was active from 1920 to 1973. The Grabhorn brothers and the Harold B. Lee Library had a mutual friend in rare book dealer David Magee, who helped the library acquire a fine collection of works by the Grabhorn Press.
The illustration on each holiday card was executed by a well-known Native American artist, both of whom trained with Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School.
Card for 1936 illustrated by Pueblo artist Pablita Velarde (1918-2006).
