Daniel Berkeley Updike Autograph Collection

Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941) was a scholar of typography, American printer and founder of the Merrymount Press. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 24, 1860 to Caesar Augustus Updike and Elizabeth Bigelow Adams. He died in Boston on December 29, 1941. He is buried in Saint Paul-Updike Cemetery in Wickford, Rhode Island.

His entry to the book trade began in 1880 when he was employed by Houghton Mifflin in Boston, Massachusetts. He remained with the company through 1893 including a period with their Riverside Press. In 1893, he opened an independent typography studio. In 1896, he opened Merrymount Press, an independent printing house. Merrymount Press was recognized for excellence and held a reputation for very fine typography, printing, illustration and binding. Updike was a scholar of printing and typographic history. He wrote and published >Printing Types: their history, forms and use in 1922, In the Day’s Work in 1924 and Notes on the Merrymount Press in 1934. Updike received the American Institute of Graphic Arts’ Gold Medal in 1922, was a member of the American Antiquarian Society and received an honorary degree from Harvard University in 1929.

The bulk of the materials in this collection were inherited by Updike from his two grandfathers, Wilkins Updike and Abijah Bigelow. Wilkins Updike (1784-1867) was a lawyer and Rhode Island legislator from Wickford, Rhode Island. He was a direct descendant of Richard Smith, one of the earliest settlers of Rhode Island, and inherited the family estate “Smith’s Castle” in North Kingstown. He sold the estate in 1812. Abijah Bigelow (1775-1860) was a lawyer, Massachusetts legislator and Congressman of Massachusetts.