Office of the President letterpress copybooks, volume 1, Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Archives and Special Collections, Kansas State University Libraries. (Courtesy of Cliff Hight)n. (also letterpress copy book)a bound volume of tissue paper containing reproductions, primarily of correspondence, made directly from the originals using a transfer process involving moisture and pressure in a copy pressTrever 1947, 95Included are letters received by J. R. Roosevelt while he was secretary of the Legation at Vienna and of the Embassy at London from 1888 to 1896, four letterpress copy books of letters written by him from 1893 to 1897, and letters received by him from 1909 to 1927.Lethbridge 1955b, 188Civil War materials recently acquired include a letterpress copybook, 1863-64, of the Register of the Confederate Treasury; the Civil War journal of Maj. John Chester White; and an account book of Company A of the 14th Virginia Cavalry.Berner 1960, 399Outgoing letters are frequently bound in letterpress copy books; these volumes usually have indexes to names.Gersack 1967, 234–235To the Newton D. Baker papers have been added about 4,000 pieces of Mr. Baker’s personal and official correspondence, 1905–16, contained in 21 volumes of letterpress copybooks; these volumes, which had been stored in the City Hall of Cleveland, Ohio, where Mr. Baker served as city solicitor and mayor, were received through arrangements made by Lee Wachtel, librarian of the municipal reference library in the City Hall.Evans, Harrison, and Thompson 1974, 425LETTERPRESS COPYBOOK. A book of tissue papers in which documents (usually letters sent) were copied by transfer of ink through direct contact with the original using moisture and pressure in a copy press. A copy of a single document produced by this method is referred to as a letterpress copy or press copy. This copying method was frequently used between 1820 and 1920.Brown 1984, 12Supplement this arrangement through the use of partial indexes available within the collection, such as the presence of letterpress copy books containing alphabetical indexes to correspondents.Antoine et al. 2011, 10There are several factors that make the conservation of letterpress copying books a particularly difficult problem. First of all, the volume of the materials is quite daunting. Archival collections often contain hundreds or even thousands of volumes of copying books, and a single volume contains between 300 and 800 leaves. This large quantity of materials necessitates a practical solution that can streamline the treatment and/or digitization process.AAT 2021[letterpress copybooks] Volumes containing reproductions of correspondence, made directly from originals through a transfer process. Using a screw-powered letter press in conjunction with a press book, a bound volume of blank, tissue paper pages. Letters written in special copying ink were placed on a dampened page. The book was then closed and the mechanical press screwed down tightly, causing the ink to be transferred to the bound page.
Notes
Copies made using this process usually are distinct from letterpress books from ink-on-paper works produced with a letterpress1. For a more complete description of the process, see JoAnne Yates, Control Through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 26–28.
Office of the President letterpress copybooks, volume 1, Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Archives and Special Collections, Kansas State University Libraries. (Courtesy of Cliff Hight)
n. (also letterpress copy book)
a bound volume of tissue paper containing reproductions, primarily of correspondence, made directly from the originals using a transfer process involving moisture and pressure in a copy press