A Reception in Celebration of the Western Printing Collection A Gift from Richard B. Yale

Renowned printer, journalist, publisher, photographer, historian, and book collector Richard B. (Dick) Yale has selected Special Collections and University Archives as the repository for his extensive collection. Yale, a San Diego resident, has donated books, manuscripts, photographs, correspondence, ephemera, and other materials relating to the history of printing, California, and the American West to be preserved and used by researchers. A third-generation printer, Yale established the Butterfield Express: Historical Newspaper of the Great Southwest, in 1962, which features articles printed in the style of the Old West. Part of his donation includes the Washington hand-printing presses, drawers of wood-type specimens, and vintage cameras that he has used during his lengthy career.

Yale is a long-time member of the Zamorano Club, an illustrious Los Angeles-based group of book collectors, printers, and librarians. Over the years, he has retained keepsakes, memorabilia, and publications that are typically given only to club members; these items are now housed in the collection and offer a rare glimpse into the activities of this organization. Yale is often called the Honorary Mayor of Old Town, San Diego. The collection includes a wood certificate given to him when he received that title.

Yale's decades of collecting have led to an accumulation of rare books on the printing process and the life histories of its artisans. Among these treasures are handmade, limited editions, such as The Life Work of Dard Hunter, by Dard Hunter II, which highlights the experiences of this early 20th-century printer who worked for the Roycrofters Studio; The Wood Type of the Angelica Press; De Little's Wood Type Specimens by Robert De Little; and American Wood Types, 1828-1900: Volume One, collected, cataloged, and printed by Rob Roy Kelly. The collection also includes rare texts on California history. One example is Splendide Californie! by Claudine Chalmers, a publication based on a California Historical Society exhibition that featured 18th- and 19th-century French artists' paintings inspired by the California landscape. While the collection will particularly interest scholars of American Western and California history, as well as printing historians and practitioners, students and San Diego community residents can also benefit from learning more about this local personality.

Pictured Left/Above: From left to right: Richard Yale, Dean Connie Vinita Dowell and Richard B. (Dick) Yale.
Pictured Right/Above: Dard Hunter II: The Life Work of Dard Hunter. Mountain House Press, 1981.