RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection

Building community one piece of type at a time! Colleagues from RIT Access, Engagement & Success took over the Cary Pressroom to print limited-edition letterpress posters. See them at The Mix Up (part of Tiger Fest) on August 28 at 4 pm in Global Village. Get a free poster!

Cloth bindings from The David Pankow Collection of American Trade Bindings, 1890-1915.

Book jacket design for "Invisible Man," published by Random House in 1952 and designed by E. McKnight Kauffer (1890​–1954).

Lippincott monthly magazine, July poster by J. J. Gould, 1896.

Watch now! Coffee with a Codex: Astronomy Manuscript The Cary.
Curator Dot Porter visited The Cary and brought out our 15th c. copy of Sacrobosco’s De sphaera mundi (On the Sphere of the World). Originally written in the 13th century, Sacrobosco's work followed the Ptolemaic model of the universe with the Earth as the center of the universe. The Cary's copy of the manuscript is also a palimpsest, in which there are traces of an earlier text that was erased. The book is a gift of Irene Conley and Ethel Harris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSyZjp5Fm4g

A history of typography: from the bottom up, in thirty rapid chapters. This poster by Robert Bringhurst traces the chronological history of typographical development along the outline of the Alpha and Omega characters.

Check out Elle-Anna Parrotta Featured Student Profile: Storytelling, Archives, and Finding a Voice.
https://www.rit.edu/spotlights/storytelling-archives-and-finding-voice-elle-anna-parrotta-reflects-her-journey

Klaas van Leeuwen (1867-1935) was a Dutch painter, graphic artist, and furniture designer. He was trained in Paris and went on to teach at academies in Holland. His 1907 “Letter Book for the Drafter and Craftsman” is a practical guide with mix of geometrically constructed alphabet models, printed in color.

Learn about RIT students creating 3D and 2D digital twins of the Cary's cuneiform tablet and papyrus manuscript.
https://www.rit.edu/carycollection/news/freshman-imaging-project-brings-historic-artifacts-new-dimension

Paramount Pictures was just starting to dominate the film industry when this 1929 pressbook for the Japanese market was produced. Printed in colorful Art Deco borders and geometric motifs that accentuate photographs of their stars. Notable is a spread for the 1928 film “Interference,” Paramount’s first all-talking motion picture. The dynamic hand-lettering in Japanese and English activates each page.