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Cuala Industries records
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Held at: University of Delaware Library Special Collections [Contact Us]181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717-5267
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Delaware Library Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Cuala Industries, including an embroidery workshop and the Cuala Press, was established in 1908 when sisters Elizabeth Corbet Yeats and Lily Yeats left the parent Dun Emer Industries. Dun Emer was started in Dundrum, County Dublin, in 1902 by Evelyn Gleeson to produce handcrafted works in the mode of William Morris. Dun Emer was to employ only women and was concerned with the education of working class girls. The Yeats sisters came from London to assist with the establishment of the Industries. Lily, who had studied with William Morris's daughter May Morris, organized the embroidery workshop and Elizabeth founded the Dun Emer Press in 1902.
The Yeats sisters' brother, William Butler Yeats, contributed poetry and served as an editorial advisor to the press. Emory Walker (associated with Kelmscott Press and Doves Press) advised on typography and book production. Jack B. Yeats's illustrations appeared in
A Broadside, which he also edited from 1908-1915. Dun Emer Press published greeting cards, broadsides, and hand-colored prints as well as books and booklets. Cuala Press, which was given the old Irish place name for that part of County Dublin to which the sisters relocated, continued these activities.Following Elizabeth Yeats's death in 1940, George (Mrs. W.B.) Yeats assumed management of the press. After the death of Mrs. Yeats in 1968, Cuala Press was reorganized to continue printing in the tradition of its founders.
Miller, Liam. "Cuala Press." Dictionary of Irish Literature, Robert Hogan, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979. Miller, Liam. The Dun Emer Press, later the Cuala Press. Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1973. The Cuala Press, 1902-1973: an exhibition arranged by the National Book League to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the Cuala Press, 11-30 June 1973. Dublin: Dolman Press, 1973.
The Cuala Industries records includes material dating from circa 1903-1943, arranged in four series: Correspondence; Ephemera, photographs, and miscellany; Hand-colored cards from Cuala Press; and Cuala Press broadsides. Correspondence is chiefly from Elizabeth Corbet Years to R.N. Green Armitage concerning Dun Emer Press and Cuala Press. Other correspondents are George Russell (AE), Lady Gregory, A.H. Bullen, Lily Yeats, and Jack B. Yeats.
The photographs document the embroidery workshop with a picture of the Embroidery Room and twelve photographs of embroidery designs. The miscellany and printed ephemera include bookplates; a drawing by Eduard Dulac of the phases of the moon for W.B. Yeats' book,
A Vision (1925); and printed advertisements for Dun Emer Industries and Cuala Industries. The numbered series of Cuala Press cards are bright, hand-colored woodcuts above short poems printed on Irish papers. The cards and broadsides include poems and illustrations by W.B. Yeats, Jack B. Yeats, Dorothy Blackham, Lady Glenavy, Mary Cottenham White Yeats (Jack's wife), and others.Boxes 1-2: Shelved in SPEC MSS manuscript boxes
Broadsides: Shelved in SPEC MSS oversize boxes (20 inches)
Purchase 1981, 1992.
Processed by Lori A. Bridgers, March 1992; revised September 1992.
People
- Armitage, R.N. Green
- Yeats, Jack B. (Jack Butler), 1871-1957
- Yeats, Lily, 1866-1949
- Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939
- Yeats, Elizabeth Corbet, 1868-1940
- Gregory, Lady, 1852-1932
- AE, 1867-1935
Organization
Subject
- Literature publishing--Ireland--History--20th century
- Irish poetry--20th century
- Embroidery--Ireland--History--20th century
Place
- Publisher
- University of Delaware Library Special Collections
- Finding Aid Author
- University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
- Finding Aid Date
- 2006 June 12
- Access Restrictions
-
The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
-
Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S.Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce isrequired from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/static/purl.php?askspec
Collection Inventory
Consists primarily of the correspondence between Elizabeth Yeats and R.N. Green-Armitage regarding receipts and correspondence from other individuals.
George, Russell (A.E.) to Mr. Hutchinson, 22 Lincoln Place, Dublin letterhead.
Autograph letter signed, Lady Gregory to the poet John Gray, about his book
Silverpoints. Coole Park, Gort, Co. Galway letterhead. Physical Description4 pp.
Autograph letter signed, A.H. Bullen to Elkin Mathews. The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-on-Avon letterhead.
Elizabeth Yeats to Mr. Lemperley, with envelope addressed to Paul Lemperley.
Jack Yeats to Mr. Mathews.
A.H. Bullen to Lady Strachey.
Yeats to R.N. Green-Armitage. Includes a portrait of Standish O'Grady and 4 advertisements, one with a holograph note.
Physical Description2 pp.
Lily Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description2 pp.
Receipted 1917 November 20, E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Receipted 1917 November 20, E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description4 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description4 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
L. Yeats to Green-Armitage
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description2 pp.
J. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description2 pp.
Receipted 1918 December 3, E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description2 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description2 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description2 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description4 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description2 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage. With autographed photo of Treaty Stone, Wexton.
Physical Description2 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage. With advertisement for Cuala Press.
Physical Description2 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description2 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
Physical Description10 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage. With new address card.
L. Yeats to unknown.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage. With 2 advertisements, one with holograph note.
Lady Gregory to Andre Raffalovich.
Physical Description6 pp.
E. Yeats to Green-Armitage. With receipt, and 2 advertisements with holograph notes.
Physical Description2 pp.
E. Yeats to Green Armitage.
Physical Description4 pp.
E. Yeats to unknown.
Physical Description1 p. each
E. Yeats to unknown.
Physical Description1 p. each
Contains a notebook, bookplates, advertisements for Dun Emer Press, Cuala Industries and Cuala Press, and photographs of embroidery and the Embroidery Room of Cuala Industries.
Hand-colored cards from Cuala Press, most printed with poetry. The cards are arranged in sequence by numbers printed on the verso of the cards.
with insert
Consists of hand-colored prints, many of which are duplicated in the cards of Series III. The broadsides are divided into three categories: poetry, proverbs, and illustrations. Box 3 of the Cuala Press Collection is stored with the oversize manuscripts.
Broadsides with poems and illustrations by various poets and artists. The material is arranged alphabetically by poet.
2 copies.
Proverbs with accompanying illustrations.
Illustrations of various subjects, arranged alphabetically by artist.