Carl P. Rollins, Yale’s first University Printer, celebrated with two April 1 events

In his nearly 30 years as University Printer, Carl Purington Rollins (1880–1960) established Yale University as an internationally renowned center for print and graphic arts. In 1920—two years after he joined the staff of Yale University Press—Yale University acknowledged his skills by awarding him an honorary Master of Arts degree. That same year Yale University Press named Rollins Printer to the University—the first such role within a U.S. institution of higher education.

On April 1, at 2:30 p.m, at Haas Family Arts Library, Katherine M. Ruffin, director of the Book Studies Program and senior lecturer in Art at Wellesley College, will lead a tour through a pop-up exhibit of materials from the Carl Rollins Papers in Yale Library Special Collections. At 4 p.m., in Sterling Memorial Library, Ruffin will deliver a talk about her new book “A Printer with My Hands: The Life and Work of Carl P. Rollins.” Ruffin’s book, illustrated with images of Rollins’s work, documents his career, his collaborations, and the many presses he worked at or ran—including Yale’s Bibliographical Press.

The Bibliographical Press

Rollins, a professor of English, established the Bibliographical Press in 1927 to teach his students how the books they were studying were made. With the support of then University Librarian Andrew Keogh, the Bibliographical Press became part of Sterling Memorial Library when the library opened in 1931. Although the press is currently closed, the Sterling Library planning that is underway includes restoring the library as its home.

Rollins’s work with students at the Bibliographical Press, and in the printing facilities in some of Yale’s residential colleges, established design standards for scholarly publishing and for the teaching of bookmaking. Rollins taught, consulted, and lectured to share the practices he developed at Yale with faculty members and librarians at other U.S. colleges and universities.

“Decades before corporate identity and branding became the work of graphic designers, Carl Rollins single-handedly established the ‘Yale look,’” said John Gambell, the university’s fourth University Printer (1998–2024). “The powerful effect that his design work—encompassing all university publications—had upon Yale’s academic and public reputation was recognized and celebrated at Yale and beyond.

“By the time Rollins retired in 1948, Yale had deeply assimilated the idea that excellent graphic design advances the university’s reputation and its missions. Rollins’s direct legacy can be seen today in the design work of the Office of the University Printer, where Rebecca Martz serves as the fifth named University Printer.”

Rollins was succeeded by Greer Allen (1971–83) and Roland Hoover (1984–93) before Gambell assumed the official role in 1998 and Rebecca Martz in 2024. “We have all carried on the commitment to graphic design and typographic excellence started by Rollins more than 125 years ago,” Martz said.

In the gap years after Rollins’s retirement—due to his impaired eyesight—and before Allen’s appointment, there was no official University Printer. Instead, two typographers, Alvin Eisenman and John McCrillis, served as designers at Yale University Press. When Hoover retired, the position was again vacant until Jules Prown, professor of Art History, and Linda Lorimer, then university secretary, advocated for the creation of an Office of the University Printer to establish a university-wide visual identity for all Yale’s administrative publications. Gambell was then named director of the office and University Printer. 

At one time every residential college at Yale College had its own traditional printing presses to encourage students to learn the centuries-old craft of printing with hand-set metal type. The residential colleges that still maintain printing facilities for Yale students include Branford College, Jonathan Edwards College, and, with a shared facility, Pierson and Davenport colleges.

“Printer Extraordinary”

During his 40-year career, Rollins designed and printed more than 2,000 books and 8,000 pieces of ephemera—everything from menus and book plates to facsimiles of materials by Horace Walpole, Benjamin Franklin, and James Boswell. He received numerous awards and prizes, including, in 1941, the highest award bestowed by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

In a 1921 letter to Rollins, American type and book designer William Addison Dwiggins—Rollins’s frequent collaborator, including on many Yale University Press projects—described him as “printer extraordinary to the universe as well as the university.”

Rollins served as University Printer until 1948, when he retired from the university as Printer Emeritus. In 1949 Yale awarded Rollins an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, one of the very few honorary degrees ever bestowed on an American printer.

Explore the Carl Purington Rollins Papers in Archives at Yale or in person at Haas Family Arts Library.

Learn more about the Yale College Printing Presses in this YouTube video featuring Jesse Marsolais, printer for the Jonathan Edwards Press.

—Deborah Cannarella

Images: Carl Purington Rollins; “Scheme for a printing-office… ” facsimile, 1922, Yale University Press, and “Ink Balls,” 1930, Bibliographic Press at Yale. Archival materials are from the Carl Purington Rollins Papers, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library Special Collections, photo of composite image by Thisbe Wu; author Katherine M. Ruffin, photo by Samara Pearlstein