Scope of Mertle Collection

Photomechanics, the processes by which printing surfaces are produced by photographic methods, revolutionized the practice of printing. One important development in its history occurred in 1796, when Aloysius Senefelder of Munich invented a printing process later named lithography (from the Greek words for writing on stone). In lithography ink is repelled by water from the areas of the stone that are not to be printed and is retained on the surface that is meant to be printed. In spite of changes in methods brought about by the use of photography (the action of light on any surface) in producing metal plates used in the printing process, the basic principles of eighteenth century lithography remained constant into the twentieth century.

The Mertle Collection contains original books, journals, photographs, and manuscripts relating to photographic processes in printing from the early period to the middle of the twentieth century. The collection includes approximately 6,000 books, plus more than 1,000 artifacts and non-print items. Noteworthy items in the collection include the technical possessions and specimen reproductions made by Karel Klic, world-renowned inventor of rotogravure; the business records and correspondence of Max Levy, pioneer manufacturer of halftone screens; the private correspondence and personal effects of the American photohistorian, Edward Epstean; and the personally executed sketches of dot formations and technical data complied by halftone researcher Arthur Fruwith.

The collection also has American patents on important developments in the graphic arts and thousands of articles devoted to the processes and methods. There is also a large collection of portraits and biographical material on leaders in the fields of printing and photomechanical reproduction. Original prints of Edweard Muybridge's famous studies on animal and human locomotion are present.

Important printed works include William Talbot's The Pencil of Nature (1844) which is the first book illustrated with actual photographs; Researches on Light by Robert Hunt (1844), the first book devoted exclusively to photochemistry; the important 2nd edition (1718) of Sir Isaac Newton's Opticks; and the first photograph published in a newspaper by the halftone process, "Shantytown," from the New York Daily Graphic of March 4, 1880. A particular strength is 19th and early 20th century periodical literature, with approximately 100 titles in the collection.

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URL: http://www.lib.umn.edu/special/rare/mertle/
Last updated: 02/13/98

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