Dec 24, 2025 Press of the Week — The Allen Press

“One of the supreme pleasures available to man is knowledge, discipline,
intelligence guiding the hand to create beautiful and intellectually desirable objects.”
– Lewis Allen

Dear Rare Reader,
This blog post is the second in a three-part series. To read the preceding post, click here.

—

As we learned last week, the holiday card originated in the Victorian era, but that’s far from where its story ends.

Strong Victorian demand for Christmas cards coincided with the establishment of an entire industry. The artistic bounds White had so hopelessly sought for finally began to take shape. Thanks to companies like Hallmark and others, the seasonal greeting card found a permanent place in popular culture. No longer did ambiguous designs like anthropomorphized animals and Christmas puddings dominate the market. In their place emerged the modern holiday card, featuring imagery drawn from today’s more familiar Christmas traditions: The image of a jolly Santa Claus took hold, complete with Mrs. Claus baking cookies in the kitchen, elves tirelessly making toys in the workshop, and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer waiting outside.

This evolution reflects a broader transformation of society at large. With the rise of industrialization, the holiday season presented itself as a perfect excuse to celebrate industry and mass production. What was once a siloed Victorian phenomenon (Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday in the United States until 1870) quickly came to reflect an increasingly commercialized, consumer-driven world.

Few were more acutely aware of the industrialized world’s negative effects than the members of the Arts and Crafts movement. Started in London in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Movement evolved out of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, a like-minded group of people who organized three annual exhibitions that promoted fine, decorative, and English art. The society was founded by Walter Crane, the son of Thomas Crane. Both men were illustrators who contributed greatly to the development of the greeting card industry. Joseph Gleeson White explores the work of both father and son in his book, Christmas Cards and Their Chief Designers, which was discussed last week.

Though the Arts and Crafts movement truly flourished between 1880 and 1920, its influence was long-lasting and can still be seen throughout the Western world today. One of the Movement’s greatest contributions is reflected in the making of books and other printed materials. As industrialized printing took hold of the market, many artisans were dismayed by the decline in quality and craftsmanship in contemporary printing. This led to an uptick in the establishment of fine press publishers, private printers who value quality over quantity.

Two such printers were Dorothy and Lewis Allen of the Allen Press.

Christmas Greetings
Dorothy and Lewis Allen
San Fransisco, CA: The Allen Press
Z232.5 A5 A42

Dorothy and Lewis met while studying at the University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1930s and fell in love shortly after. Inspired by master printers like Aldus Manutius, Grabhorn Press, and William Morris, they printed their first book in 1939. Based in San Francisco, the husband-and-wife duo proceeded to produce roughly two works annually for the next 45 years, leaving behind nearly 100 works and a large ephemera collection, which includes a substantial number of holiday cards.

The Allen Press, which started as The Press of Lewis and Dorothy Allen, was unique in that their range of specialties was vast. Not only did they letterpress print each of their limited-edition works, but they also performed every other aspect of the bookmaking process, from papermaking to binding.

In 1977, Claudius and Catherine Gates, University of Utah alumni and close friends of the Allens, donated a nearly complete collection of Allen Press imprints to the J. Willard Marriott Library. Almost five years later, in 1981, the Allens donated their 1846 Columbian hand press to the Marriott, with the understanding that it would be used to teach others about the art of letterpress printing. Today, the University of Utah is one of the few schools in the country with a complete Book Arts Program.

The contribution of Dorothy and Lewis Allen to the University of Utah cannot be overstated, nor can their contribution to the fine press movement more broadly, and their various holiday cards are the perfect example of their lifelong commitment to the art of the book.

If you’re interested in experiencing the work of the Allen Press with your own hands, make an appointment here.
—
Contributed by Theadora Soter, Rare Books Assistant Curator

###