Triple Crown Collection

The Triple Crown Collection consists of over 1,000 items from the three finest presses of the English Arts and Crafts movement: the Kelmscott Press, the Doves Press, and the Ashendene Press. The collection, built over 68 years by collector Charles Gould, was acquired by the Libraries in 2000.

The English Arts and Crafts movement that began in the late nineteenth century was a reaction against the mass-produced books of that time. The movement sought to return to earlier bookmaking techniques and to emulate the beauty of the medieval book by focusing on design through typefaces, layouts, and illustrations.

Gould gathered hundreds of items relating to the history and production of each press, in addition to their published works, making this collection especially valuable for researchers. The collection includes business correspondence, proof pages, alternate bindings, preparatory sketches, and even original woodcut printing blocks. The collection is comprehensive, including nearly every book and ephemeral item that these three presses produced, recorded and unrecorded.