The Collection of Franklin Imprints in the Museum of the Curtis Publishing Company

Book excerpt: In the year 1896 the late Henry V. Massey began to collect Franklin Imprints. He was a man of wide knowledge and of rare good judgment, and was untiring in his search for material bearing the imprint of Franklin, or on which he was known to have been employed. During the eight years of his active collecting he succeeded in bringing together 174 separate items, exclusive of a long run of the Pennsylvania Gazette. It was one of the largest collections that had ever been formed, and was remarkable for the very high average condition of the books as well as for the large number of titles ; yet so quietly had they been gathered that the collection was unknown except to a few of his intimate friends. In 1908 the collection was purchased in its entirety by Mr. John Gribbel, through whose well-directed efforts the number of titles has been not only almost doubled, in itself a remarkable achievement, but the collection enriched by the addition of many items of the greatest rarity. In 1915, feeling that the most appropriate owner for the collection was the company publishing The Saturday Evening Post, the journal direct in descent from Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette, Mr. Gribbel transferred it to The Curtis Publishing Company. {In 1920, the collection was presented by the Curtis Publishing Company to the University of Pennsylvania.] -- Pg. 1.