George Booth and the Cranbrook Press



Today I'm celebrating George Booth, founder of historic Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and the Cranbrook Press, an Arts & Crafts bindery and press. His life story is a fascinating one, and worthy of much more attention than is practical in this forum. He was one of a rare breed of people who, having attained enormous wealth, used it to create something enduring and beautiful for the community. Perhaps this post will entice you to read more about the him and his extensive cultural contributions.

Top: The Cranbrook Press in the attic of the Detroit Evening News Building, ca. 1901
Bottom: The press served as a meeting place for the Society of Arts and Crafts in 1906

George Booth established the Cranbrook Press in the attic of the Evening News building in Detroit where he was publisher, to gratify his "strong desire for work most agreeable to my tastes and inclinations that combined the beautiful with pleasant labor and inspired by the record of the ancient printers and the modern endeavors of Wm. Morris."



At the Cranbrook Press, every detail of bookmaking was lovingly raised to the highest craft standards, from the hand-made papers, to the woodcuts, to the simple but excellent bindings.

A 1902 New York Times article  described Booth's work:

"Mr. Booth is a publisher who employs in his main business the fastest running machinery, at the same time giving vent to his love for the durable and artistic by printing and issuing a few books which he hopes will live for all time. With this end in view, a hand press was procured, type selected, and a printer found who had learned his trade before the days of linotypes. Mr. Booth at once began the designing of letters and other ornaments, choosing for his models the interlaced patterns used by the early Venetian bookmakers."



From "Cranbrook Tales" by George Booth, 1902

"Mr. Booth dwells particularly upon the world's indebtedness to Gutenberg, Caxton, Morris, and other great men, his own aim in the Cranbrook work being toward their lofty ideals of perfection."

From "Something About the Cranbrook Press and on Books and Bookmaking" by George Booth, 1902

In the article, Mr. Booth is quoted: " It seems quite enough to print the thoughts of great men in any form that all may read, but somehow it seems better still to put such thoughts into enduring monumental forms, to do which we are required to pay the further tribute of faithful, painstaking labor- the labor which is a pleasure and a life-long satisfaction."

A woodcut from The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers by William Caxton, and the last page of the same, published in 1901. Note the mention of George's father in law, James Scripps, who came from a long line of bookbinders in England.

The Cranbrook Press only operated in this form for two years, due to the pressures of Mr. Booth's work as one of the most prominent newspaper publishers in the country at the time. In its short life, the press exquisitely produced limited editions of titles including the following:

The First Published Life of Abraham Lincoln by John Locke Scripps, 1900

The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers by William Caxton,1901

Three Wise Men: Extracts from the Celebrated Works of M. Aurelius Antoninus, Francis Bacon and Benjamin Franklin, 1902

Utopia by Sir Thomas More, 1902

A woodcut from "Three Wise Men" published in 1902

A great admirer of William Morris and his Arts and Crafts ideals, George Booth went on to become a founder of the Arts and Crafts Society in Michigan, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. His work with Architects Albert Kahn and Eliel Saarinen produced even more "enduring and monumental forms" in his own arts and crafts mansion, Cranbrook House, the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum and the rest of the Cranbrook educational Community.


In everything he did, George Booth celebrated Morris' notion that the objects that surround us, from books to architecture, when made with pleasure and imprinted with the human spirit, in turn bring great pleasure and improve the lives of those who use them. Indeed.

To read a digitized version of Cranbrook Press and Some Books and Bookmakers by George Booth, follow this link:

         http://archive.org/stream/cranbrookpresss00presgoog#page/n38/mode/2up

On William Morris

William Morris famously said: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."  Morris, the English artist and writer, is widely considered to be the father of the Arts and Crafts movement, which began in England in the second half of the nineteenth century. Reacting against the shoddy machine-made goods produced in the industrial revolution, proponents of this influential movement championed the quality of design and craftsmanship that comes with hand crafted goods. We believe very strongly in Morris' sentiment-- it seems that although we apparently have more choice than ever in the types of objects available to us, (more often than not, these "choices" are defined by what's easiest and cheapest to manufacture...) we find our homes cluttered with homogenous, disposable, mass produced things.

We seldom have connections with the people who produce the things we use every day, and, as a result, we disregard many of the things that we live with most closely and use most often. Cicero reminds us, "Things grow familiar to men's minds by being so often seen; so that they neither admire nor are inquisitive into the things they daily see." Perhaps if they were made by artisans and were carefully constructed of fine materials, we'd not only enjoy the experience of using them more, but we'd be more awake to the aesthetic experiences that can come along with beautiful, useful objects.

It seems to us, that where there is a direct, meaningful connection between the public and artists/craftspeople, there is also an opportunity for a richer, more colorful everyday experience for both the artists like us who enjoy making useful things, and the person who uses those things. Perhaps William Morris and the arts & crafts proponents more than a century ago had the right idea. Today, however ironically, technology makes it not only possible but simple for the public to connect with artists and craftspeople. We hope that when you have the opportunity, you'll consider bringing handmade things into your home. 

For more information on our work at Parvum Opus, we invite you to email us at: info@parvumopus.com or visit our bindery's website, www.parvumopus.com