Dun Emer Press
Dates
- Existence: 1902 - 1908
Historical Note
Dun Emer Press began as one of three branches of the Dun Emer Guild, an arts and crafts cooperative run by and employing women. The Guild was co-founded in 1902 by Evelyn Gleeson, who oversaw weaving, Elizabeth Yeats, who ran the printing press, and Lily Yeats, who specialized in embroidery, and was located in Gleeson's home, also called Dun Emer, in Dundrum, near Dublin, Ireland.
Dun Emer Press produced hand-printed, limited editions of books, broadsheets, and cards with Celtic Revival illustrations and poems. The printing style had roots in William Morris's Kelmscott Press, and the Women's Printing Society in London, where Elizabeth had trained. The texts it published were written or selected by W. B. Yeats, who was the press's literary editor and who also subsidized its operations. The broadsheets and many of the cards were illustrated by Jack B. Yeats. The Press produced its first publications in 1903, and by 1904 it was under the umbrella of Dun Emer Industries, a separation of the Yeats sisters' work from that of the Guild under strained relations with Gleeson. In 1908 the Yeats sisters separated from Dun Emer entirely, opening Cuala Industries (Including Cuala Press) in nearby Churchtown, Dublin. Gleeson retained Dun Emer Guild and continued textile production there.
Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) Identifier
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Boston College collection of Yeats family papers
The Boston College collection of Yeats family papers includes artwork, correspondence, manuscripts, notebooks, and photographs by and about siblings W. B., Elizabeth Corbet, Lily, and Jack B. Yeats; their father, John Butler Yeats; the wife of W. B., Georgie Yeats; the daughter of W.B., Anne Yeats; and the son of W.B., Michael B. Yeats. It also documents the running of Cuala Press, a Yeats family business.
Collection is open for research; portions of the collection available digitally.