RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection

This RIT Cary app showcases some of the artifacts found in the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection. It was created by students in the RIT School of Media Sciences, with the guidance of faculty, staff, and Cary curators.

The Cary Collection is one of the country's premier libraries on graphic communication history and practices.The original collection of 2,300 volumes was assembled by the New York City businessman Melbert B. Cary, Jr. during the 1920s and 1930s. Cary was director of Continental Type Founders Association (a type-importing agency), a former president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and proprietor of the private Press of the Woolly Whale. His professional and personal interests in printing led him to collect printer's manuals and type specimens, as well as great books of the printer's art. In 1969, the Cary Collection was presented to RIT by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust as a memorial to Mr. Cary, together with funds to support the use and growth of the collection. Today the library houses some 40,000 volumes and a growing number of manuscripts and correspondence collections.