This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Providence Public Library, Special Collections department.

The collection consists of miscellaneous items collected by Daniel Berkeley Updike, chiefly letters and documents relating to American history, many of which specifically relate to the federal period and New England history. Included are autograph letters of many notable individuals and political and military figures.

The collection is organized alphabetically by correspondent. A card catalog index is also available in the Special Collections Reading Room.

Researchers are requested to use the following citation format: [item title], Daniel Berkeley Updike Autograph Collection, Special Collections, Providence Public Library.

Property rights have been assigned to Providence Public Library.

See also: 004, Daniel Berkeley Updike Collection on the History of Printing; 004-02-01, Daniel Berkeley Updike Correspondence, 1878-1941; 004-04-01, Daniel Berkeley Updike Ephemera Collection.

Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941) was a scholar of typography, American printer and founder of the Merrymount Press. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 24, 1860 to Caesar Augustus Updike and Elizabeth Bigelow Adams. He died in Boston on December 29, 1941. He is buried in Saint Paul-Updike Cemetery in Wickford, Rhode Island. His entry to the book trade began in 1880 when he was employed by Houghton Mifflin in Boston, Massachusetts. He remained with the company through 1893 including a period with their Riverside Press. In 1893, he opened an independent typography studio. In 1896, he opened Merrymount Press, an independent printing house. Merrymount Press was recognized for excellence and held a reputation for very fine typography, printing, illustration and binding. Updike was a scholar of printing and typographic history. He wrote and published Printing Types: their history, forms and use in 1922, In the Day's Work in 1924 and Notes on the Merrymount Press in 1934. Updike received the American Institute of Graphic Arts' Gold Medal in 1922, was a member of the American Antiquarian Society and received an honorary degree from Harvard University in 1929. The bulk of the materials in this collection were inherited by Updike from his two grandfathers, Wilkins Updike and Abijah Bigelow. Wilkins Updike (1784-1867) was a lawyer and Rhode Island legislator from Wickford, Rhode Island. He was a direct descendant of Richard Smith, one of the earliest settlers of Rhode Island, and inherited the family estate "Smith's Castle" in North Kingstown. He sold the estate in 1812. Abijah Bigelow (1775-1860) was a lawyer, Massachusetts legislator and Congressman of Massachusetts.

Materials are in English and French.

https://www.provlib.org/wp-content/uploads/finding-aids/005-02-01-FA.pdf.

Materials were collected by D.B. Updike. The bulk of the items from Rhode Island authors were inherited by him from his grandfather, Wilkins Updike. The bulk of the items from Massachusetts authors were inherited by him from his grandfather, Abijah Bigelow.

The collection was initially processed and cataloged by Carol M. Spawn in 1961-1962. The collection was foldered and a finding aid was written by Ramon Cartwright and Pat Loan in 2011-2012. The finding aid was updated by Kate Wells in 2018.

Gift of Daniel Berkeley Updike to the Library on February 24, 1891. Additional materaisl were added to the collection upon donation of the D.B. Updike Collection on the History of Printing in 1937. No accruals are expected.