The Caslon Typeface of the Moorsfield Press

    In 1919, Hugh McLellan established the Moorsfield Press in the back cottage of his family's estate.  The establishment of the press renewed his boyhood hobby of printing.  His goal was to print historical papers from his historical collection.  On September 16, 1922, Hugh announced that he moved the press to a commercial building.  The press was in this building until the 1980s.

    Hugh chose the Caslon Olde Style typeface.  This style of serif typeface replicated the style of the typeface designed by William Caslon I (1692–1766) in London (Wikipedia link).  Caslon was an engraver by trade and he designed typeface that looked like handwriting made with a pen.  The fonts had small capitals, long esses and swash characters.  The original Declaration of Independence was printed with the Caslon typeface. 

    Caslon's typeface was popular at the time and remained popular into the late 1700s before it was replaced by other typefaces.   In the mid-1800s Caslon typeface made a comeback with the arts and craft movement which was focused on fine printing.  The H.W. Caslon & Sons foundry in London reissued Caslon’s original typeface as "Caslon Old Face."  This is likely the typeface that Hugh purchased in 1919 as it is virtually identical to a printing made in 1915 by this company shown in this link.  The typeface used in Hugh's historical publications is also identical to the title page of an 1852 publication which was one of the first publications to re-use Caslon.  Hugh's choice of Caslon was an excellent choice for printing his historical documents including letters from the late 1700s. 

    The McLellans were very proud of their Caslon typeface used to print their historical publications.  Woody McLellan referred to the Moorsfield Press's typeface as "Caslon old style" in a letter written in 1979 to another small printer:

    As to the Moorsfield Press.  As a youth and thru college my father had a printing press in his home in NYC and paid much of his college expenses thru it.  However, he became an architect, which he followed until his retirement in 1919.  We then came back to our “ancestral” home in Champlain, and he revived his printing activities as a hobby, primarily to print historical material from our historical collections.

    Altogether we published some 30-odd pamphlets, as well as an [sic] historical magazine for a few years.  Come depression years, and our printing office became of necessity commercial, which it still is, tho’ greatly restricted now.

    Our basic type-face was Caslon Olde Style, one of the most beautiful types ever designed, especially with its “long esses” and swash characters.

    The Caslon typeface has endured many revisions throughout the 1900s and a second set of revisions in the digital age with no one company owning the rights or standards to the Caslon style.  An alternative to Caslon was designed in the mid-1800s and was called Bookman Old Style.   This typeface is now bundled with Microsoft Office products (Wikipedia).  This is the font used on this page and other pages on this website.

    In the 1960s and 1970s, the Moorsfield Press used a more business style typeface for general printings.  This is shown in the Sheridan brochure and centennial celebration pamphlet at the end of the below list.

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Below are examples of the Moorsfield Press's printings using the Caslon Olde style typeface. 
Note the similarity to the prints linked above.   The typeface was especially useful for printing letters written in the late 1700s by Pliny Moore.