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Winfred Porter Truesdell:
Champlain’s International Art Publisher
by David Patrick
Winfred Porter Truesdell in 1921
Winfred Porter
Truesdell was an internationally known art
publisher who lived in the Village of Champlain,
New York. He amassed a collection of
thousands of bookplates, lithographs and
photographs and published many books related to
printing between the years 1903 and 1933.
His best-known publication was a periodical
called “The Print Connoisseur” which he
published for 12 years. Truesdell started
printing near Boston but moved to New York City
and then to Champlain, New York, where he lived
for 18 years. It is likely that many
people today have never heard of
Truesdell. He is certainly Champlain’s
unknown art publisher.
Truesdell was an art
connoisseur at an early age. By 1901, at
the age of 24, his passion was collecting
printed bookplates. His first wife Amy
also had an interest in bookplates and designed
some herself.
What is a "bookplate?"
It is essentially a printed label that the owner
of a book would use to indicate to others,
especially if the book was loaned, who the book
belonged to. Instead of writing the name
of the owner in the book, book owners could
easily paste a printed label in the book with
their name on it. The bookplate evolved
over time to encompass elaborate, custom designs
that were made by engraving copper or zinc
plates similar to that of lithograph
prints.
Truesdell lived near Boston
where many bookplate artists and collectors
lived. He contributed articles to national
and international magazines devoted to bookplate
collecting. Between the years 1902 and
1908, he is mentioned numerous times in the
periodical "Journal of the Ex Libris
Society" which was published in England
(“ex libris” is Latin for “bookplate”).
The editor noted the high quality of his
5,000-piece collection.
Around 1903, Truesdell
purchased a printing press and called his
publishing business the “Troutsdale
Press.” Between 1903 and 1907, he
published 12 booklets that showcased the work of
various bookplate artists. After 1907,
Truesdell's interests in bookplates appears to
have waned. He was now interested in a
similar field: engraving and lithography.
During the 1910’s Truesdell
focused his work on American and European
engravers who made beautiful lithograph
prints. Publishing at the time relied on
artist-engravers to reproduce portraits,
paintings, drawings and historic scenes in
astonishing detail using engraved copper plates,
etched zinc plates, blocks of wood or even
carved linoleum. The engraved plates were
used in a printing press for mass production of
the image. Over the next 30 years,
Truesdell collected over 9,000 lithograph
prints. He bought many prints on three
European vacations in the early 1920s.
“The Print Connoisseur”
Magazine
Starting in October of 1920, Truesdell printed a
quarterly magazine called “The Print
Connoisseur” which was devoted to
articles related to engravings and engravers,
print makers and artists. The magazine ran
from 1920 to 1932 and comprised 46 issues.
Truesdell’s Print
Connoisseur magazine usually had four or
five articles written by guest writers.
Truesdell sometimes wrote one or two articles
himself for an issue. The magazine included high
quality prints of engravings and wood
cuts. Most magazine covers were printed in
black and white but some were printed in
color. Truesdell supported his magazine
through subscriptions and ads placed in the
back.
Truesdell’s studio was originally in New York
City when he started printing The Print
Connoisseur in 1920. In 1922 and 1923, he
had the Clinton Press in Plattsburgh print the
magazine while he was in the process of moving
to Champlain or traveling in Europe.
Between 1924 and 1926 Hugh McLellan of Champlain
used his newly established Moorsfield Press to
print the magazine. Afterwards, Truesdell
printed them himself.
Truesdell’s Book Publishing
(1924-1933)
In 1924, Truesdell published his first large
book on the work of artist and engraver Charles
Meryon which was written by Loys Delteil (who
also contributed articles to his
magazine). Other books followed for the
work of engravers Henry Wolf (1927) and Gustav
Kruell (1929), both books written by Ralph
Clifton Smith.
Truesdell was considered an
authority on George Washington, Abraham Lincoln
and the Civil War and often gave talks on the
subjects. In 1926 and 1927, he published
several important books related to the
lithographs of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, the
first northern soldier killed in the Civil
War. Truesdell’s Ellsworth books were an
expansion of the articles printed in his Print
Connoisseur magazine in April and July of
1926.
Truesdell spent many years
collecting Abraham Lincoln lithographs. In
1916, he planned to publish all of the portraits
and engravings of Abraham Lincoln. He was
in discussions with Frederick Hill Meserve
(1865-1962) to use prints of Meserve’s Lincoln
photographs for the upcoming book. In
1911, Meserve had published his authoritative
book on all of the Lincoln photographs known to
exist. Truesdell wanted to print a similar
book and Meserve offered him 112 prints from his
exclusive negatives. Four years later, in
1920, Truesdell printed an announcement for the
upcoming book but it wouldn't be until 1933
before he printed Volume 2 of the planned
four-volume series. Truesdell died before
printing the other three volumes.
The McLellan Lincoln Collection
In 1918, Hugh McLellan semi-retired from the
architectural business in N.Y.C. and moved back
to Champlain to settle his father’s
estate. His father, Charles Woodberry
McLellan, had been a friend of Abraham Lincoln
and Robert Todd Lincoln from 1856 to 1860 in
Springfield, Illinois, and continued his
friendship with Robert up to his death. At
the end of his life, Charles was one of the top
five Lincoln collectors in the country (known as
one of the “Big Five.”) His Lincoln
collection was stored in a large, fire proof
vault in the McLellan cottage and contained many
letters written by Lincoln from 1838 to 1865.
The most important letter he owned was a reply
by Lincoln to the Thomas Jefferson Day Dinner
celebration in Boston in 1858. Lincoln was
unable to attend, but his letter, really a
speech, was read at the dinner and is said to
have helped him win the East. Hugh
McLellan printed the letter in 1923 with his
Moorsfield Press for Commencement weekend at
Brown University.
Truesdell was also very
interested in the Lincoln collection and visited
McLellan several times to see it. Over the
next five years, he helped McLellan catalog the
collection, arranged meetings with buyers and
auction houses, and kept abreast of similar
auctions from the other “Big Five.” He
also used some of McLellan’s material for his
upcoming Lincoln books.
After negotiating with
various agents and collectors, Hugh and his
brother Malcolm sold their father’s collection
to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1923 for $43,500
(over $648,000 today). Rockefeller, in
turn, donated it to Brown University where it is
known today as the “McLellan Lincoln
Collection.”
The Moorsfield Press
When Hugh McLellan founded the Moorsfield Press
in 1919, he had a basic knowledge of printing
from his days at college printing
envelopes. Truesdell had 16 years of
experience working with a printing press and was
also an experienced publisher. He was
instrumental in helping McLellan establish his
press and quickly became his mentor.
McLellan’s first publication in 1919
acknowledged Truesdell’s assistance: “The
kindly advice of Mr. Winfred Porter Truesdell
in the typography of this brochure, and his
assistance and encouragement, are gratefully
acknowledged.”
In 1922, McLellan suggested
to Truesdell that he move to Champlain and
establish his own press. McLellan wrote: “I
may say that the Moorsfield Press is a
flourishing institution around here. I
told you about Mr. Truesdell sending his
Golding 12x18 press up. I have installed
a motor on it, and Woodberry [son Woody] is
now singing in the other room as he runs off a
job on it. Mr. Truesdell is here now,
and we’ve been printing for a week… I am
trying to induce Truesdell to come up here
permanently and open up a real printing office
- at any rate we would be kept busy.”
In the early 1920s, Truesdell
went to Europe three times in search of art and
to sell ads for his magazine. He asked
McLellan to help with the production of his
magazine which was being printed by the Clinton
Press in Plattsburgh. He needed McLellan
to manage his affairs, pay bills, handle
printing problems and correspond with
authors. McLellan found his hands full
handling Truesdell’s work as well as overdue
bills. This work left little time for his
own printing.
When the Moorsfield Press
became more established, McLellan and Truesdell
printed the magazine in 1926 and 1927.
These publications show the unique style of the
Caslon old-style font. It is the same font
that McLellan would use when he issued his own
historical magazine called the “Moorsfield
Antiquarian” in 1937 and 1938 as well as
many historical pamphlets he printed over the
years.
In 1945, Hugh McLellan was
one of the founding members of the Clinton
County Historical Association as well as
President. His son Woody published the North
Country Notes newsletter using the
Moorsfield Press starting in 1960.
Truesdell’s Life, Education and
Marriage
Winfred Porter Truesdell was born on November
13, 1877, in Lynn, Massachusetts.
According to Woody McLellan, Truesdell “was
a self-educated man, never having obtained a
formal high school education, yet he spoke
French and Spanish fluently and became popular
as an after-dinner speaker.” He also
described him as a “remarkably brilliant
man.”
After Truesdell moved to
Champlain, he met school teacher Edythe
Gettys. They married in August of 1924 and
lived on Oak St. in Champlain. On May 27,
1939, Truesdell died at his house of a heart
attack after being ill for a year. He was
buried in the Glenwood Cemetery in
Champlain.
After her husband died,
Edythe never moved his books or the printing
press. When she died in 1970, several
heirs settled the estate and disposed of the art
collection, books, printing press and
house. Most of Truesdell’s bookplates,
magazines, lithographs and photographs were
donated to Special Collections, Feinberg Library
at SUNY-Plattsburgh by the Fall of 1971 and
encompassed approximately 9,381 items.
General art books were placed in the main
collection. Today, the collection of
lithographs and photographs have been indexed
and are available for researchers.
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