Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 197?-198? (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
121 prints ; 114 x 91 cm or smaller (most 21.5 x 16 cm)
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
Dreadnaught Press was a Toronto printing collective and publisher. Dreadnaught Press was established in the mid 1970s with the intention of publishing poetry and excerpted literature using traditional fine press printing techniques. It was founded by Robert MacDonald, Elizabeth Abraham, Deborah Barnett, Ross MacDonald, and David Jang, and was the first incorporated worker co-operative in Canada. The press borrowed its name from Dreadnaught, a short-lived underground paper started by Robert MacDonald in the early 1970s, and was originally inspired by a passage from Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce.
The collective set up a working pressroom at 24 Sussex Ave., near the University of Toronto campus, where they composed, designed, typeset, and hand-printed materials using traditional letterpress equipment. Dreadnaught Press published the works of many Canadian poets and writers, including Margaret Atwood, A.F. Moritz, Marshall McLuhan, Susan Musgrave, and Jack Hannan, and worked with numerous designers, artists, editors, typesetters, and illustrators. Dreadnaught Press was part of a vibrant local printing community that developed in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto in the 1970s, including neighbouring publishers Coach House Press and House of Anansi. In addition to their own projects, the collective completed commissioned design, typographic and printing work for a range of commercial clients.
Dreadnaught Press briefly expanded with a second shop (NovaDreadnaught) and handmade paper operation in Nova Scotia in the early 1980s, before disbanding altogether as founding members moved on to other endeavours. In the late 1980s, Deborah Barnett relaunched Dreadnaught as Dreadnaught Design, a design and communication firm that shifted primary focus away from hand-printing and took on larger scale projects for commercial clients.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Subseries consists of 121 broadsides and posters that were designed, hand-set, and hand-printed by Dreadnaught Press. In addition to producing chapbooks (see Subseries 1), the Dreadnaught broadsides were a core part of the Press' publishing focus and demonstrate a range of letterpress techniques. The collective produced these materials for poems, images, ideas, and passages that personally resonated with its members. These prints are distinguished by the notation 'Dreadnaught Broadside', which appears somewhere on the page.
Over 90 different poems, passages, and quotations are featured in the subseries, and the majority of prints are single copies. The subseries also includes the 52 Pickup 76 poetry collection, which brought together 52 poems from 52 emerging poets (see File 1).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
System of arrangement
Title based on contents of the subseries. File names retain original title case. Where known, authors of the text are supplied in brackets at the file-level.
Subseries has been arranged alphabetically and for the most part maintains the original ordering of the materials as they were catalogued during the acquisition process.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
A selection of Dreadnaught broadsides are housed at Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library as part of the Coach House Press Papers (Manuscript Collection: CA OTUTF MS COLL 00620).
Notes area
Note
Limited dates of creation are available for the broadsides and posters. Dates have been noted when provided.
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Location
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Description control area
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Dates of creation revision deletion
Added by J. Gilmore, 19 October 2021.