Selected Special Collections

Hammer Collection

Victor Hammer Papers: An Archive of the Artist’s Work donated by Carolyn Reading Hammer, (21 monographs and over 50 boxes of archives).

This gift consists of materials relating to the artistic career of Victor Karl Hammer (1882-1967) in Europe and the United States after his emigration from Austria in 1939. Victor Hammer was a printer, typographer, painter, and sculptor, who also designed a chapel, built a printing press, and created the often-used American Uncial typeface.  This collection contains correspondence, mezzotints, prints, engravings, photographs, catalogs, and publications created between 1920 and 1999.  The Victor Hammer Papers are a resource for the for the study of the craft of printing, as well as for research in illustration and graphic arts, and for the exploration of ideas found in the correspondence between Hammer and his contemporaries. The documents relating to the career of Victor Hammer as a painter are especially significant.  This collection reflects the variety of Hammer’s interests, the originality of his concepts, and the breadth of his important personal American and European contacts.  

Supporting Resources

• Finding Aid: Victor Hammer Collection
• Webcast: Victor Hammer, Artist and Craftsman