Cuala Industries records

The Cuala Industries, including an embroidery workshop and the Cuala Press, was established in 1908 when sisters Elizabeth Corbet Yeats and Lily Yeats left the parent Dun Emer Industries. Dun Emer was started in Dundrum, County Dublin, in 1902 by Evelyn Gleeson to produce handcrafted works in the mode of William Morris. Dun Emer was to employ only women and was concerned with the education of working class girls. The Yeats sisters came from London to assist with the establishment of the Industries. Lily, who had studied with William Morris's daughter May Morris, organized the embroidery workshop and Elizabeth founded the Dun Emer Press in 1902.

The Yeats sisters' brother, William Butler Yeats, contributed poetry and served as an editorial advisor to the press. Emory Walker (associated with Kelmscott Press and Doves Press) advised on typography and book production. Jack B. Yeats's illustrations appeared in A Broadside, which he also edited from 1908-1915. Dun Emer Press published greeting cards, broadsides, and hand-colored prints as well as books and booklets. Cuala Press, which was given the old Irish place name for that part of County Dublin to which the sisters relocated, continued these activities.

Following Elizabeth Yeats's death in 1940, George (Mrs. W.B.) Yeats assumed management of the press. After the death of Mrs. Yeats in 1968, Cuala Press was reorganized to continue printing in the tradition of its founders.

SOURCES:

Miller, Liam. "Cuala Press." Dictionary of Irish Literature, Robert Hogan, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979.

Miller, Liam. The Dun Emer Press, later the Cuala Press. Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1973.

The Cuala Press, 1902-1973: an exhibition arranged by the National Book League to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the Cuala Press, 11-30 June 1973. Dublin: Dolman Press, 1973.