Cuneo Press (1907–1977)

Founded in 1907, the Cuneo Press was one of Chicago’s largest printing companies, second only to the R.R. Donnelley & Sons. Its founder John F. Cuneo, Sr. was the third generation in his wealthy family to flourish as a Chicago businessman. His grandfather, John B. Cuneo, emigrated from Genoa, Italy in 1847 and prospered as a produce and wholesale grocery merchant. His father, Frank Cuneo, was the president of the produce firm Garibaldi & Cuneo. Frank Cuneo’s investment in real estate was credited with starting the development of the Wilson Avenue business district in 1910. Born in Chicago on December 24, 1884, John F. Cuneo attended the Latin School of Chicago. He enrolled at Yale University but left before completing his degree to start his career as an owner of a book bindery. In 1907, with a loan of $10,000 from his father, Cuneo founded a small book bindery that occupied one floor at Madison and Market Street. Quick to expand into the printing business, he realized that there were no existing firms that offered book publishers the combined services of composition, printing, and binding under one roof. In response, he acquired the Henneberry Company in 1919 and established the Cuneo Press. In 1890, the Henneberry Company building, located at 22nd Street and Clinton Avenue, was the largest printing plant in the Chicago. Cuneo would continue to expand his printing empire through large-scale purchases and the management of printing-press operations across the United States. Popular magazines, such as Boy’s Life, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, House Beautiful, and Town & Country, were instrumental to the success of the Cuneo Press, contributing to forty-five percent of its overall volume. At the same time, the company produced books, catalogs, and phone directories. 

In 1925, the Cuneo Press hired renowned bibliographer and typeface designer Douglas C. McMurtrie (1888–1944) as the director of typography. One year later, McMurtrie left the Cuneo Press after accepted an offer for the same title at Ludlow Typograph Company. In 1926, the Cuneo Press opened a world-class fine bindery, the Cuneo Fine Binding Studio, that attracted international master binders, including Leonard Mounteney of the Royal Bookbinder in London. Mounteney, who had previously worked at the R.R. Donnelley Binder, was praised as “an exhibition binder” whose “handcrafted extremely fine, high-end leather bindings” were worthy of museum exhibitions.

Books produced by the Cuneo Fine Binding Studio won awards and were exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and the John Crerar Library. The success of the Cuneo Press interested Henry Ford, who offered to purchase the Cuneo Press in 1927; but, the company declined the proposal in pursuit of expanding and building two more plants of their own. 

The Cuneo Press was responsible for printing the official guidebook for A Century of Progress International Exhibition, held in Chicago in 1933 and 1934. At the World’s Fair, the Cuneo Press presented an exhibition on the history of printing and engraving processes, complete with actors in period costumes demonstrating how the machines were used. Most famously, the exhibition showcased the original Gutenberg press, the first moveable type press, on loan from the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany. Replica type cases of Johannes Gutenberg were also displayed. Otto Maurice Forkert, a graduate of the Graphics Art Academy in Zurich and an Instructor of Printing Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, managed the Gutenberg workshop at A Century of Progress in 1933. 

Additionally, Forkert authored the souvenir booklet From Gutenberg to The Cuneo Press: An Historical Sketch of the Printing Press for the exhibition. The frontispiece of the booklet reproduced a sixteenth-century woodcut, depicting artisans at the printing press, by German printmaker Jost Amman whose woodcuts were featured in illustrations throughout the brochure. An illustration of the Cuneo Press Building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin visually linked the twentieth-century press to a centuries-long lineage of printers and bookmakers. Fairgoers from across the country also went home with twelve-by-seventeen-inch facsimiles of Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer’s Mainz Psalter (1456)—the second book to be published using Gutenberg’s movable type process. Fair attendees watched the souvenir page being printed at the recreated Gutenberg workshop. 

To commemorate the closing day and last air mail pick-up from the World’s Fair, the Cuneo Press designed a limited-edition souvenir for stamp collectors: a philatelic cover “hand printed and set in the original Donat type (the first moveable metal type in the world)” and “printed on the Gutenberg press.” The printing of the commemorative cover also paid tribute to the Gutenberg press before its journey back to Mainz. The Cuneo Press participated at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair in celebration of 500 years of printing. Forkert, who “joined Cuneo Press as director of design and typography” in 1934, directed its History of Printing exhibition. There Cuneo employees made souvenir prints of seventy-six lines from Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography (1791) and Stephen Daye’s “The Oath of a Freeman” (1630s). Daye’s loyalty pledge was considered the earliest known American imprint, making it an apt choice for the printing anniversary.

By 1940, Cuneo had established plants not only in Chicago and Milwaukee but also Kokomo, Indiana, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Weehawken, New Jersey. Members of the local union of the International Brotherhood of Book Binders went on strike at the Cuneo Press plant in Chicago in January 1940. Forming picket lines, 750 members of the newly established union fought for “a closed shop, seniority rights, and pay raises that would average 6 cents an hour or more.” By 1955 the company’s net income was $255,782, a time when Chicago led the world in commercial printing. The eighth largest industry in Chicago, commercial printing drew in one billion dollars annually. That same year, another strike was held at the Kokomo plant, halting operations. The Cuneo Press building in Kokomo, Indiana caught fire on September 25, 1957, causing one million dollars in damage. 

William Anthony served as the art director of the Cuneo Press in 1968. The son of an Irish bookbinder, Anthony followed the family profession beginning with a seven-year apprenticeship. His continued his education with another seven years of training at the Camberwell College of Arts in London, where he specialized fine binding. His expertise was recognized through his membership of the London Guild of Contemporary Bookbinders. At the Cuneo Press, he designed books and brochures; outside of the company, Anthony taught fine binding classes in the bindery of the John Crerar Library, then part of the Illinois Institute of Technology. In the 1980s, Anthony operated a book bindery studio with apprentices in the Old Colony Building at 407 South Dearborn Street. 

In 1977, the Cuneo Press shut down in large part due to its high operation costs. That December, Northwestern University Library received a donation consisting of archival materials, binding and printing artifacts, and records from the Cuneo Binding Studio. In addition to photographs, advertisements, and brochures, the Cuneo Studio archival collection includes “hand moulds, wood and iron nipping presses, fine paper and parchment, and a working replica of the Gutenberg printing pressed used by the Cuneo History of Printing exhibit.” By 1995, the abandoned seven-story Cuneo Press building at 2242–2266 South Grove Street in Chicago’s South Side were slated for demolition. The method of its razing made headlines and drew crowds: for the first time in Chicago, explosives were used implode a building. 

In 1965, John F. Cuneo, Sr.’s net worth, accumulated through real-estate developments and the ownership of the Cuneo Press, Hawthorn Mellody Farms Dairy, and the National Tea Company, amounted to 120 million dollars. He also owned the Milwaukee-Golf Development Company and the Camel View Plaza in Scottsdale, Arizona. Cuneo died in 1977. His wife Julia Shepard Cuneo, son John F. Cuneo, Jr., and daughter Consuela Roti survived him. In his will, Cuneo stipulated that his family’s thirty-two room mansion on Milwaukee Avenue in Vernon Hills be transformed into a museum following the death of his wife. In July 1991, one year after Julia Shepard Cuneo’s death, the Cuneo Mansion opened its doors to the public. The palatial, Italianate-style mansion, built in 1916 for utility magnate Samuel Insull and purchased by Cuneo in 1937, is situated on one hundred acres of gardens and landscaped grounds. John Cuneo, Jr. (1931–2019) gifted the family estate, valued at $50 million, to Loyola University Chicago in 2009. In 2016, the Lake County Forest Preserve purchased the Cuneo Family Farm, owned by Cuneo, Jr. since the early 1960s, for an estimated $10.5 million. His training of circus animals, including “lions, white tigers, elephants, leopards, and bears,” on the property garnered controversy and resulted in legal action by the federal government.

“2 Pilsen Warehouses Fall to Demolition Crew’s Touch.” Chicago Tribune, January 29, 1995.

“Airplane View of Cuneo Press Development.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 27, 1927.

Armour, Lawrence A. “The Printed Word: Expanding Markets, Better Equipment Give It New Lustre.” Barron’s National Business and Financial Weekly 40, no. 48 (November 28, 1960): 3.

A Century of Progress. Official Guide Book of the World’s Fair of 1934. Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1934.

“Air Mail Pick Up to Carry Last Day Souvenir of Fair.” The Berwyn News, October 12, 1934.

Baker, Robb. “Gutenberg Heirs Salute Him.” Chicago Tribune, August 25, 1968.

Brown, Emily Clark. Book and Job Printing in Chicago: A Study of Organizations of Employers and Their Relations with Labor. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1931.

Butcher, Fanny. “Books: Fair Presents Many Thrills to Book Lover: First Editions Are Shown by Publishers.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 15, 1933.

“Christmas Seal Contest: Strive to Meet Deadline.” Chicago Tribune, August 18, 1968.

Cuneo Press. Gutenberg’s Calendar of the Turks for the Year Fourteen Hundred Fifty-Five: Printed from the Reconstructed Type of Gutenberg and Rubricated by Hand in the Gutenberg Workshop. Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1933. 

Cuneo Press. Specimens of Type Faces: Monotype, Linotype, Foundry. Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1939.

“Cuneo Press Buys Kokomo, Ind., War Surplus Facilities.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 3, 1949.

“Cuneo Press, Inc.: Outlook Improved This Year, President Says at Meeting.” The New York Times, June 1, 1955. 

“Cuneo Press’ Kokomo Plant Hit by Fire.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 26, 1957.

“Cuneo Press to Expand.” New York Times, May 7, 1927.

Cuneo Studio Materials. Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

“D.C. McMurtrie Dies at 56; Was Type Designer.” New York Herald Tribune, September 30, 1944.

Detterer, Ernest Frederick and Douglas C. McMurtrie. Fine Printing at the Cuneo Press. Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1927.

Douglas C. McMurtrie Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago.

Foerstner, Abigail. “Fine Bindings an Investment in Preserving Tomes of Sentiment.” Chicago Tribune, January 29, 1984.

Forkert, Otto Maurice. 500 Years of Printing Arts; an Historical Sketch of the Printing Press. Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1940.

Forkert, Otto Maurice. From Gutenberg to the Cuneo Press: An Historical Sketch of the Printing Press. Chicago: The Cuneo Press, 1933.Gorman, John. “Cuneo Mansion Opens to Public: Treasure-laden Home of Printing King Reborn as Museum.” Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1991.

“Gutenberg Model at Work: Pages from Bible to Be Printed at World’s Fair Exhibit.” New York Herald Tribune, July 4, 1940.

“Gutenberg Press Due Here May 12.” New York Times, May 4, 1933.

“He’s Rich Man’s Son, Wild Animals’ Trainer: John Cuneo Jr., Here at Shrine Circus, Makes Paying Business of His Hobby—Has His Own Zoo.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 1, 1960.

Heise, Kenan. “Obituaries: Graphic Design Expert Otto Forkert.” Chicago Tribune, May 14, 1991.

“John Cuneo, Printing Firm Owner, Dies at 92.” Chicago Tribune, May 1, 1977.

“Judge to Give Ruling Today in Cuneo Case.” Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1929.

Lohr, Lenox R. Fair Management: A Guide for Future Fairs, the Story of a Century of Progress Exposition. Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1952.

McMurtrie, Douglas C. The First Printers of Chicago: With a Bibliography of the Issues of the Chicago Press, 1836-1850. Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1928.

McMurtrie, Douglas C. and Ernest Frederick Detterer. Fine Printing at the Cuneo Press. Chicago: Cuneo Press.

“Obituaries: John F. Cuneo.” Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1977.

Regan Printing House. Story of Chicago in Connection with the Printing Business. Chicago: Reagan Printing House, 1912.

Rodkin, Dennis. “Cuneo Family Farm Sold to Lake County Forest Preserves.” Crain’s Chicago Business. March 1, 2016. https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160301/CRED0701/160229844/cuneo-farm -sold-to-lake-county-forest-preserves.

Scully, Margaret. “Training Animals His Hobby, and He Finds Bears Exciting.” Chicago Tribune, March 21, 1950.

“Strike Settled, Work Resumed at Cuneo Press.” Chicago Tribune, January 23, 1941.

“Strikers Continue to Picket Cuneo Press Despite Order.” The Kokomo Moring Times, April 21, 1967.

“U.S. Halts Strike on Draft Printing.” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, October 10, 1940.

“Your Home Town Paper Receives Treasured Souvenir.” Shiner Gazette, September 14, 1933.