 | Studies in bibliography |  |
A. HINMAN COLLATORS
The arrangement of this section is chronological by date of acquisition
as near as can be established for each machine. I have been able to date
many of them very precisely while others less so. Obviously the more imprecise
the date, the more susceptible a particular machine's place in the
chronology is to revision if more information comes to light, though I do
not believe such information will result in more than the rearrangement of
a few machines here and there.
In addition to surviving collators, the chronology also includes machines
that have been lost. Anyone who has ever laid eyes on a Hinman, which
stands nearly six feet tall and weighs over 400 pounds, knows that one
cannot easily misplace such an object [plate 1]. Yet anyone who has ever
worked in an organization of any size should also understand that such
changes, and soon no one remembers what happened to that hulking hunk
of metal that used to sit in the corner. Over the years, a few Hinmans have
also been officially de-accessioned, junked, gotten-rid-of, etc.
Charlton Hinman was involved in the business of making and selling
mechanical collators for only a few years. After he built the machine for his
use at the Folger, he sub-contracted the manufacturing to Arthur M. Johnson,
a retired Navy engineer who had been an unofficial advisor earlier in
the project. Sometime in 1955 or 1956, Hinman completely turned over the
business to Johnson. Coincidentally, both Hinman and Johnson died in
1977. In the last five years of his life, Johnson built collators in partnership
with a former employee, Robert Michel of MICO Engineering, Bladensburg,
Maryland. Michel had worked for Johnson since the 1950s. Mr. Michel
stayed in business a few years after Johnson's death, selling five machines on
his own, the last one to Penn State in 1979. He retired and closed his business
in the mid-1980s.
The sources for this section of the census are many and varied. They
include letters, invoices, newspaper notices, newsletter announcements, bibliographical
and textual studies, previous location lists, and the memories of
individuals who used or were around particular machines. Perhaps the most
important of these sources were the previous lists of Hinman locations.
During the years when the Hinman Collator was being manufactured and
widely used, three location lists were published in bibliographical journals,
the final one in 1975, four years before the last machine was sold (Johnson,
"Hinman Collators in Current Use"; "Hinman Collators: Present Locations";
"Locations of Hinman Collators"). Another list survives in typescript,
and in 1979, after building what proved to be the last Hinman, Robert
Michel compiled still another as part of an advertising flyer (Johnson, "Hinman
Collators," 19 July 1970; Michel, Hinman Collator). Taken together,
these documents provide a nearly complete record of the original purchasers.
They do not, however, include dates of acquisition, sales prices, and other
details, and they also contain a few errors that are corrected here. Some of
the machines have also changed locations since the appearance of these lists.
No complete or even reasonably comprehenseive archive of records relating
to the buying and selling of collators resides in one location. Instead,
papers and letters by and relating to Charlton Hinman and Arthur M.
Johnson are located in the files of libraries, individuals, and the organizations
with whom they dealt. These have also been important sources. Johnson
especially was a prolific and chatty letter writer, and usually in the
course of his correspondence with one customer he would mention others
who had recently bought or ordered machines. Often, I was also able to obtain
invoices, purchase orders, and other administrative documents. These
were useful for dating machines and establishing details such as sales price.
I am extremely grateful to those individuals who have made letters and
other materials available to me.
In my search I also examined the published results of every research
PLATE 1. Charlton Hinman at the Hinman Collator. Courtesy of the Spencer Research
Library, University of Kansas.
PLATE 2. The Lindstrand Comparator.
PLATE 3. Randall McLeod and the McLeod Portable Collator. Photograph by Pamela
Harris.
PLATE 4. R. Carter Hailey and the Hailey's Comet. Photograph by Willis Turner.
PLATE 5. Design for Vinton Dearing's "Poor Man's Mark IV." Courtesy of the Papers
of the Bibliographical Society of America.
PLATE 6. Design for Gerald Smith's "Poor Man's Mark VII." Courtesy of the Papers
of the Bibliographical Society of America.
PLATE 7. Irving Rothman at the Houston Editing Desk working on octavo sheets with
octavo frames. A frame for folio sheets is in the rack. Photograph by Ann Casperson.
PLATE 8. William P. Williams' "Bibliographical Twirlers." One twirler is set up on
each side of his computer. Photograph by Professor Antonia Forster, English Department,
University of Akron.
machines and help in establishing dates on others. These research
projects included most of the volumes published under the direction of the
Center for Editions of American Authors (CEAA), many of those associated
with the Center for Scholarly Editions and its successor the Committee on
Scholarly Editions (CSE), and shorter projects published in bibliographical
journals. A good deal of the history of the collator survives only as oral
tradition. So, as an extra additional measure, I also sought out individuals
who own, have used, work or worked at institutions that possess (or previously
possessed) Hinmans or who were in some way otherwise associated
with the machine. These individuals patiently answered my queries, and a
few also sought me out to provide information that I would have otherwise
missed.
I have not been able to inspect every machine personally. Traveling
throughout the United States, Canada, England, Germany, and elsewhere to
visit each one would be ideal but has not proven practical. I have, however,
confirmed the presence (or absence) of machines and gathered details about
them by corresponding with individuals at their various locations. I sent
out a standard letter by e-mail or U.S. mail to institutions and individuals
that I had reason to believe (because of a mention in a previous list or in
the archival material, a reference in a published research project, a tip by
someone who knew of the machine, or from another source) possessed a
Hinman. This letter contained questions about the age, provenance, and
certain physical features of the collator. I also asked about projects in which
the collator in question may have been used. Answers to this letter frequently
provoked more particular questions. I am grateful to all those who patiently
answered my many queries, some of whom also graciously supplied me with
photographs of their collators.
Over the years press releases and newspaper articles would sometimes
claim that this or that machine was the fifth, thirty-first, fortieth, or some
other number. This information undoubtedly originated from Johnson, for
he sometimes made such statements in letters to customers. These numbers,
however, do not necessarily coincide with the entry numbers in this list.
This disparity stems mainly from the fact that I count machines that Johnson
did not. For instance, the prototype, built more or less by Hinman, is
A1 in this list whereas Johnson probably never thought of it as the first
machine. It was neither designed nor built by him, and it was only the
prototype after all. My interests are historical; Johnson's were commercial.
When asked how many collators he had built, he would have had no reason
to include an experimental model that was never put into operation.
Johnson's numbers are also inconsistent, or at least they appear so.
When Johnson went into partnership with Robert Michel in 1972 he began
putting a four-digit serial number on the front of each machine. These numbers
begin with "10" followed by two numbers that indicate the particular
machine's place in the manufacturing line, "45," "46," "47," etc. While these
numbers are accurate indicators of sequence ("1046" came after "1045" and
the collator at the American Antiquarian Society, purchased in the summer
of 1972, was the first to carry a serial number—"1045." The next machine,
the University of Houston collator, is numbered "1046," and so on until the
Wolfenbüttel collator, "1054." Without more information, however, I cannot
say for sure whether the AAS machine was, as was assumed at the time
of its purchase and is suggested by its serial number, the "45th edition"
(McCorison, Letter). My suspicion is that it was not, as the numbers that
other institutions reported as well as many statements made by Johnson do
not square with it, or even with one another. The New Brunswick collator,
acquired in September of 1971, was announced as the "36th" Hinman ("A
First at a Canadian University"). The Florida machine, which showed up
over a year earlier in June of 1970, was described as "one of only 40" ("University
Libraries Get Hinman Collator"). If the AAS machine was really the
45th edition, then why are there at least seven machines between it and
Florida's, supposedly the latest? Given these discrepancies, it seems wiser to
admit uncertainty and to caution against being too literal about the serial
numbers as well as about the numbers that turn up in newspapers and elsewhere.
The machines sold by Michel after Johnson's death did not carry
numbers.
I have been unable to account for two machines that should have been
produced within the sequence—machines that should carry the numbers
"1048" and "1050." I believe that these machines were sold to pharmaceutical
companies, as the timing of their production coincides with the period
when these companies were acquiring Hinmans. In 1971 Bristol-Myers purchased
a machine to proofread prescription labels. Seven additional machines
were sold to other pharmaceutical companies, though the Bristol-Myers collator
(A36) is the only one I have been able to date or to trace to a current
location. Despite the fact that I have not been able to precisely date the other
machines, I have chosen to list them after the Bristol-Myers collator, alphabetically
by location, each with its own entry number. They were probably
all built fairly close together, and so listing them this way seems the best
way to document and facilitate access to them within the list.
I have also been unable to locate up to three other machines that may
have been produced. I have it from two sources that the Treasury Department
used a collator. It is well known that the CIA owned a Hinman. If the
Treasury Department had one, they could have borrowed or inherited it
from the CIA. On the other hand, they could have owned an entirely separate
machine. I do not have enough information to say if either, or neither,
of these scenarios is true, or which is more likely. So for now rather than
give the Treasury Department a separate listing, I discuss the sources and
everything else I know about it in the entry for the CIA machine (A11). As
for the other two mystery collators, Johnson stated in his first location list,
published in 1963, that two "modified machines" were in "industrial use."
I have no other references to these but suspect they may be the table model
and a twin. I discuss this possibility in A6.
Each entry is also annotated with information such as sales price, some
of the projects the particular machine has been used for, why it was purchased
in the first place, previous locations for those few machines that have
had multiple owners or have been used at different institutions, current disposition,
and other matters of interest. However, I have not been able to
establish all of these details in every case. Furthermore, the annotations
make no pretense toward completeness in regard to projects associated with
particular machines. Most institutions have not kept records of how their
collator has been used, and many projects that did utilize the machine do
not announce that fact in their published prefaces and introductions. It
should be remembered, though, that for many collators their most frequent
usage was not for long-term editorial projects but for quick checks to confirm
points between copies. This kind of traffic is very difficult to quantify,
save to say that it has been substantial. My purpose for including details
about projects is not to provide a complete catalog but merely to give a
sense of how particular machines have been employed and what kind of
lives they have led. Moreover, some collators have done double (and in a
few cases their only) duty as demonstration pieces, mostly in introductory
research classes for graduate students in English but in other venues as well.
Since the early 1990s, Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, for
example, has regularly conducted a lunchtime collator demonstration as
part of its summer workshop in descriptive bibliography. Arthur Johnson
gave a public lecture on the device as part of his standard delivery package.
Some institutions, especially in the early days, used their machines for publicity
purposes (see my aforementioned article on the invention of the Hinman
for examples). Generations of English professors, librarians, curators,
and others, most of who never went on to machine-collate a book or even a
single page, have been introduced to the field of bibliographical and textual
studies via the Hinman. This is another kind of usage that though impossible
to quantify has been substantial.
So how many Hinmans were produced? Given the scattered and incomplete
nature of the records, I cannot say with absolute certainty. I can, however,
offer an estimate that I believe is accurate within a machine or two.
By my count, which as will be remembered includes machines that Johnson
probably never counted or counted inconsistently, there were around fiftyeight.
This estimate includes the fifty-seven machines given separate entries
here, plus an additional table model. It also assumes that serial numbers
1048 and 1050 are among the seven undated pharmaceutical machines. If
the Treasury Department did own a machine, and if it was not the same
machine as the CIA collator, then the number would rise to fifty-nine.
For anyone engaged in editorial or bibliographical work, however, the
number of surviving machines is probably far more important than how
many were ultimately manufactured. The census locates forty-one survivors,
all but two of which appear to be in reasonably good condition. The two
inoperable machines (Iowa, A14, and Colorado, A56) no longer possess their
optics. As for the few lost collators—though in most cases I suspect these
perhaps as the result of the publication of this list.
A1. Folger Shakespeare Library
Built sometime in 1946 or 1947, this is the prototype that Hinman demonstrated
to the Modern Language Association and the Bibliographical Society
of America in 1947. Its primary components were a "pair of ordinary microfilm
projectors (borrowed from the Navy), some pieces of wooden apple box
(abstracted from a trash pile), some heavy cardboard (begged from the Folger
bindery), and parts of a rusty Erector set (more or less hi-jacked from the
small son of a close personal friend)" (Hinman, "Mechanized Collation: A
Preliminary Report" 102). The editor of PBSA was careful to put the word
"machine" in quotation marks when referring to this device, perhaps underscoring
its provisional state and still imprecise performance. This device
was probably cannibalized and scrapped in the process of building the next
machine.A2. Folger Shakespeare Library
Built by Charlton Hinman with assistance primarily from the Institute for
Co-operative Research at Johns Hopkins University (Johnson, Letter to
William P. Barlow; Rich). It was at the Folger as early as July 1949. Hinman
declared it more or less "perfected" in late 1951 (Altick 188; Hinman,
"Mark III" 150). This machine was traded back to Arthur Johnson in 1973
when the Folger purchased a new collator. Currently owned by William P.
Barlow, the machine was repaired and slightly renovated before Johnson
sold it to him in October of 1973 (Johnson, Letter to William P. Barlow).A3. James Ford Bell, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Purchased around 1953 for the private library of James Ford Bell, founder
of General Mills and namesake of the James Ford Bell Special Collections
at Minnesota (Johnson, Letter to Joseph Rubinstein, 23 Feb. 1957). Part of
Bell's library consisted of a collection of books on the Jesuit Relations of
New France. There was some thought of using the machine to examine
these books but the project never developed (Parker). Johnson's 1963 PBSA
list incorrectly locates this machine at the University of Minnesota. He may
have assumed that this machine was given to Minnesota in 1953 when Bell
donated his library to the University. The machine was never at Minnesota
and its current location is unknown.A4. Harvard University
Purchased by the Houghton Library in 1954 (Hinman, "Mechanized Collation
at the Houghton Library" 132; and Johnson, Letter to Joseph
Rubinstein, 23 Feb. 1957). It was first used by W. H. Bond for a study of the
illustrations in the 1865 and 1866 editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(Bond, "Publication"). Jacob Blanck and William Jackson also tried
the machine but never used it for any project (Bond, Letter to the author).
The collator was transferred to Harvard's Collections of Historical Scientific
Instruments in early 1986 (Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments).A5. Lessing J. Rosenwald, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania
Purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald around 1954 or 1955 (Johnson, Letter to
Joseph Rubinstein, 23 Feb. 1957), loaned for some time to the University
of Pennsylvania, and located at the Library of Congress by the early 1980s.
William Proctor Williams remembers repairing it at the Library around
1411982 or 1983 (E-mail to the author). In 1969 it was "on loan at the University
of Pennsylvania" (Johnson, "Hinman Collators: Present Locations"),
and according to the last list Johnson published it was still there in 1975.
It was not at the Library of Congress in the mid-1970s. When Frederick R.
Goff, who at the time was Honorary Consultant in Early Printed Books at
the Library, undertook his study of the Declaration of Independence in
the summer of 1975, he had copies of the Declaration that were loaned to
him deposited at the Folger for examination on its machine (Goff 7). It
seems likely that the machine came to the Library with Rosenwald's book
collection in 1979, but according to records and the memories of those
associated with the transfer this was not the case (Fine; Rare Book and
Special Collections Division, Library of Congress). Again, however, the collator
was there in 1983 when Williams repaired it. Its current location is
unknown.A6. Arthur M. Johnson, Silver Spring, Maryland
Built by Johnson in 1955, probably early in the year, to work with small,
unbound items such as checks, small photographs, stamps, etc. Johnson
called it the table model and built it in an effort to find applications other
than the field of bibliography and textual studies. It measured 20 inches
high, 23 inches long, and seven inches wide. It had a single eyepiece instead
of a binocular set of optics. The blinking mechanism was provided by a
button that the operator pushed up and down with his finger, rather than
by the knee switch on the large machines (Johnson, Letter to Joseph Rubinstein,
26 Dec. 1957). Johnson demonstrated it to a group of Wall Street
bankers, and he also loaned it for a short time to the Aeronautical and
Information Center, United States Air Force, St. Louis, Missouri (Johnson,
Letter to Ross J. Foster). Neither group purchased the machine. It was on
loan for a brief period to the Spencer Research Library, University of
Kansas, while they awaited delivery of their full-size Hinman (Johnson,
Letter to Joseph Rubinstein, 27 Jan. 1958). The current location of this
machine is unknown.In the 1963 location list, Johnson stated the two "modified machines"
were in "industrial use." I have found no other reference to these machines,
which is strange given Johnson's eagerness to expand his market and his
penchant for chatting up the fact when he did. The only modified machine
that I know of prior to 1963 is the table model, and the last mention I have
of it occurs in 1958, in a letter to Joseph Rubinstein at the University of
Kansas (11 Aug. 1958). That correspondence leaves the clear impression that
of those to whom he had shown the machine, no one was interested. Nevertheless,
if there were modified machines in industrial use prior to 1963, the
table model and perhaps a twin seem the most likely candidates.A7. British Museum
Purchased sometime in late 1955. In announcing the acquisition, the British
Museum Quarterly stated that this was the "fifth such instrument to be
produced and the first to come into operation outside America" ("Collating
Machine," British Museum Quarterly). The announcement in the Times
Literary Supplement repeats this claim and also adds that its purchase was
made possible with funds from the bequest of the late Dr. Arthur Watson
("Mechanized Collation"). The machine passed to the British Library in
1973 and was disposed of around 1985 (Williams, "Smith"). In the mid1970s,
the Library developed a hybrid machine that combined features of
the Hinman Collator and the Lindstrand Comparator (E6).A8. University of Virginia
Purchased in January or February of 1956 for $1500. The Charlottesville
Daily Progress and the Richmond Times-Dispatch both covered the arrival
of the Hinman, and a special demonstration was offered for members of
the Bibliographical Society (Vander Meulen, Bibliographical Society 23-25).
John Cook Wyllie was the driving force behind the acquisition of the machine.
He had shown an interest in Hinman's experiements as early as 1946
(Wyllie) and played an important role in encouraging its use. Matthew J.
Bruccoli credited Wyllie with suggesting his collation projects on F. Scott
Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis ("A Collation This Side of Paradise" 263;
"Textual Variants" 264). The collator has also been used by David Vander
Meulen for work on Pope, by David Gants on the Workes of Ben Jonson,
and for many of the numerous editorial projects undertaken by Fredson
Bowers. The machine is currently located in the Department of Special
Collections, Alderman Library.A9. University of Kansas
Purchased and delivered in July 1958 for about $5000 (Johnson, letters to
Joseph Rubinstein, 11 Aug. 1958 and 23 Apr. 1957). Johnson later visited
the University to demonstrate the machine (Johnson, Letter to Joseph
Rubinstein, 22 Sept. 1958). Charlton Hinman himself used it to collate
photocopies of Shakespeare quartos. It has also been used for work on
William Dean Howells. Almost annually for the last forty years the staff of
the Spencer Library have given demonstrations on it using their variant
Jonson folios. In the 1960s a graduate student used it for a complete collation
of the Jonson folios (Mason). This was the first machine to feature a
gray rather than a black exterior and cabinets beneath the bookstands
(Johnson, letters to Joseph Rubinstein, 10 Mar. and 9 June 1958). It is
currently located in the Spencer Research Library.A10. University of Illnois
Purchased in November 1959 for around $5000 at the recommendation of
Bruce Harkness and G. Blakemore Evans, both of the English faculty, and
Robert B. Downs, Dean of Library Administration. Johnson delivered this
machine himself ("Hinman Collating Machine Installed in Rare Book
Library"). It is currently located in the Rare Books and Special Collections
Library of the University Library.A11. Central Intelligence Agency
Probably purchased in 1959 or 1960. It was almost certainly in place before
1963. In the PBSA list that Johnson published that year, he describes a
collator as being owned by an "agency of the Federal Government." Despite
numerous attempts, I have been unable to extract any information, or even
a response, from the CIA. Perhaps such matters are classified. There is a
possibility that this machine was inherited or that an additional one was
purchased by another U.S. government agency. John F. Andrews, in his
obituary of Hinman in the Shakespeare Quarterly, stated that among the
"non-bibliographical uses to which the Hinman Collator has been applied
. . . is the detection of counterfeit currency by the United States Treasury
Department" (Andrews 275-276). Hinman's daughter, Barbara Hinman,
has told me that at the time of her father's death "the Treasury people
were still using the collator or some variation in their day-to-day efforts to
spot bogus bills" (Barbara Hinman). Neither source remembers where this
information came from, and despite numerous queries I have been unable
to confirm their reports with the Treasury Department. Johnson never
143mentioned the Treasury Department in any of the letters or his lists. Nevertheless,
given independent reports from two witnesses, I am reluctant to dismiss
the possibility that the Treasury Department either bought a machine
of its own or borrowed the one from the CIA.There is an interesting story regarding the delivery of this machine.
Apparently the CIA instructed Johnson to deliver it to an inconspicuous
loading dock where an anonymous individual paid him in cash. He was also
instructed to detach and leave the U-haul trailer on which the machine
was still loaded. U-haul never asked Johnson to return the trailer or settle
the bill (Michel, Telephone interview, 28 Sept. 2000). According to Johnson's
relatives, a few years later he heard from the CIA again. As Johnson
told the story, they were inquiring about the purchase of a new machine
because the first one had been stored in a location so secret that even the
CIA could not find it. Perhaps they had lent it to the Treasury Department
and forgotten (Arthur Juniewicz).A12. Ohio State University
Purchased in August of 1961 for $5000 and delivered by Johnson (Charvat).
The funding was provided by the Council on Research, Department of
English, and the University Libraries. The machine was purchased for use
on the Ohio State Centenary Edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Hecht 1). It
is currently located in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the
Ohio State University Libraries.A.13 Yale University
Delivered by Johnson in June 1962, this machine was purchased with funding
from the Old Dominion Foundation (Brooks). Library officials had
intended to purchase the machine after the opening of the Beinecke Library
in 1963. However, in early 1962, Herman Liebert, Curator of Rare
Books, advised James Babb, University Librarian, to go ahead with the
purchase as several people were already anxious to use it (Liebert). One
faculty member was making weekly trips to Harvard for the Houghton
machine (Ottemiller). The Yale collator was disposed of sometime in the
late 1890s during renovations of the room where it resided.A14. University of Iowa
Purchased in 1963 prior to October for work on the Berkeley Twain edition
(Johnson, Letter to William B. Todd, 18 Oct. 1963). Warner Barnes found
upwards of five thousand variants in the so-called "Royal Edition" of
Twain's works on this collator, a number far in excess of anything ever
uncovered in any other editorial project (Barnes, Personal interview; Todd,
203). Sidney Berger, who was a graduate student at Iowa and later on the
faculty of the English Department at the University of California, Davis,
worked as a research assistant on many editorial projects, among them
Smollett, Twain, and Shaw, and he used this machine as well as the one at
Davis (A46) on them (Berger). At some point the optics on this machine
went missing, and it is now effectively inoperable.A15. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Purchased sometime prior to October of 1964 (Johnson, Letter to Dorothy
M. Lawrence). It has been used by Robert K. Turner for research on Fletcher
and Beaumont and is currently located in the Shakespeare Research Collection,
Golda Meir Library. Johnson may have delivered this machine. He
visited later to make minor adjustments (Turner, Telephone interview, 13
June 2000).A.16. University of Texas, Austin
Purchased in mid-January, 1965, and originally installed by Johnson in the
Miriam Lutcher Stark Library (Brewer). It is currently located in the Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center. The price, including delivery, was
$6205. William B. Todd played a leading role in its acquisition (Johnson,
letters to William B. Todd, 13 Sept. 1962 and 18 Oct. 1963). Warner Barnes
used it for his bibliography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was also used
for various projects by Todd and more recently by Joseph J. Moldenhauer
on the Riverside edition of Thoreau. The 1969 census lists a second machine
as being on order, but the University of Texas at Austin never acquired
a second one (Barnes, Letter to the author). Johnson probably confused this
location with the University of Texas at Arlington, for which he was building
a machine at the time of the 1969 census.A17. Southern Illinois University
Probably purchased in 1965 for the Southern Illinois Dewey edition. In
1964, Jo Ann Boydston, textual editor for the Dewey project, began working
with Fredson Bowers, who probably first told her about the Hinman.
On learning of it, she "pushed the administration very hard to purchase
one" (Boydston). The collator has been used extensively, and perhaps exclusively,
for the Dewey edition. It is currently located in the Special Collections
Department of the Morris Library.A18. Northwestern University
Purchased by Northwestern in the summer of 1965 for the Newberry/Northwestern
edition of Melville (Hayford, Letter to G. Thomas Tanselle; Newberry
Library, E-mail to the author). Originally located in the Deering
Library, it was moved to the Newberry as early as May, 1966, but may have
been moved back to Northwestern temporarily (Hayford, Letter to Jens
Nyholm). The collator was again at the Newberry by the spring of 1969
(Johnson, Letter to Virginia Heiseman).At the Newberry, the machine was placed in a glass-fronted room near
the main entrance and was thus one of the first things visitors saw on entering
the Library. The spectacle of the machine in operation was frequently
made all the more interesting by one of the editorial assistants who used
it—a nun in full habit (Farren; Krummel).A19. Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Purchased in January of 1966 for $5,997.86. David Vander Meulen of Charlottesville,
Virginia, acquired it from Miami in early 1993 (Special Collections,
Miami University Library).A20. Kent State University
Probably purchased in February 1966 (Krause) for the Kent State edition
of Charles Brockden Brown and later used on the Cambridge Joseph Conrad
and the Ohio University edition of Robert Browning (Reid). This machine
is currently located in the Institute for Bibliography and Editing at Kent
State.A21. University of California, Los Angeles
Purchased by the Clark Library in June of 1966 and used primarily for the
Dryden edition (Guffey, "Hinman Collator Acquired by the Clark Library").
It was the first machine on the West Coast and was personally delivered by
Johnson (Johnson, Letter to Paul M. Miles). In justifying its purchase, Robert
145Vosper, University Librarian, stated that in addition to work on Dryden
the collator would also be used to train "graduate students in bibliography"
(Vosper). It is still located in the Clark Library.A22. Indiana University
Purchased in the summer or early fall of 1966. The English Department
announced its availability in November ("Howells Edition Center"). Originally
located in the Lilly Library and later moved to the English Department,
the machine was purchased for the William Dean Howells edition (Nordloh).
It is currently located in its original home, the Lilly Library.A23. University of Wisconsin, Madison
Purchased around December 1966 for about $6000 by the Graduate School
for the University of Wisconsin edition of Washington Irving (Pochmann).
Also used by Standish Henning for work on Thomas Middleton's A Mad
World, My Masters and for several other projects carried out under Henning's
direction (Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin,
Madison). It is currently housed in the Department of Special
Collections, Memorial Library.A24. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Purchased around 1966 or 1967 at the behest of Dennis Donovan, assistant
chairman of English, with National Defense Education Act funds (Rust).
It was moved from the English Department to the Rare Book Collection
of the Wilson Library in 1986 (Rare Books, Wilson Library, University of
North Carolina). The collator also spent some time in the Microform
Reading Room of the Library before reaching its current destination
(Boone). It was utilized primarily on the University of Wisconsin edition
of Washington Irving.A25. University of South Carolina
Purchased in 1966 or 1967 for work on the South Carolina William Gilmore
Simms project. It was originally located in the McKissick Library,
then moved to the English Department, and finally to the Thomas Cooper
Library. The machine was also used on various projects directed by Matthew
J. Bruccoli (Special Collections, Thomas Cooper Library). It was sold to
McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, in September 1981 for $2100 for work
on the McMaster University edition of Bertrand Russell. It was never used for
this project, however, as the editors found it "was simply not applicable to
their work" (Research Collections, Mills Memorial Library). David Gants
acquired the machine in 1992 or 1993 while he was a graduate student at the
University of Virginia. He later took it with him when he joined the faculty
of the English Department at the University of Georgia. The collator is now
at the University of New Brunswick, where Gants holds a joint appointment
with the Department of English and the Etext Centre. He has used it
extensively for his study of Ben Jonson's Workes and other projects (Gants,
E-mail to the author, 9 Feb. 1999). The University of South Carolina purchased
another machine in 1973 (see entry A50).A26. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany
Purchased under the direction of Dieter Kranz and installed in 1967 by
Johnson. In the 1970s a team of scholars from Hamburg editing Klopstock's
dramas also made use of it (Kranz). The machine has also been used for
demonstration purposes for classes in analytical bibliography. It is currently
located in the Forschungsinstitut für Buchwissenschaft und Bibliographie.A27. University of Edinburgh
Purchased in 1967 or 1968. It seems to have been little used and now resides
"gathering dust and unloved outside the Strong Room in the Main Library
basement" (Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library).A28. Oxford University
Purchased sometime in late 1969 or early 1970. The 1969 PBSA census lists
this machine as being "on order." It is listed without qualification on the
July 1970 typescript Folger list. According to the Bodleian Library Record
it was purchased with a grant from the Higher Studies Fund ("The Hinman
Collator"). The collator is currently located in the Johnson Reading Room,
Department of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library.A29. Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
Purchased in late 1968 or early 1969 (Johnson, Letter to Charlton Hinman,
19 Feb. 1970). Kenneth W. Staggs used it on the James Fenimore Cooper
edition (Baird). The current location of this machine is unknown.A30. Northern Illinois University
Purchased in 1969. It is currently located in the Department of Special
Collections, University Library.A31. Syracuse University
Purchased in late 1969 (Johnson, Letter to Charlton Hinman, 19 Feb. 1970).
Cornell purchased it from Syracuse in the mid-1970s for around $5000 (Eddy).
Currently located in the Division of Rare Books and Manuscript Collections,
Kroch Library, Cornell University.A32. University of Florida
Purchased in June of 1970 with funds provided by the Vice President for
Academic Affairs ("University Libraries Get Hinman Collator"). The machine
was delivered by Johnson and probably cost around $6000 or $7000
(New). It was acquired for Melvyn New's work on the Florida edition of
Tristram Shandy and used extensively for this project. The collator is currently
located in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department,
Smathers Library East.A33. University of Texas, Arlington
Purchased in August or September of 1970. The first listing of this machine
is on the 1970 unpublished list, where Johnson notes it will be delivered
"in 30 days." The 1969 PBSA census lists a machine for Brown University
as being "on order." In setting up for a definitive edition of the novels of
Harold Frederic, Stanton Garner, who was on the Brown faculty at the
time, apparently ordered a collator. Before the order was filled, he moved
to the University of Texas, Arlington, where the project and eventually the
collator followed him (Shroeder). In 1982, the Frederic project moved to
the University of Nebraska, and with it went the machine. Since that time
the machine has also been used for the Nebraska Willa Cather edition. It
is currently located in the offices of the Willa Cather edition, 215 Andrews
Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Mignon).A34. New York Public Library
Purchased in August or September of 1970 with support from the Carl and
Lily Pforzheimer Foundation (Ames; "Hinman Collator," Bulletin of the
147New York Public Library). The machine was disposed of sometime in 1996.
Apparently the optics had gone missing before then (Rare Books Division,
New York Public Library).A35. Texas Tech University
Evidence for dating this machine is contradictory. An inventory tag on the
machine reads "Texas Tech College," which would indicate that it showed
up before September 1969 as that is the date the school's name was changed
to Texas Tech University. However, neither the 1969 PBSA list nor the
July, 1970, unpublished list mentions this machine. It is possible that the
old nametags were used for a time after the name change. It was there at
the time of David Leon Higdon's arrival in August, 1971. Higdon used the
collator extensively for the Joseph Conrad edition, especially for work on
Almayer's Folly and Under Western Eyes (Higdon). Donald Rude also used
it for work on Conrad and asked graduate students to use it for projects in
his introductory bibliography course (Rude). The collator is currently located
in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library.A36. Bristol-Myers Laboratories, Syracuse, New York
Purchased sometme before September of 1971 ("A First at Canadian University").
Bristol-Myers learned of the machine when Syracuse University
purchased one (A31) in late 1969 or early 1970. Bristol-Myers used the
machine to proofread labels. The company had had a scare when the hyphen
was inadvertently dropped from a prescription label, so that the instructions
directed patients to take "12" rather than "1-2" tablets. The machine was
also used on packing inserts and carton instructions. It was not fitted with
book cradles since the various texts compared on it were unbound or easily
flattened. Ted Bertella used this machine almost every day from 1973 until
his retirement in 1992 (Joann Bertella). He believes that the Bristol-Myers
collator was probably the first sold for this application, as he remembers
giving demonstrations to several other pharmaceutical firms and none of
them ever indicated seeing one before. After Mr. Bertella's retirement the
machine was not used so he offered to find a new home for it. The company
agreed, and in 1993 Bertella placed it at Scheuler Communications (now
Liberty Business Development), a printing company in Syracuse, where it
is used to run final quality checks on printed documents (Ted Bertella).In the 1975 list, Johnson stated that he had placed collators at "seven
pharmaceutical firms," though he did not name the firms. As mentioned in
the introduction, the machines carrying serial numbers 1048 and 1050 have
not been located. It seems likely that these were pharmaceutical collators
as the serial numbers coincide with the time when these companies were
buying Hinmans. The collators bearing these numbers should have been
produced by 1975.Robert Michel listed eight pharmaceutical machines in his 1979 flyer.
Again, the Bristol-Myers machine is the only one I have been able to track
down. The others are listed alphabetically by location with individual entry
numbers below. My search has been complicated by the fact that each of
the companies in question has been bought, sold, merged, expanded, contracted,
or relocated at least once since 1979.A37. Abbott Labs, Illinois
A38. Mile Laboratories, Indiana
A39. Elonco Corporation, Minnesota
A40. Hoffman-LaRoche, New Jersey
A41. Ortho Pharmaceuticals, New Jersey
A42. Burroughs and Wellcome, North Carolina
A43. William H. Rohrer, Inc., Pennsylvania
A44. University of New Brunswick
Purchased in late September of 1971 ("A First at a Canadian University")
at the urging of Reavley Gair, who used it for work on Marston's Antonio's
Revenge. The machine proved something of a disappointment to Gair, however.
He had expected it to work equally well with microfilm and photocopy
reproductions. While photocopies worked fine, the microfilm reproductions
never registered well enough to be useful. The machine was personally delivered
by Johnson and his wife, who were accommodated in a local hotel,
taken out to dinner by Gair and a small committee, and generally "given a
holiday in eastern Canada" (Gair). Gair trained graduate students on the
machine, and on a few occasions scholars from other universities used the
collator. Gair also had hopes of using it on a more substantial project in
seventeenth-century editing, but the funding never materialized. The Royal
Canadian Mounted Police used the machine and found it "very helpful in
detecting forged banknotes" (Gair). In March of 1994, the machine was
given to the National Library of Canada in Ottawa, where it is currently
housed in the Rare Book Division ("Hinman Collator," Bulletin of the
National Library of Canada; University Archives, University of New Brunswick).
Ironically, another Hinman has made its way to New Brunswick.
David Gants, who owns one of the two South Carolina machines (A25), is
on the faculty of the Department of English and the Etext Centre at the
University of New Brunswick.A45. Cambridge University
Purchased in late 1971 or very early 1972, as the first recorded use of the
machine was on January 26, 1972 ("Hinman Collator Log"). It has been
used for many projects over the years, including work on the Brontës,
eighteenth-century periodicals, Shakespeare quartos, and Orlando Furioso.
It is currently housed in the Rare Books Department of the University
Library.A46. University of California, Davis
Purchased at the recommendation of Sid Berger through the English Department
in 1972 and delivered by Johnson. Berger, who was on the English
faculty, got to work on it immediately and "didn't stop for years" (Berger).
As a graduate student he had also used the machine at Iowa (A14). For a
time in the 1980s, the machine was on loan to the University of California,
Santa Cruz, for work on Thomas Carlyle (Baumgarten). It is currently housed
in the Special Collections Department of the University Library.A47. American Antiquarian Society
Purchased in the late summer of 1972. Serial number 1045. The machine
was delivered by Johnson and his wife and probably cost around $7,500
(McCorison, "Re: Hinman"). It has been used recently for work on the
Colonial Williamsburg Imprints Project (Charbeneau). The editors of the
Cooper edition also used the machine extensively (McCorison, "Re:
Hinman").A48. University of Houston
Purchased at the behest of Irving Rothman, a faculty member in the English
Department, probably very early in 1973 (Rothman). Serial number 1046.
Funding was partially provided by the Biology Department, where there
was some thought of using it to compare before and after shots of sediment
and plants, but these plans never materialized. Rothman used the collator
on several of his eighteenth-century projects as well as for demonstration
purposes in the graduate bibliography course. In 1972, Kevin Mac Donnell
used the machine for a study of Sinclair Lewis' The Jungle. Mac Donnell
collated some 40 copies of the Doubleday, Page edition. The results of his
research have never been published, however. Mac Donnell also used it for
an unpublished study of the 1967 Doubleday revised edition of John Barth's
Sot Weed Factor (Mac Donnell). The machine is housed in the Department
of Special Collections, M. D. Anderson Library, University of Houston.A49. Folger Shakespeare Library
Purchased with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the spring
of 1973 as a replacement for the machine Hinman built and used. Serial
number 1047. The editors of the Variorum Edition of Shakespeare have used
it to collate quarto texts of Shakespeare plays (Folger Shakespeare Library).
Frederick R. Goff used this machine for his study of the Declaration of
Independence (Goff 7). More recent users include David Gants and Peter
Blayney (Folger Shakespeare Library).A50. University of South Carolina
Purchased in the summer of 1973 (Johnson, Letter to Don Kunitz). Serial
number 1049. This is the second machine owned by the University (see A25).
According to the 1975 list, it was located in the editorial office of the journal
Proof (Johnson, "Locations"). In addition to publishing the journal, the
Proof offices served as a "facility for teaching, research, and public service
in bibliographical and textual studies" (English at South Carolina, 19741975
[11-12]). The Proof offices also hosted the graduate course in bibliography.
The machine is currently located in the Department of Special Collections,
Thomas Cooper Library.A51. Baylor University
Purchased in April of 1974 for work on the Ohio University edition of
Robert Browning ("Hinman Collator," The Armstrong Browning Library
Newsletter). Serial number 1051. The price of the machine, including delivery,
was $7565 (Johnson, Letter to Jack Herring, 23 Nov. 1973). Johnson
and his wife personally delivered this collator, and Johnson also gave a
brief lecture on the "history of the machine, how it came into being" and
"what makes it do what it does" (Johnson, Letter to Jack Herring, 20 Mar.
1974). Jack Herring, who was then Director of the Armstrong Browning
Library, was a member of the Browning variorum editorial board. Warner
Barnes also used it on his bibliography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This
machine is currently in storage.A52. Stirling University
Purchased in October or November of 1974. Serial number 1052. Johnson
did not personally deliver this machine, though he sent extensive instructions
for unpacking and assembling along with it (Johnson, Letter to P. G.
Peacock, 21 Oct. 1974). The Library was new at the time, and its basement
hosted a center for bibliographical study, equipped with a printing and
papermaking lab (Stirling University Library). The collator was purchased
150as part of the equipment for this center and is currently located in the University
Library.A53. Texas A&M University
Purchased in 1975 by the English Department and shortly thereafter transferred
to the Department of Special Collections, Sterling C. Evans Library
(King). Serial number 1053. It is currently located in the Cushing Memorial
Library and Archives.A54. Herzog August Bibliothek. Wolfenbüttel, Germany
Purchased in July of 1977. Serial number 1054. The cost, including shipping,
was $8265 (Invoice Number 6570). Martin Boghardt was the force behind its
acquisition (Herzog August Bibliothek). Boghardt and others used the machine
extensively for work on the Klopstock dramas as well as on editorial
projects such as the work of Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther, Giordano
Bruno, and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (Needham; Boghardt).
This machine has been kept one of the busiest in the history of
mechanical collation and is still located at the Herzog August Bibliothek.A55. University of Kentucky
Purchased in late August or early September of 1978 for work on Cooper's
Lionel Lincoln by Donald A. and Lucy B. Ringe (Alexander Juniewicz;
Special Collections, University of Kentucky). No serial number. It is currently
located in the Department of Special Collections and Archives,
Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky.A56. University of Colorado, Boulder
Purchased in September 1978 for $10,107 (Purchase Order). No serial number.
The machine was purchased with funds provided by Milt Lipetz, then
Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs, for work on a project by Michael Preston
involving traditional British folk plays in chapbooks and broadsides. The
optics disapeared before Preston could begin his study, however (Preston;
Special Collections, University of Colorado Library). The machine is currently
located in the Special Collections Department of the main library.A57. Penn State University
Purchased in March 1979 by the Institute for Arts and Humanistic Study
at Penn State for around $7500. No serial number. It has been used for
work on W. B. Yeats and the eighteenth-century author Edward Young
(Special Collections, Penn State University). R. Carter Hailey, who now
teaches at the College of William and Mary, acquired the machine from
Penn State in July of 1999.
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