AN ARCHIVE CONSISTING OF 12 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED by E. HAROLD HUGO to PARKER BREESE ALLEN, President of THE MERIDEN GRAVURE COMPANY, chronicling Hugo's 1931-1932 sales trips on behalf of the printing company which specialized in very high quality image reproduction.

Little Rock, Arkansas; Dayton, Ohio; et al. 1931 through 1932. [1931]., [1931].. - A collection of 12 letters penned by E. Harold Hugo addressed to Parker Breese Allen, President of the Meriden Gravure Company, chronicling Hugo's sales trips on behalf of the printing company. Hugo's letters are preceded by a March 27th, 1931 Inter-Office letter from Parker Allen to E. Harold Hugo, initialed by Allen. At the bottom of this one-page typed letter is a 25 word annotation penned by Allen about the "Manning-Bowman" job. Hugo's subsequent letters are penned or penciled on 34 pages, the first 3 of which are on 9-1/4 inch high by 5-7/8 inch high hotel stationery, including that of the Southwest Hotels in Little Rock and The Dayton-Biltmore in Ohio. The very last letter is penned on 11 inch high by 8-1/2 inch wide Lord Baltimore Hotel stationery. All of the other letters are written on The Meriden Gravure Co.'s 11 inch high by 8-1/2 inch wide "Inter-Office Correspondence" stationery. The letters are as follows:

1) April 20, 1931. A 4 page Autograph Letter Signed from Hugo to "Parks" (Parker Allen), on Little Rock Hotel letterhead. Hugo has met with the State of Arkansas geologist George Casper Branner. "He was very much interested, is sold on the process and plans to use us on some of his fossil publications."

2) April 21, 1931. A 2 page Autograph Letter Signed from Hugo to Parker Allen on Dayton, Ohio's "The Dayton-Biltmore" hotel letterhead. Hugo met with the Kentucky State geologist Willard Rouse Jillsen, "rather a hard-boiled chap & his father is in the engraving business. However, he had to admit the superiority of our work...."

3) April 22, 1931. A two page Autograph Letter Signed from Hugo to Parker Allen on "The Dayton-Biltmore" letterhead. Hugo met with the American geologist and paleontologist August F. Foerste who "gave me a couple of leads." "Foerste liked our work immensely."

Subsequent letters are from Hugo's 1932 sales trip. The letters probably date from January but we have not been able to precisely pin down the exact sequence. All, but the last one, are written on "The Meriden Gravure Co. Inter-Office Correspondence" stationery. Deducing from the content, they go at least through March.

4) A 4 page Autograph Letter Signed, penned in Chicago, addressed to Parker Allen. Hugo met with Albert C. McFarland who was the manager of the Manufacturing Department of the University of Chicago Press. He receives information on where the work is done for the press. "Mac Farland [sic] seemed like a nice fellow and says he'll remember us and I believe he will ... as far as I can see, Mac Farland is the Dictator." He also met with Carey Croneis, the curator of paleontology at the Walker Museum. "Croneis likes our stuff very much and will recommend it...."

5) A 2 page Autograph Letter Signed and a note written from Urbana, Illinois to Parker Allen. He met with Dorothy Rose the editor of scientific publication for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "We are certain to get their next book on fossils." [i.e. J. Marvin Weller's Doctoral Thesis].

6) A 4 page Autograph Letter Signed to Parker Allen from Nebraska. Hugo met with Dr. Erwin Barbour, director of the Nebraska State Museum and "a classmate of your Dad's at Yale." He then met with Dr. George Condra, director of the Conservation and Survey Division of the University of Nebraska. "He promised us his next job of 1500 of about 50 plates." Condra arranged a meeting with Hugo of men in the Experimental Agronomy Dept, [mis-spelled "Agrenamy"]. "...excellent reception here ... By golly, our stuff just sells itself with a little persuasion."

7) A 3 page Autograph Letter Signed from Kansas to Parker Allen. Hugo met with Ray C. Moore of the University of Kansas. Moore initiated the massive "Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology," the definitive encyclopedia of invertebrate fossils. Moore tells Hugo about a company in Canada "... Who are quoting ridiculous prices.... I can't figure it out. He'll continue with us however."

8) A 2 page Autograph Letter Signed from Norman Oklahoma to Parker Allen. Hugo met with Charles Newton Gould who had organized the geology department at The University of Oklahoma. "I got an original from Gould to proof - a pencil sketch." "The trip is getting a little tiresome but interesting, and I think will be very profitable."

9) A 4 page Autograph Letter Signed from Chicago to Parker Allen. Hugo meets again with Albert McFarland of the University of Chicago Press. "We will get Byzantine Testament & Papyrus Milbank as soon as they are ready." He refers to the color printer Max Jaffe. "Jaffee ea [sic] Vienna is doing a color job for them and they are in a mess over it." William Kittredge, Director of Design and Typography for the Lakeside Press, missed his appointment. Hugo gives a positive report on The Field Museum's gelatin plant. On the verso of this letter, Hugo types the copy of a January 20 wire from Allen.

10) A 2 page Autograph Letter Signed written while en-route from Detroit. Hugo meets with the historian Eugene S. McCartney at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. From him he receives copy for a 15 page publication. From there he goes on to Detroit where he meets with someone from the advertising firm Campbell-Ewald. He calls the man "a bag of air that kept me waiting for an hour and a half." "Detroit was ... a disappointment but Ann Arbor took the edge off a little."

11) A 2 page Autograph Letter Signed from Cleveland to Parker Allen. Hugo meets with Edd A. Ruggles, the Cleveland Museum of Art's photographer from 1916-1941. Ruggles "... is enthusiastic about the process." He can get the OK for "an order for 30M postcards at approx 8.5M soon."

12) Later in the year on a different trip Hugo writes to Parker Allen from Baltimore in a 3 page Autograph Letter Signed penned on "Lord Baltimore Hotel" letterhead. In the letter dated October 4, 1932 Hugo writes in detail of "8 good interviews at Princeton" ... and several "jobs which will come our way eventually." He is told that "the only jobs in production are those started before we entered the Picture."

Several of the letters are folded for mailing and all are in generally very good condition.

In addition, there are 9 typed transcriptions of the letters on poor yellowing copy paper, several of which have short tears at the edges and holes from having once been stapled to other correspondence.

E. Harold Hugo [August 8, 1910 - 1985] was only 20 and 21 years old at the time of these letters and sales trips. Hugo had begun working at Meriden in 1924, at the age of 14, while still in High School.

According to his obituary published by the New York Times on October 5, 1985: "Under Mr. Hugo's leadership, the company won international renown for the quality of its art reproductions, posters and illustrations for books and catalogues. ... He began working part time at the Meriden Gravure Company when he was 14. During World War II, he became general manager and in 1950 was named a director. He became president in 1969 and retired in 1975. In 1984, he received the W.A. Dwiggins Award from the Book Builders of Boston for distinction in graphic arts and printing."

William J. Glick, an associate of Hugo's at Meriden Gravure, has documented Hugo's life and work in a personal and scholarly book: "In the Service of Scholarship: Harold Hugo & The Meriden Gravure Company." New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2017.