The Iona Press Scrap Book
Not on view
The Iona Press was co-founded around 1887 by the Gaelic scholar John McCormick and William Muir, who had managed the Tormore Quarry on Ross of Mull (across the water from Iona) before moving to London in 1876; in the latter, Muir worked as a publisher and printer, producing hand-colored lithographed copies of William Blake's prophetic books.
This prints and pamphlet pages in this scrapbook demonstrate the press's mission to preserve and promote Iona's history--an island whose fame dates to the 6th century arrival of St. Columba, an Irish monk who brought Christianity to Scotland, and established an abbey that produced the Book of Kells (Trinity College, Dublin). The contents include a plan of Iona Cathedral, map of the island, and pages from "The Iona Autograph Album," "The Great Hymn Altus," "The Blessing of the Ship," and "The Burial March of King Duncan."
