1936 McCaffrey Pictorial Map of Seattle, Washington

Frank McCaffrey (1894 - 1985) was an American artist, publisher, letterpress printer, and politician. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, McCaffrey moved to Spokane, Washington, with his family at the age of four. After finding a fascination with printing at a very young age, McCaffrey began an apprenticeship in Spokane and by 1913 he was working as a journeyman printer in Seattle, where he would spend the rest of his life. McCaffrey bought Acme Press, a commercial publishing firm in Seattle, in 1919 and in 1931 founded Dogwood Press as a trademark within Acme. For McCaffrey, his artistic goal when printing a book was for the book's presentation to 'reflect and enhance its content'. At Dogwood, he printed 'for the pleasure of the doing' and saw 'the same opportunity for subtle expression of personality as painting or modeling' in printing. Dogwood served as his creative outlet and was home to some of his 'finest and most limited productions'. Works published by Dogwood even had certain hallmarks, such as stout boards covered with patterned clot and rough, untrimmed page edges. Printing, for McCaffrey, was always a personal pursuit. He sold Acme in 1952, but kept Dogwood, and continued printing. He produced pamphlets for friends and an occasional hardback book. McCaffrey loved to champion Seattle authors and history and, in 1980, he donated a large quantity of printing materials to the newly formed book arts program at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. McCaffrey served for two-and-a-half-years on Seattle's city council and ran for mayor twice. More by this mapmaker...