The Cummington Press takes its name from the Cummington School of the Arts in Massachusetts, where Harry Duncan, the Press's founder, began printing in 1939. Duncan took over from Carroll Coleman as the director of the Typographical Laboratory at the University of Iowa in 1956, but continued to use the Cummington Press imprint after his move to the Midwest. Cummington Press books feature a spare, classical style that had a strong influence on later Midwestern fine printing. Duncan moved to the University of Nebraska Omaha in 1972 and until his retirement in 1985 he printed books under the Abattoir Editions imprint, returning to the Cummington Press imprint from 1985 until his death in 1997.

Special Collections has the following items printed at or published by the Cummington Press:

• Bolton, Joe. Breckinridge County suite, to a Young Kentucky Woman: A Poem. Omaha: 1989. PS3552.O5885 B73 1989
• Hoskins, Katherine. A Penetential Primer: Poems. Cummington: 1945. PS3515.O7544 P4 1945
• McCorkle, Samuel. Incident on the Bark Columbia, Being Letters Received & Sent by Captain McCorkle and the Crew of His Whaler, 1860-1862. Cummington: 1941. G545 .M2 1941
• Perricone, C. A Summer of Monkey Poems. Omaha: 1996. PS3566.E693 S85 1996
• Pinkerton, Helen. Error Pursued. Iowa City: 1959. PS3531.I714 E7
• Williams, William Carlos. The Wedge. Cummington: 1994. PS3545.I544 W4

Special Collections has the following secondary resources relating to the Cummington Press:

• Duncan, Harry. Doors of Perception: Essays in Book Typography. Austin: W. Thomas Taylor, 1983. Z244 .D78 1983

Special Collections has the following additional items related to the Cummington Press:

• A Garland for Harry Duncan: Minister Erato Ministrorum. Austin: W.T. Taylor, 1989. [a tribute to Harry Duncan and the Cummington Press]. PS615 .G33 1989