Introduction

Biography

Peter was the son of Al­ex­an­der Fra­ser Mun­ro and Hel­en Mill­er, both na­tives of Scot­land, and hus­band of Eu­ge­nie Loui­se Isa­belle Tes­tut (mar­ried 1865).

His fam­ily emi­grat­ed when he was 12 years old. Af­ter at­tend­ing the Mo­del School, To­ro­nto, Ca­na­da, he stu­died or­a­to­ry and dra­ma­tic art for three years. He be­gan to learn the print­ing trade, but soon gave it up to en­ter the dr­ama­tic pro­fes­sion. He re­mained in dr­ama sev­er­al years, play­ing parts in va­ri­ous ci­ties in the Unit­ed Sates and Ca­na­da.

During the Am­er­ican ci­vil war, he en­list­ed in the 34th In­de­pen­dent Bat­te­ry of fly­ing ar­til­le­ry, New York Vol­un­teers, and served on Ro­a­noke Is­land, North Ca­ro­li­na, and near Pe­ters­burg, Vir­gin­ia.

After re­turn­ing to New York, he yield­ed to the wish of his fa­ther, a Pres­by­te­ri­an min­is­ter, to give up the stage, and went in­to the print­ing bu­si­ness. Though he be­came an au­tho­r­ity on the use of types and on ty­po­gra­phi­cal de­sign, he was be­tter known in Am­er­ica for his li­ter­ary and his­tor­ic abil­i­ties, and for his suc­cess as a teach­er and lec­tur­er.

In 1879, he be­came as­sist­ant ed­it­or of the Am­er­ican Mo­del Prin­ter, a pio­neer tech­ni­cal per­i­o­di­cal, pub­lished in New York Ci­ty by Kel­ly & Bar­tho­lo­mew.

He was suc­cess­ive­ly bu­si­ness man­a­ger of Thoughts and Ev­ents, a week­ly jour­nal of li­te­ra­ture and af­fairs; chief ed­it­or of the Dai­ly Fi­nan­cial Re­port; and chief ed­it­or of the Am­er­ican Art Print­er. Mean­while, he served as New York cor­res­pon­dent for a num­ber of west­ern and south­ern jour­nals.

In 1892, he be­came ed­it­or of the Am­er­ican Pres­sman, a month­ly de­vot­ed to the in­ter­ests of the or­gan­ized print­ing press­men of the Unit­ed States and Ca­na­da, who were then bat­tling with the In­ter­na­tion­al Ty­po­graph­i­cal Un­ion for re­cog­ni­tion as a se­pa­rate an dis­tinct branch of the print­ing trade. Mun­ro lat­er ac­cept­ed the ed­it­or­ship of the Ex­po­nent, a so­cie­ty jour­nal pub­lished in Brook­lyn by John Su­ter.

For 35 years, Mun­ro was al­so an in­struc­tor in el­o­cu­tion and dra­ma­tic art. Ma­ny pro­mi­nent ac­tors and ac­tress­es, cler­gy­men, lec­tur­ers, and plat­form en­tertain­ers were trained in his Brook­lyn stu­dio of ex­pres­sion.

And, for over 30 thir­ty years Mun­ro taught in Ca­tho­lic schools, ac­ad­e­mies and col­leges, in­clud­ing St. John’s Col­lege, Ford­ham; St. Fran­cis Xa­vier’s Col­lege, New York Ci­ty; St. Fran­cis’ Col­lege, Brook­lyn; the Col­lege of St. An­ge­la, New Ro­chelle, New York; the St. John’s Boys’ Home, Brook­lyn; and a num­ber of pa­ro­chi­al schools and li­ter­ary un­ions where he was a teach­er and di­rect­or of en­ter­tain­ments. He was al­so a pro­fes­sor of el­o­cu­tion in the Brook­lyn Ev­en­ing High Schools for three years.

He wrote a num­ber of com­e­dies, dra­mas and farc­es that were per­formed with va­ry­ing su­ccess. In col­la­bo­ra­tion with his fa­ther-in-law, Dr. Charles Test­ut, he wrote the no­vel As Thyself.

A ci­vil war ve­ter­an, Mun­ro was, at va­ri­ous times, a com­mand­er in the Grand Ar­my of the Re­pub­lic (GAR), com­mand­er of the De­part­ment of the East in the Ar­my and Na­vy Un­ion of the Unit­ed Stat­es, and in 1905 be­came pre­si­dent of the War Ve­ter­ans and Sons’ As­so­cia­tion.

And fi­nal­ly, Mun­ro be­longed to New York Press Club and the Thir­teen Club.