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 APHA's 24th Annual Conference

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A Century of Book Design in Europe and America:
Printing, Practitioners, and Presses
22-24 October 1999
The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York City

The American Printing History Association in this last year of the twentieth century devoted its annual conference to a retrospective assessment of fine printing from the entire century. The centennial exhibition on printing ("A Century for the Century") on display at the Grolier Club in New York provided the appropriate background and focus for our conference. One hundred printed books, from majestic folios hand-printed on fine paper to smaller, commercial volumes, were displayed side by side in order to demonstrate the wide and varied range of printing. The change from handset metal type to modern printing technology, which developed throughout the period, has necessarily brought sweeping changes in book production.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Unless otherwise noted, all events will be held in the Exhibition Room of the Grolier Club.

Friday, October 22, 1999        6:00-7:30 PM    Opening Reception

     Saturday, October 23, 1999

        Morning Session

        9:00 AM          Coffee / Registration

        9:30-9:45 AM    Welcome

                          William T. Buice, III, President, Grolier Club

                        & Anne Anninger, President, APHA

     9:45-10:30 AM "The Ivory Tower as Seen from the Shop Floor:           

                         A Printer Looks at Fine Printing, 1900-1949"

                        John G. Kristensen, The Firefly Press

        10:30-11:00 AM  Break

        11:00-11:45 AM   "A Noble Piece of Printing: Daniel Berkeley Updike's Tacitus"

                        Nancy Finlay, Curator of Graphics, The
                        Connecticut Historical Society

        11:45-12:30 PM  "Giovanni Mardersteig and I Centro Amici del Libro: A Very Exclusive Italian Book Club"                                                   
                          Martino Mardersteig, Stamperia Valdonega

        [12:30-2:00 PM   Lunch on one's own]

        Afternoon Session

        2:00-2:45 PM     "The Second Revival: Fine Printing Since  World War II"

                     Kenneth Auchincloss

       2:45-3:30 PM      "The Rampant Lions Press at Fifty:

                        Retrospectus and Prospectus"

                          Sebastian Carter, The Rampant Lions Press

        3:30-4:00 PM    Break

        4:00-4:45 PM     "William Blake and the Trianon Press:

                        A Melding of Book Arts Traditions"

                          Carol P. Grossman, Four Rivers Books Ltd.

       5:00-7:00 PM    Reception

Sunday, October 24, 1999  

10:30-12:00 PM   Special Exhibition Viewing, General Theological Seminary,  75 Ninth Avenue (between 20th & 21st St.)

Special viewing of an exhibition commemorating the 450th anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer, at General Theological Seminary,  75 Ninth Avenue (between 20th & 21st St.). Curator Isaac Gewirtz will welcome visitors to the exhibition, entitled "But One Use." Visitors will also be able to view the Seminary's beautiful quadrangle or "Close," designed by Charles Coolidge Haight, a leader in the American Gothic Revival movement. Open to all, but please check box on registration form.

1:00-2:30 PM     Seminar at the Pierpont Morgan Library, 29 East  36th Street, West Conference Room

John Bidwell, Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings, will show examples of contemporary book design in the Morgan Library, including several of the "century" books discussed at the conference and displayed in the Grolier Club exhibition. Limited to 25.


Look at a list of previous conference topics.

Copyright 1999 The American Printing History Association. All rights reserved.
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