APHA's Annual Conference

The American Printing History Association

APHA's Annual Conference

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THE AMERICAN PRINTING HISTORY ASSOCIATION is delighted to announce that its Thirty-third conference will be held in New York City, at the Grolier Club and Columbia University, is scheduled for October 10-12, 2008. (Columbus Day weekend.)

This year’s conference, APHA's 33rd, will be held in New York City, where it will be hosted by Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and The Grolier Club on October 10-12, 2008. We have scheduled the conference for the weekend after Oak Knoll Fest, Columbus Day weekend. Our working title is “Saving the History of Printing.” We will begin with a keynote address on Friday evening October 10th at the Grolier Club, and move on Saturday October 11th to Columbia University for a full day conference and then to Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library for a closing reception. Sunday will be an optional day of tours.

The conference theme will be about the preservation of the “stuff” of printing history, broadly conceived—such as artifacts like printed materials or the equipment (and resources) used to make those products, not to mention the archives produced in daily work. We do not want to omit the skills used in printing and its allied crafts. As we know all-too-well, many artifacts are in danger of being lost while the skills of many craftspeople will be forgotten. I remind you that APHA “encourages the preservation of printing artifacts and source materials for printing history” and we define printing history broadly: “…printing history and its related arts and skills, including calligraphy, typefounding, typography, papermaking, bookbinding, illustration, and publishing. APHA is especially, but by no means exclusively, interested in American printing history.”

Local planning and programs committees are being organized. If you would like to help, please contact Jane Siegel, Gerald Cloud, or Fernando Pena at apha2008conference@gmail.com

A Call for Papers has been issued (extended to May 1, 2008)
April 1, 2008 due date)

A list of past conferences is here.

Additional information, including a membership form, may be found at www.printinghistory.org.

Below please find expanded descriptions of recent conferences.

THE AMERICAN PRINTING HISTORY ASSOCIATION’S 32nd Annual Conference was held October 11-13, 2007 at UCLA and at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California. The theme was Transformations: The Persistence of Aldus Manutius. Sixteen academic papers were presented that focused on Aldus Manutius’ innovations and his continuing influence on printing history, scholarship, typography, type design, and modern fine printing. The papers were presented in pairs of concurrent panels.

More information:

September 5, 2007: Registrant information package (PDF). Copy of some of the materials mailed to conference registrants: Letter to Registrants (HTML) and UCLA campus exhibit map (PDF)
July 22, 2007: APHA 2007 Conference Registration Brochure (PDF/400K) Includes short list of speakers, hotel information and registration form.
Full Program with paper summaries and speaker biographies (HTML )
Original call for papers (HTML or PDF).

Acknowledgments: APHA would like to thank the following for their generous support of the 2007 APHA annual conference:

The UCLA Libraries and the Friends of the UCLA Libraries;
The Getty Research Institute;
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; and
The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America Southern California Chapter

Past Conferences

In 2006, to celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, APHA joined the Library Company of Philadelphia and the McNeil Center of the University of Pennsylvania for a conference called "The Atlantic World of Print in the Age of Franklin." The conference was sponsored by the McNeil Center and Library Company and was held in September 2006 at the University of Pennsylvania.

Conference papers were pre-circulated and expected to be read by all who planned to attend. Those who preregistered for the conference were provided free web access to the papers beginning in late August 2006.

Additional information, including program and lodging, as well as online registration, is available online via the McNeil Center website.

General Description of the Conference (offsite via McNeil Center)
Conference Program (offsite via McNeil Center)
Conference Registration (offsite via McNeil Center). Note that your receipt will have the url for downloading copies of the papers.
Information on lodging and transportation (offsite via McNeil Center)

[r]Evolution in Print: New Work in Printing History & Practice [2005]

September 22-23, 2005
Mills College
Oakland, CA

APHA's 2005 conference was held at Mills College in the San Francisco Bay Area from September 22nd and 23rd, 2005. The conference, entitled "[r]Evolution in Print: New Work in Printing History & Practice," combined academic papers with hands-on workshops and demonstrations that focus on the history, current status, and future of print. Read more about the 2005 conference.

Picture This: The Art and Technique of Illustration [2004]

September 30-Octobert 1, 2004
University of Delaware Library
Newark, DE

The 2004 conference, “Picture This: The Art and Technique of Illustration” was the 28th annual conference of APHA, and was held in conjunction with an exhibition of the work of renowned artist and wood engraver John DePol and with Oak Knoll Fest, the largest gathering of fine press printers, collectors, and hobbyist printers in North America.

2004 Conference Program (HTML or PDF). Note: Due to illness, the talk by Barry Moser was delivered by Martin Antonetti.
Related website: Offsite University of Delaware news article about the John DePol exhibition
Related website: Offsite University of Delaware news article about David Godine's lecture honoring John DePol, with photographs and quotations from the lecture.
Related website: Offsite University of Delaware's Raven Press's photographs of the APHA Luncheon and printing the DePol keepsake.
Related website: Offsite Oak Knoll Fest information, including schedule. Also, photographs from the Raven Press of Oak Knoll Fest.
Also available: the original 2004 call for papers.

New Work in Printing History [2003]

October 24-26, 2003
The Grolier Club www.grolierclub.org
47 East 60th Street
New York, NY

The American Printing History Association's twenty-seventh annual conference was held in New York, 24-25 October 2003, focused on recent and innovative research in printing history and the book arts. The three-day series of lectures and visits was hosted by The Grolier Club, America’s oldest bibliophilic society.

2003 Conference program and schedule (HTML). Note: The talk by Julia Gardner on Emily Faithful was not delivered.

Also available: The original 2004 call for papers, including instructions.

A New England Wayzgoose [2002 "On the Road" Event]

October 27, 2002
The Museum of Printing www.museumofprinting.org
800 Massachusetts Avenue
North Andover, Massachusetts

SUNDAY OCTOBER 27, 1:00-3:00 PM. Two talks on preserving the pre-digital past, from APHA's July panel at the SHARP London conference, were re-presented. The Museum of Printing hosted the event. Scheduled to coincide with the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair, many members of APHA and the Museum took the opportunity to have a bookish weekend in Massachusetts.

The two talks presented here were part of an attempt to answer the question (presented as part of the original panel): In the rush to digitization, what are we losing about twentieth-century print culture? What technologies and information and stories about printing production are disappearing? What is needed to save them for historians of print? Which organizations are collecting and preserving technologies and stories?

Talks were presented by APHA Members Alice Beckwith, Professor of Art History, Providence College, and Coordinator, APHA Oral History Project, "Voices from the Digital Edge: The APHA Oral History Project," and Paul Romaine, former Curator and Executive Director, The Gilder Lehrman Collection, and Vice-President for Membership, APHA, "Preserving Printing Artifacts: Museums, Associations and Individuals."

See previous conference topics.