APHA's Annual Conference

The American Printing History Association

APHA's Annual Conference

About APHA

Printing History

Regional Chapters

APHA Events

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, will be held October 10-12, 2008. (Columbus Day weekend.)

Saving the History of Printing, the 33rd annual conference of the American Printing History Association, will address the preservation of both the materials and practices which are the primary sources of printing history. As the digital revolution continues its creative destruction, we are faced with saving not only physical materials like presses, type, and other equipment; manuals, catalogs and other printed material; and drawings and other archives, but the skills and knowledge to use and produce them.

The 2008 conference features a keynote address by James Mosley, the distinguished type historian, at The Grolier Club on Friday, October 10. The main proceedings on Saturday, October 11 will be at Columbia University. Prominent curators, printers, type casters, scholars, technologists and teachers from the United States and Europe will bring their unique perspectives and experience to inform and inspire conversation about current strategies and future plans, as we identify at-risk areas and urgent priorities.

Latest News!

Paul Shaw Tour is sold-out! The Sunday morning Walking Tour with Paul Shaw is completely sold-out and the wait-list has been filled.
New! Information for Attendees [PDF/150K] [Word Doc/350K]
NYC resources including Directions, instructions, maps and short schedule as well as some exhibition information.
Printable Program and Registration Form [PDF /1.2MB]
Printable Conference Registration Form [PDF/30K]
Conference program (HTML)

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

The Grolier Club
The Rare Books and Manuscript Library of Columbia University
The Mid Atlantic Section of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America

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.