Dear Member of the American Printing History Association,
You are cordially invited to the Annual Meeting at 2 pm (EST) on Saturday, January 29, 2022, to celebrate excellence in printing history and conduct the Association’s business. Annual meeting information will be e-mailed to members and posted on this site. [Read more]
Dear Friends,
Black lives matter. The senseless deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and many Black men, women and children over the years must jolt us from complacency and force us to look closely at why we have reached this point. Institutions and organizations have too little questioned in what ways we contribute to systemic racism when white leadership and members are in the majority. The American Printing History Association’s purpose and the vision of its founders calls for us to do more. We are at a turning point. [Read more]
Restored Columbian hand press, volunteer Tim Dunn at typewriter (Elizabeth Haven Hawley)
Frank Romano and a full staff at the Museum of Printing welcomed more than 40 people associated with “Good, Fast, Cheap: Printed Words & Images in America before 1900” for a post-conference tour on Sunday, October 8. Near the museum’s entry, an eagle-crested Columbian, resplendent with gold details and the lever-and-weight system that maximized the machine’s impression force, hinted at the equipment in the galleries. The contents did not disappoint! [Read more]
The 1862 Hoe cylinder press at Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto. (Stephen Sword)
Stephen Sword: “Skills and Mechanization: The Transition from Hand Press to Cylinder” ¶ Jeff Pulaski: “After the Iron Press: The Grasshopper”
Technological change has no natural imperative, regardless of how logical such shifts might seem in hindsight. The time and place must provide a foothold, with securement facilitated rather than assured. Presentations by Stephen Sword and Jeff Pulaski conveyed a firm sense of the role of flesh-and-blood printers in the adoption of cylinder and country press designs in the nineteenth century. [Read more]
Position of the forme for the first pull, tympans and frisket omitted for clarity.
Richard Lawrence: “A New Wooden Press for Everyone to Try: The Dürer Press” ¶ Stan Nelson: “Printer’s Ink Balls: Their History and Use”
Alix Christie’s keynote lecture on her book Gutenberg’s Apprentice whet the appetite of conference attendees for clues about the mysteries of the master’s craft in its early years, and papers by Richard Lawrence and Stan Nelson did not disappoint. Their talks about the reconstruction of a historically accurate wooden press with wooden screw and the evolution of ink ball design offered superb details for those with a close interest in printing practices and experiential education. [Read more]
Paper mill in Kapuskasing, Ontario, n.d. Library and Archives Canada.
This session brought together the serendipitous pairing of Geoffrey Little and George Barnum for a panel titled Twentieth-Century Paper in Circulation. Paper played a key role in debates over U.S. tariffs and the growth of the U.S. Government Printing Office (US GPO). Papermaking thus became an important point of engagement for working out tensions between robust cultural discourse, government publication and commercial opportunities for profit. The two well-researched presentations highlighted how manufacturers, politicians and government officials negotiated the meaning of papermaking in a capitalist republic with an increasingly strong central government. [Read more]