Homes of American Authors (New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1853). (From the collection of the author)
The following paper was intended to be the keynote address at the APHA/CHAViC Conference. While Dr. Winship was unable to deliver it, the American Printing History Association is pleased that he has allowed us to present it here.
It has become a commonplace to associate the industrial revolution in the United States with the emergence of a mass culture aimed at a popular and commercial marketplace and to characterize the output of American printers and publishers of the industrial era with such adjectives as “good, fast, and cheap.” Many accounts echo this assessment, pointing to a supposed “century-long quest to make books more quickly, more cheaply, and in greater numbers than ever before.” If not exactly pejorative, such assessments do not hold much promise for the connoisseur of high-quality fine printing. [Read more]
Friday, October 6, 1:10-2:50 pm ★ Jennifer Chuong, “Fast and Slow Printing: Paper Marbling and Letterpress in Early America” ★ Jeffrey Croteau, “‘The Cheapest and Most Eligible Mode of Shedding Light on Masonry’: Anti-Masonic Almanacs, 1827–1837” ★ Kathleen Walkup, “Work Through a Gendered Lens: Image of Women in the Printing Trades” ★ Jonathan Wells, “Amateur Print Culture and the Origins of Desktop Publishing in America” [Read more]
Saturday, October 7, 3:30-5:15 pm ★ Baird Jarman, “Beaten to the Punch: Fake News Illustrations of the 1860 Boxing Championship” ★ Michael Knies, “‘American Novelties are Foolishness!’: British Judgements on the American Typeface and Printing Invasion, 1878–1890″ ★ Mathieu Lommen, “Lettering From Neo-Gothic to Art Nouveau: 19th Century American and European Lettering Manuals” ★ Rose Roberto, “(Re)Assembling Reference Books & Recycling Images: The Wood Engravings of the W. & R. Chambers Firm” [Read more]
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]
Michael Russem discusses an Isaiah Thomas title page—with and without ornament. (Robert McCamant)
Friday, October 6, 3:15-5:00 pm ★ Lynne Farrington, “A Very Good Book Indeed: Selling Bibles by Subscription in Nineteenth-Century America” ★ Vince Golden, “Mistakes and Mishaps in Early American Newspapers and What They Can Tell Us” ★ Michael Russem, “Ornament and the Printed Book in America” ★ Emily Sneff, “The Substance and Style of the First Printing of the Declaration of Independence” [Read more]
Amanda Nelsen and Josef Beery presenting. (Robert McCamant)
Saturday, October 7, 10:15-12:00 pm ★ Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, “Multitudinous Tints: An Inventor’s Pursuit of Instantaneous Multicolor Printing” ★ Julie Mellby, “Printed, Pasted, and Published: Edward Wilson’s Photographic Magazine” ★ Amanda Nelsen and Josef Beery, “Flying and Rolling in the Hand-Press Period: Book Production Efficiencies” ★ Hilary Stelling, “‘The best and most universally approved system of illustration …’: Jeremy Cross’s The True Masonic Chart” [Read more]
Saturday, October 7, 1:30-3:15 pm ★ James Berkey, “Controlling the Press, Losing the Battle: Ambiguity, Agency, and Print in Civil War Soldier Newspapers” ★ Joshua Brown, “Rise and Fall: Political Cartoons, Caricature, the Civil War, and the Transformation of Visual Satire” ★ Christine Garnier, “Assembling the Runaway: Self-Liberation and Visual Games of the American Civil War” ★ Kate Phillips, “The Topsy-Turvy Networks of Civil War Era Illustrated Envelopes” [Read more]
American Antiquarian Society founder Isaiah Thomas portrayed by actor Neil Gustafson. (Photo: Robert McCamant)
Friday, October 6, 6:45-8:30 pm ★ Christina Kraus, “‘Pointing the moral’ or ‘adorning the tale?’ Illustrations and Commentary on Vergil and Caesar in 19th Century American Textbooks”★ Shawna McDermott, “Phrenology and Childhood: Visual Portrayals in the Periodical Press 1850–1900” ★ Amanda Stuckey, “A Library for the Blind: Tactile Literacy and the Nineteenth-Century Embossed Book” ★ Laura Wasowicz, “From Plantation Bitters to Mi Abuela Facil: McLoughlin Brothers as ‘Manufacturer’ of Children’s Picture Books” [Read more]
Registration is open! The American Printing History Association’s 42nd annual conference will be held jointly with the Center for Historic American Visual Culture at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, October 6–7, 2017, with a post-conference event on October 8 at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Please join us amidst a colorful New England autumn at the institution founded in 1812 by Revolutionary War patriot and printer Isaiah Thomas for exploration of the production, distribution, reception, and survival of printed words and images in America to 1900.
The American Printing History Association (APHA) and the Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAViC) at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) welcome proposals for their joint conference
APHA and CHAViC invite proposals that explore the production, distribution, reception, and survival of printed words and images in America to 1900. In an era in which the process of design had not been separated from production, the purpose of the conference is to explore the inter-relation between composition, design, and printing processes. PDF[Read more]
