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For past events in the Chesapeake Chapter 2025, click here.
To see work from Chapter letterpress printers, click here.

Lead Graffiti exhibition at the
Frederick Book Arts Center
Frederick, Maryland
February 28 through May 3, 2025
Public Talk – 2:00, Saturday, April 5

Lead Graffiti has a major two-month-long solo exhibition with 200 pieces of our letterpress work at the Frederick Book Arts Center in Frederick, MD, running from Saturday, March 1, through Saturday, May 3, which is Print Day. We will be at the FBAC for two days during the exhibition. First, there will be a talk on Saturday, April 5 (2 – 4 pm), surrounded by the exhibition, about our endeavors, our design and printing process, and hopefully, answers to many questions about the work from those in attendance.

The FBAC and Lead Graffiti will also offer a Protest Poster Printing Via Letterpress Workshop at the FBAC (Saturday, April 5, from 9 – 1) and a test run of the workshop at Lead Graffiti (March 30, 10 – 5). The workshops will include several letterpress printing processes often incorporated in Lead Graffiti’s frequently experimental work.

Below is an example of one of the planned pieces each attendee will get to make to illustrate the need to “resist” while swarmed by the political chaos surrounding us. The type is printed from laser-cut bookboard, while the surrounding inking is hand-rolled.

You can link to both websites at Frederick Book Arts Center and Lead Graffiti.

UMD Libraries Announce Gift
of 150-Year-Old Printing Presses

The University of Maryland Libraries are excited to announce the acquisition of two 19th-century iron Washington hand presses donated to Special Collections and University Archives by Christopher and Patricia Manson of Rockville, MD and Ellie Denker of Potomac, MD. These gifts will be the foundation for a new letterpress printing studio on the ground floor of Hornbake Library, set to open in 2025.

Click here for the whole story.

Wanna see what it looked like? Click here.

It is always fun to find a U.S. Stamp (or foreign, for that matter) with a history of printing focus. Recently discovered this 1939 3¢ celebrating the 300th anniversary of printing in colonial America. The stamp, issued on September 25, 1939, pictures the Stephen Daye Press, the first printing press used in colonial America. The press was set up at Harvard College and printed the Freeman’s Oath in 1639. 

The press shown on the stamp is similar to the common press the Chesapeake Chapter recently donated to the Library of Congress. Now, we need to take this nice block-of-4 and include it in a broadside that we can display in the room.

New Chapter Officers through 2026

. . . Lauren Emeritz, President
. . . Casey Smith, Vice President
. . . Chris Sweterlitsch, Treasurer
. . . Jill Cypher, Secretary

PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE through 2026

. . . Eric Frazier
. . . Matthew Kirschenbaum
. . . Val Lucas
. . . Melanie Leung
. . . Ray Nichols
. . . James Quigley
. . . Stephanie Stillo

Casey Smith,
our Chapter Vice President,
has been named
Executive Director of the
Frederick Book Arts Center
in Frederick, Maryland.

Lead Graffiti Solo Exhibition
Newark Arts Alliance
Newark, DE
December 31, 2024 – January 17, 2025
Public reception
Friday, January 10, 6 – 8 pm

The letterpress studio of Lead Graffiti was voted Newark’s favorite artist of 2024 in a recent citizen poll by the Newark Post. That inspired the Newark Arts Alliance to dedicate its January exhibition to an overview of Lead Graffiti’s work over the past two decades and its dedication to “printing slowly & patiently via letterpress in Newark, Delaware.”

The solo exhibition, “Lead Graffiti: An Exhibition of Letterpress and Book Arts,” runs through January 17 at the Newark Arts Alliance Gallery in the Shoppes at Louviers on Paper Mill Road. A public reception will be held on January 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. The gallery is open to the public from noon to 4 p.m. daily and noon to 8 p.m. on Fridays.

Greetings, my thoughtful, creative, politically responsible friends!

Welcome to a riot of obsolescence!

The Impartial Observer is an artistic and literary venture — a quarterly journal — that flies in the face of just about all contemporary trends. Chesapeake Chapter member Greg Robison is the mastermind behind it all. You can get to the website by clicking here.

This simple website is the most technologically advanced element of this whole initiative. I use email, too, of course — I’m not a Luddite — and am always happy to speak to you on the electric telephone. But the Impartial Observer itself is otherwise an entirely hand-crafted, artisanal publication. It’s a physical object you can hold, printed slowly and patiently in limited editions from cast metal type using new equipment and tools 150 years ago. As an artist, I consider it a work of art on paper. You know: “paper,” a traditional, noble material made of natural fibers, not “pay per” as in “pay-per-view.” With reasonable care, such a work on paper will last for centuries without requiring (as everything digital in the cloud does) a never-ending consumption of hydrocarbons. Just as to produce it required the destruction of hardly any hydrocarbons either. Oh, and it’s distributed strictly by hand or through the post. You can’t see it online.

The Impartial Observer is a venture that bucks other contemporary trends, too. I’m not seeking an enormous number of subscribers; I’m producing it only for friends like you. (If I don’t know you, introduce yourself. You’ll probably fit in nicely.) I accept no advertising. The Impartial Observer is not the mouthpiece for any movement or organization’s newsletter.

Although this work flows from diverse streams of interest and activity in my life — as a visual artist, writer, Catholic, meditator, educator, and letterpress printer since childhood — I don’t intend it to be all about me. I’m inviting you, my friends, to help me write it and thereby form a loose community of reflection, creativity, and action. Specifically, I welcome from subscribers what I call “Paragraphs:” thoughtfully written texts of exactly 100 words (remember, the paper is composed by hand!), anchored in the first-person singular for authenticity, on one (or a combination) of the thematic interests we share, to wit:

2025 APHA Chesapeake Calendars
ARE SOLD OUT. 130 of ’em.
 

The Chesapeake Chapter of the American Printing History Association is now accepting applications for its Michael Denker Fellowships. 

About the Fellowship

Established in the memory of longtime chapter contributor, wood type collector, letterpress printer, and friend Michael Denker, a year-long fellowship, as a one-time award, provides free membership in the national association and the Chesapeake Chapter, invitations to Chapter events such as studio tours, behind-the-scenes museum visits, workshops, and more, as well as discounted registration for the annual national APHA conference and a subscription to the semiannual journal “Printing History.” The fellowship also provides an opportunity to present a body of work or research at the annual Chapter symposium at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

About APHA

The American Printing History Association promotes the study of the history of printing and related arts and crafts, including calligraphy, typefounding, typography, papermaking, bookbinding, illustration, and publishing. The Chesapeake Chapter comprises printers, artists, curators, historians, and collectors in the DC-Baltimore-Virginia-Delaware area. For more information about APHA, visit the national website at printinghistory.org.

To Apply

Send a short statement expressing your interest in the history and practice of printing and related arts and what you hope to gain from joining the Chapter’s diverse community. The deadline to apply is November 15th. Send your statement (or any questions) to the Chapter Secretary (ChesapeakeAPHA@gmail.com) with the subject “Denker Fellowship Application.” 

Applications will be notified in December.

Chesapeake Chapter Notes

Chesapeake Chapter Notes is emailed monthly to members and friends of the Chesapeake Chapter of the American Printing History Association. I want you to know that contributions are welcome and can be sent to the Chapter Secretary (ChesapeakeAPHA@gmail.com).

We are working on a page that shows some of the best letterpress projects printed by Chapter members. If you print and are savvy about social media, hashtag your in-progress or completed works using  #aphachesapeake.