The NorCal chapter sponsors lectures, field trips, and other opportunities to meet fellow members on an informal basis.

You’ll find lots more photos of NorCal’s programs & projects at our Flickr site.

SAVE THE DATE! April 29, 2023

Bay Area Printers’ Fair & Wayzgoose

Past Events

Broadside Printing, SFPL, February 11, 2023

21st-Century Letterpress with Dafi Kühne. A Type West Special Event, co-sponsored by NorCal APHA

Letterform Archive, January 17, 2023

Urban Lettering Walk of Downtown Oakland with Paul Shaw

August 13, 2022

Save The Date! we are pleased to announce that Ben Blount will be the featured speaker at our virtual annual membership meeting.

December 15th, 5 p.m. (Pacific.) register here for this free event.

APHA NorCal invites you to a FREE Virtual Tour of the Letterform Archive.  Join us and be among the first to get a glimpse of their beautiful, brand-new home.

Juan Pablo Ayala Teams Up With Letterform Archive To Talk About Latinx printing

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, Noon (Pacific Time) Juan Pablo Ayala, Mills College Book Art graduate student, and Letterform Archive staff will share materials from their collection related to and inspired by APHA’s conference theme Impresos: Printing Across Latin American and Caribbean Cultures. Join us! This program is free but registration is required. Register here.  See you there! https://printinghistory.org/

DEADLINE TO SIGN UP EXTENDED TO AUGUST 13TH!

International Kelmscott Press Day : June 26, 2021

Happy International Kelmscott Press Day!

Celebrate the 125th anniversary of the publication of William Morris’s The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by visiting one, in-person, as soon as it is safe to do so. We are fortunate to have quite a few copies nearby. Here’s a handy list of Bay Area institutions that own at least one.

Bancroft Library, Berkeley [4 copies: 2 Doves bindings and 1 by Herbert and Peter Fahey]

Book Club of California, San Francisco [Michael Wilcox binding]

McCune Collection, Vallejo [the citizens’ crown jewel]

Mills College, Oakland [Anne Henning (Kahle) binding, doublures, and endpapers]

San Francisco Public Library [2 copies: 1 copy autographed by Edward Burne-Jones]

Santa Clara University [Michael Wilcox binding]

Stanford University [Doves binding]

State Library, Sacramento [Sangorski & Sutcliffe binding]

U. San Francisco: [Doves binding]

Designed & Printed by Nelly Maciel.

Postcard designed and printed by Nelly Maciel. Thanks to Grendl Löfkvist for the photo.

Save Mills College

We stand with Mills College and the Mills College Book Art Program. Since 1852 Mills College, located in Oakland, California, has supported the values of a liberal arts education. The college has been at the forefront of experimentation and innovation in the arts. In 1983 Mills launched the first separate degree-granting graduate program in Book Art in the country. The college has strongly supported diversity and inclusion in its educational goals; today the college is a Hispanic-Serving Institution with an undergraduate population of 65% students of color and a transgender-inclusive admissions policy. We support efforts by students, faculty, staff, alumnae/I and the larger community to keep Mills and the Book Art Program alive and thriving. Join us!

March 2021: Never to late for a valentine. Thank you Sharon Kallenberger for printing our beautiful Covid-19-era valentine. Everyone loved receiving theirs in the mail.

Get Your NorCal Zoom Virtual Backgrounds Here! use ’em with pride!

Questions? Email: dunsethl@hotmail.com

Time to Celebrate Mills College Book Art Program

Greetings NorCal! Let’s Celebrate! The Mills College Book Art Program has been awarded APHA’s 2021 Institutional Award and Kathleen Walkup will be accepting the honor on behalf of Mills.  Join us on Saturday, January 30, 2021 for the program at 11 a.m. (Pacific) Check here for the Zoom link.

For Sale! POTLUCK POSTCARD PROJECT 2020. December 17, 2020

We managed, despite Covid-19, to coordinate the Potluck Postcard Project 2020.  It was fun and socially distant. Participants enjoyed receiving their packets of postcards in the mail. The bellybands were printed by Lisa Rappoport and each envelope was decorated by Jennie Hinchcliff. We have ten extra sets of postcards (in plain envelopes) for sale to raise funds for the chapter.

For $38 you can have a set too (which includes shipping and handling.) Cash or check only. If you want a set, please contact: dunsethl@hotmail.com

Annual membership meeting, december 14, 2020

Annual Report 2020

Please join us at the Membership Meeting for a review of 2020, election of officers, and discussion of goals for 2021 which will be NorCal Chapter’s 25th year! We welcome your questions and comments and you can contact us at: dunsethl@hotmail.com.We look forward to seeing you online on December 14th at 4 p.m. Take care & be well everyone.
Sincerely,
Lisa Dunseth, President
APHA, NorCal Chapter

José Guadalupe Posada: The Art of Cultural Critique

Remedios Gómez Arnau, Mexico’s Consul General, named 2020 the Year of Mexico in San Francisco at Arion Press’s opening reception for José Guadalupe Posada: The Art of Cultural Critique. The Grabhorn Institute presents the work of the prolific and popular Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) in this exhibition which features his widely known political illustrations and enduring works such as La Calavera Catrina. The exhibition includes nearly seventy selections from the Brady Nikas Collection and Posada Art Foundation and includes rarely shown original printing plates and historical prints. Collector and documentarian Jim Nikas, along with artist Enrique Chagoya, will lead a tour of the exhibit on Marth 5th at 5:30 p.m. There will also be a film screening of the Posada documentary on March 18th, at 5:30 p.m. You can RSVP for either event at: arionpress@arionpress.com. February 11 -April 3, 2020; Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., or by special arrangement.

ARION PRESS / M&H TYPE / GRABHORN INSTITUTE  

1802 HAYS STREET, THE PRESIDIO

SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94129 

(415) 668-2542   ARIONPRESS@ARIONPRESS.COM

Valentine Printing at the San Francisco Public Library, February 8, 2020

Li Jiang, Brian Ferrett, and Grendl Löfkvist all helped insure that eighty people were able to experience letterpress printing!

NORCAL’S ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING: DECEMBER 9, 2019

The Adventures of the Mark Twain Museum and the Territorial Enterprise Newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada: Discovering a Vast Collection of Antique Type from the 1860’s, with Steve Robison (aka Tahoe Letterpress) and Katherine Case (aka Meridian Press.) Grendl introduced our speakers with style and everyone enjoyed the story Steve and Katherine had to tell. The reception was courtesy of the Book Club of California — many thanks to our friends at the Book Club for their support of the chapter.

NorCal’s 1st-ever Collaborative letterpress Calendar for 2020 

The NorCal Chapter’s 2020 Collaborative Letterpress Calendar has been printed, collated, bound, and finished. It is beautiful.

* JUST A FEW CALENDARS LEFT! $20! You can purchase one online here (thank you Matt and the San Jose Printers’ Guild.) We believe that our friends at Bird & Beckett Books & Records have sold all of their copies. Please contact Lisa at dunsethl@hotmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you!

All profits from sales of the calendar will support the activities of the chapter. Thank you for your support of NorCal.

We are grateful to everyone who participted in this project, including the collators, organizers, and enthusiasts (and to the Chesapeake Chapter for inspiration.)

But thanks especially to the printers: Alan Dye, Matt Kelsey, Kathleen Burch, Jonathan Clark, Nicky Yeager, Li Jiang, Linda Stinchfield, Camden Richards, Mike Day , Mark Knudsen, Grendl Löfkvist & Nelly Maciel, Dina Pollack and John McBride.

roadworks at the SF Center for the book

Our friend Brian Ferrett from M&H Type & Arion Press was offering the NorCal 2020 Calendar for sale in his booth at Roadworks last Sunday, September 22, 2019. What a fine day! And many thanks to Brian for his support of the NorCal Chapter!

Printers in Petaluma? O Yeah! YOU’LL FIND PHOTOS OF THE EVENT HERE!

The American Printing History Association’s NorCal Chapter presents Printers in Petaluma? O Yeah! Visit Paragon Label & In Cahoots Residency in Petaluma, California on Friday, August 9, 2019, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Tour Paragon Label, printer of award-winning wine labels  where “Your Label is a Work of Art” and visit Macy Chadwick’s In Cahoots Residency, for a meet-and-greet with resident printers and artists. Free for APHA members and one guest. $10 for nonmembers. Group size will be limited, so sign-up soon. REGISTER HERE!  If you have questions you can send email to: dunsethl@hotmail.com

The Bay Area Printers’ Fair in San Jose 

We visited the printers’ fair in San Jose this past weekend, chatted with quite a few NorCal members, visited with old friends, and met new ones. We distributed our new hot-off-the-press NorCal flyers too. Thanks to Jonathan Clark, Artichoke Press, for the beautiful printing.

The Voltmers Receive the Oscar Lewis Award

Longtime APHA members Fred and Barbara Voltmer were awarded the Oscar Lewis Award for Book Arts at the Book Club of California on April 8, 2019. Fred and Barbara Voltmer are a well-known and valued resource within the community of Bay Area letterpress printers. Together they operate Havilah Press in Emeryville where they have completed many fine printing projects of original and facsimile material in limited editions. Havilah Press uses traditional letterpress equipment – Columbian and Albion handpresses – along with lead type, metal and wood engravings, and polymer plates. Most of their books are designed, edited, printed, and bound in-house. With his knowledge of presses and printing Fred has often answered the call to help both individuals and staff at institutions with the repair and restoration of their printing equipment.Theirs is a well-deserved award and we are delighted that they have been recognized in this way. Congratulations!  View more photos from the event.

You are invited!

Join APHA’s NorCal Chapter for a guided tour of the Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books with Stephen Woodall, Collections Specialist at the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. Saturday, May 18, 2019, 10 a.m. Legion of Honor Museum Lincoln Park, 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121. The Reva and David Logan collection contains one of the most important collections of modern artist illustrated books. And Steve loves to show them! Don’t miss this opportunity to visit the Achenbach. This tour is free after museum admission and is limited to twenty people. 

Sign Up Here!

You’ll find photos of our visit here.

Call For Participants! 2020 Collaborative Calendar Project

The Northern California Chapter of the American Printing History Association invites members to participate in the creation of a 2020 collaborative calendar. Profits from calendar sales will be used to raise funds for chapter activities. All contributors will receive two complimentary copies of the calendar. If you’d like to participate: Contact Lisa Dunseth: dunsethl@hotmail.com  by April 22nd with this information: your name, phone number, email address, and preferred choice of: month, front cover, or back cover. Design Guidelines: Paper size: 7”x11”, vertical or portrait orientation; Paper type: 60 lb. cover stock or your choice of paper style & weight; Margins: allow a 1” margin at the top to allow for spiral binding and hole punching; Content: include the name of the month and some version of a calendar grid; Quantity: 120 copies of your page. Deadlines: April 22: reserve the page want to print; July 29: your final calendar pages are due. Mail or deliver your contribution to: Samantha Cairo-Toby, San Francisco Public Library, Book Arts & Special Collections, 100 Larkin Street, SF, CA 94102. October: participants receive their complimentary copies and calendars for sale at APHA’s Annual Conference at the U. of Maryland in College Park. For inspiration see the Chesapeake Chapter’s calendar. Calendar templates can be found here.

Thanks for participating! Let’s see what NorCal can do!

Horwinski Printing featured in Wendy Macnaughton’s “Meanwhile” column in the NYTimes.

“An Immovable Type Who Won’t Abandon His Movable Type,” from MacNaughton’s illustrated column about the “big implications of seemingly small things.” You’ll find lots of photos of James and his impressive shop from APHA NorCal’s field trip a few years back: click here.  

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING: DECEMBER 10, 2018

The NorCal Chapter of the American Printing History Association and
The Book Club of California present

Street Democracy: San Francisco Poster Syndicate: an illustrated talk
with Art Hazelwood

Hazelwood will discuss his work with the San Francisco Poster Syndicate. The SFPS is a group of artists and activists who, in the spirit of generosity and in order to make political action more enjoyable, print posters which they give away for free. They use the silkscreen process in real-time and on-the-street during protests and actions. Some of their work has responded to issues related to the crisis in higher education; making a living wage; homelessness; and the death penalty.

Join us for an engaging and informative talk.

Monday, December 10, 2018

NorCal Chapter’s ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING at 4:30
Hospitality at 5 p.m.
Lecture at 6 p.m.

The Book Club of California 312 Sutter Street, Suite 500
San Francisco, California 94108

A Tremendous Sheet of Paper!

We were front page news in Iowa City during the APHA/Friends of Dard Hunter Conference. We had beautiful weather and a lovely weekend full of interesting talks and engaging people. Thanks and congratulations to all the planners and organizers for making it happen. See photos here.

OF INTEREST:  A.T.F. Conference, August 23 – 26, 2018

M&H Type will be hosting a unique opportunity in August.

We are hosting the bi-annual American Typecasting Fellowship conference here in San Francisco with most events happening at M&H Type. The conference is dedicated to gathering hobbyists, professionals, and anyone interested in letterpress printing and typecasting to come together to learn, share stories, and update on the craft. Our doors will be open to show and demonstrate our casting equipment and we will also host a series of Technical Sessions that will involve hands on work on typecasting machines. More information can be found here.

SAVE THE DATE! 

The Calligraphy & Lettering of W. A. Dwiggins: An illustrated lecture by Paul Shaw sponsored by the Friends of Calligraphy, Tuesday, August 14, 2018, 6 p.m. San Francisco Public Library, Main Library, Koret Auditorium.

We had a fun URBAN LETTERING WALK with Paul Shaw! Here are a few pictures of the day.

APHA NorCal URBAN LETTERING WALK with Paul Shaw San Francisco: Financial District and Market Street Saturday, August 18, 2018, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Patrick Reagh at the NBLA Printshop

Friday, June 29, 2018 7:00 PM and Sunday, July 1, 2018 5:30 PM. North Bay Letterpress Arts will host Pat along with his many books & prints on the weekend of June 29-July 1st. There will be an evening reception on that Friday the 29th, at which Pat will hold forth against all comers, telling the somewhat true story of his life as a printer and imparting at least a figment of his accumulated wisdom in matters of book design, typeface prejudice, and presstidigitation.

SAVE THE DATE!  Mark Your Calendar! Walking Tour With Paul Shaw, August 18, 2018!

SAVE THE DATE! Mark Your Calendar for California Rare Book School Dates In NorCal!

Mark Your Calendar! Grass Valley/Nevada City Printers’ Weekend.  Visit The Petrarch Press &  Full Circle Press,    June 8 and 9, 2018.

UPDATE: We had a great weekend. See photographic evidence here.

Details and Invites to come. Space will be limited. In the meantime, you can email your questions to: dunsethl@hotmail.com

BAY AREA PRINTERS’ FAIR AND WAYZGOOZE April 21st!

It was really fun traveling to San Jose to check in on the Bay Area Printers’ Fair and Wayzgoose on April 21st. Why was I surprised to run into so many APHA NorCal members there? Kathy Walkup, Pat Reagh, Eric Johnson, Maria Ayala, Robert Perry, Randy and Katie Chilton, Patrick Foley–they were all busy sharing, selling, buying, and just visiting with each other. Great opportunity to do some NorCal recruiting too. And what a remarkably pleasant venue the SJ History Park is! Thanks everyone for making this event really special — well done. You’ll find more photos of this fine day here.

https://printinghistory.org/chesapeake-chapter-2018-calendar/ Calendar Templates Are Available HERE.

VISITING THE OHIO RIVER VALLEY CHAPTER

The NorCal Chapter President made a recent journey to Cincinnati, Ohio where she visited with the Ohio River Valley Chapter’s Gary Walton and had a tour of the new Cincinnati Type & Print Museum he is establishing there. It was inspiring to hear about this endeavor which will acknowledge Cincinnati’s important printing history and bring a positive and vibrant presence to the Lower Price Hill neighborhood.

She also drove an hour south to Monterey, Kentucky to visit with Gray Zeitz who has been making beautiful books featuring Kentucky authors at the Larkspur Press for over 45 years. What a treat! And a highly recommended field trip!

Mark Your Calendars! The Remembering Jack Werner Stauffacher event on March 16th will be held at the SF Center for the Book.

PAST EVENTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST

Mark your calendar! The NorCal Chapter presents the NORTH BAY PRINTERS’ TOUR. Visit the shops of PATRICK REAGH PRINTERS & NORTH BAY LETTERPRESS in Sebastopol, CA. Saturday, March 10, 2018. 10 a.m.—2 p.m. Lunch break from 11:30-1:00 p.m. Tours are free to members, $10 for non-members. Space is limited to 15 people. RSVP to: dunsethl@hotmail.com

A couple of photos from the North Bay field trip…

...and you'll find more photos from the day here.

Seventh Annual Valentine Printing Event at the SFPL!

MYSTERY IMAGE: You can find out more about how this is connected to the Valentine printing at the San Francisco Public Library by reading this blogpost. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Saturday, February 3, 2018, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Experience letterpress printing on the SFPL Main Library’s 1909 Albion handpress and take home a unique keepsake for your sweetheart!  Everyone is invited, but broadsides will be limited to the first 100 people.

james keenan on bookplate printing

Monday, December 11, 2017

APHA NorCal teamed up with the Book Club of California to present this lively talk on bookplate printing by the President of the American Society of Bookplate Collectors and Designers.

TOUR OF NORTH BERKELEY PRINTERS’ ROW!

Saturday, June 10, 2017, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Join APHA NorCal as we stroll around North Berkeley and visit some of the local print shops. We will see the studios of Norman McKnight, David Lance Goines, Richard Seibert, and Li Jiang, and we will be treated to a delicious lunch along the way.

This tour is strictly limited to the first 15 people who sign up! Be sure to renew your APHA NorCal membership, if you haven’t already, and sign up here today!

CELEBRATING THE VOLTMERS!

Saturday, February 25, 2017, at 7 p.m.

APHA NorCal joined forces with a whole fleet of other Bay Area organizations, listed below, to celebrate the contributions of APHA members Fred and Barbara Voltmer whose handpresses were refurbished or repaired by the Voltmers. Organizations include: Arion Press, American Bookbinders Museum, Book Club of California, Bridwell, Havilah Press, Jonathan Finegold, Mills College, Noble Impressions, Philoxenia, SF Center for the Book, SFPL Main, Rare Books Room, University of San Francisco, and Vallejo/McCuen.

Click the link to read APHA NorCal Secretary Lisa Dunseth’s excellent SFPL blog post about the event, and click this link to view APHA NorCal member Peter E. Hanff’s beautiful photos on the APHA NorCal Flickr page!

SFPL BROADSIDE PRINTING

Saturday, February 4, 2017, from 2 to 4 p.m.

APHA NorCal and the SFPL teamed up for the sixth annual Valentine’s Broadside printing! This photo shows APHA NorCal member David Hooper and APHA friend Brian Ferrett warming up the SFPL’s handpress as we geared up for another successful printing day (photo credit: Andrea Grimes, SFPL).

Gary Price, another APHA NorCal member, got the little “Baltimorean” (or is it “Baltimore?” You will have to ask Gary for the detailed explanation!) running as well, helping library patrons print their own Alice in Wonderland keepsake cards.

Many APHA NorCal members were in attendance, including Fred and Barbara Voltmer, Alan Dye, Gary Price, Norman McKnight, Samantha Cairo-Toby, Lisa Dunseth, and Grendl Löfkvist (did I miss anyone? Let me know! There were so many of us, it was hard to keep track!)

Valentine’s broadsides were limited to the first 100 people, and we “sold out!” A great time was had by all. Be sure to join us next year!

Link to more information about this talk by Alastair Johnston here.

A GRAND DAY OUT!

Saturday, September 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

APHA NorCal Invites you to tour two presses in the American Steel Studios on Saturday, September 17, at 11 a.m.

We will visit the typecasting and print studio of The Prototype Press and Rebecca Peters Press. After a no-host lunch we will visit the Crucible at 2 p.m.

This tour is ticketed (APHA NorCal members FREE (but please register), their friends FREE, students FREE, general public $10).

We hope to see you there!

WALKING TOUR OF SAN FRANCISCO WITH PAUL SHAW

Sunday, August 14, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Type scholar and lettering obsessive Paul Shaw led us on a special tour of old school San Francisco signage.

This event sold out! Read all about it here. Photos on the NorCal Flickr site here.

Cost was $15 for current APHA NorCal members, $20 for their guests, and $25 for the general public.

2007 FLASHBACK:  APHA NORCAL VISITS GREENWOOD PRESS

June 27, 2007

APHA NorCal member Norman McKnight dug up some photos from his “vault” to share with us of an APHA NorCal visit to Jack Stauffacher’s Greenwood Press in 2007. Check them out on our flickr site!

sutro library/united irish cultural center library tours

Saturday, June 11, 2016, from 2 to 5 p.m.

APHA NorCal enjoyed a fantastic, exclusive tour of the Sutro and J. Paul Leonard Library collections, followed by a visit to the United Irish Cultural Center library (and, of course, their pub!)

Check our flickr site for photos of the event!

Another member has left us

Memorial services on Saturday, May 14, at 2 p.m.

We bid farewell to APHA NorCal member and esteemed bibliophile, scholar, and print historian Dr. Henry Snyder.

Dr. Snyder will be greatly missed. For more information about Dr. Snyder’s accomplished life and his upcoming memorial services, click here.

BOOK ARTS BIND-A-THON

Wednesday, April 13, from 5 to 8 p.m.

As part of the College Book Art Association’s new initiative, Book Art Gives Back, Mills College in Oakland is happy to announce a Bay Area Bindathon. Please join Mills students on campus on Wednesday, April 13, 2016, from 5-8pm, in CPM 106 to bind blank journals that will be used by under-served Bay Area populations such as prison classes, adult literacy programs and youth writing groups.

All experience levels welcome!  For more information, go to http://www.collegebookart.org/Community-Service

For directions to Mills, go to http://www.mills.edu/directions

Printers’ fair and wayzgoose

Saturday, April 9, 2016, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The 2016 Bay Area Printers’ Fair & Wayzgoose will be Saturday, April 9 at History Park, 635 Phelan Ave.,  in San Jose, CA.

Visitors can print a poster from wood type on a vintage hand-cranked press, or handset and print their name with metal type. Twenty-nine exhibitors will be offering letterpress printed goods, book arts, paper, ink, wood and metal type, and printing equipment and supplies.

For more information about the fair see: https://printersguild.wordpress.com

BODONI: The face behind the face with valerie lester

Wednesday, March 9, 2016, from 6–8 p.m.

This lecture is co-sponsored by Type@CooperWest, and will be held in the SFPL’s Koret Auditorium.

Valerie Lester is the author of the first English language biography of Giambattista Bodoni, the late 18^th century Italian typographer, type-designer, compositor, printer, and publisher. Lester’s is an impressive feat of scholarship, both in her writing and research, and in the fact that she has made a book as lively and readable as it is impeccably researched. It contains some rarely-seen images of Bodoni’s work and is also beautifully designed and printed.

She delves deeply into Bodoni’s life, work, and milieu by providing the context of the time and place in which he lived. She introduces the people who deeply influenced him: his father in Saluzzo; Cardinal Spinelli in Rome; Fournier; his employers the Duke and Duchess of Parma; Guillaume du Tillot (the Prime Minister of Parma); the Amoretti family of printers; the Didots; his talented wife Margherita Dall’Aglio; and his two great patrons Nicolás de Azara and Joachim Murat (Napoleon’s brother-in-law).

Besides Giambattista Bodoni: His Life and His World (2014), Lester has authored Phiz, the Man Who Drew Dickens (2004); a biography of her great-great-grandfather, Hablot Knight Browne (Dickens’s principal illustrator); and Fasten Your Seat Belts! History and Heroism in the Pan Am Cabin (1995.)

The talk will be accompanied by a pop-up exhibit of Bodoni’s work and his typeface in action.

APHA NorCal will offer celebratory refreshments after the lecture.

INformal mixer with master printer peter fraterdeus

Tuesday, February 2, 2016, at 7 p.m.

APHA NorCal  is having an informal mixer with Master Printer Peter Fraterdeus, who is in town to teach an advanced Windmill workshop.

This event is tomorrow evening (Tuesday, February 2) starting at 7 p.m. at Yield wine bar (2490 3rd Street) in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. Come on by and have a glass of wine with a bunch of printers (and their fans)! 

Another printer has left us

Posted Monday, November 9, 2015

Yet another passing to report, this time brother Allen Stump, who died last week.

Allen started as a boy printer in Los Angeles, riding his bike to LA Type. He established his first commercial letterpress shop in Venice, later another shop in Vancouver, and then his final shop, A Mano Press, in Hayward. He gathered an amazing amount of type and equipment there.

Friends are planning an informal memorial gathering Wednesday November the 18th from 6 – 8 p.m. at the American Bookbinders Museum, 355 Clementina (between 4th and 5th, Howard and Folsom). Street parking may be available but you can also park in the 5th and Mission garage. <http://www.bookbindersmuseum.org/>

–Eric Holub, SF

ANNUAL MEETING at Mills College Olin library

Sunday, November 8, 2015, from 3–5 p.m.

This special Annual Membership Meeting at the Mills College Olin Library, included (among other things):

• A pop-up exhibition of handpress printing, curated by Janice Braun, including a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, a leaf from the Kelmscott Chaucer, a book printed by Frederic and Bertha Goudy on a handpress once owned by William Morris, and contemporary handpress books from Electio Editions and Havilah Press

• Reports from participants attending the annual national APHA conference

• Gala reception courtesy of the Mills College Center for Book Art!

Many thanks to Janice Braun, Kathy Walkup, and the Mills College Center for the Book  for the wonderful hospitality! This certainly has been a memorable “Year of the Handpress” for APHA NorCal members and friends!

OPEN HOUSE AT THE LETTERFORM ARCHIVE

Saturday, September 12, from 1–4 p.m.

Photos of the Letterform Archive tour are up! Check our Flickr site to see more of our “staff photographer” Maria Ayala’s beautiful work.

We hope you enjoyed our special APHA NorCal Open House at the Letterform Archive in San Francisco on Saturday, September 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. This was a great opportunity to socialize with other APHA NorCal members while getting an introduction to the collections and staff at the Letterform Archive.

The Letterform Archive, located at 1001 Mariposa, #307, on Potrero Hill, is a nonprofit institution that serves students, practitioners, and admirers of the lettering arts—typography, calligraphy, graphic design, the history of written communication, printing history, and related fields. Through their impressive collection of 25,000+ physical and digital artifacts, including books, periodicals, posters, artist books, typefoundry ephemera, etc., the Letterform Archive is a venue for inspiration, education, research, and community formation.

PHOTOS OF HORWINSKI AND OMNI TOURS ARE UP!

July 6, 2015

Go to APHA NorCal’s new Flickr page to see images from our June outing to Oakland print shops Horwinski Printing and Omni’s Material Print Machine! These great photos were taken by APHA NorCal member Maria Ayala. If you missed the event, don’t despair, you can now take a virtual tour thanks to Maria’s beautiful pictures of both print shops.

Of interest to APHA NorCal members

For a brief excursion into the world of wood type specimens at the San Francisco Main Library, check out the library’s latest blog entry. NorCal President Grendl Löfkvist worked with NorCal VP Lisa Dunseth to review and comment on the Grabhorn Collection of Printing History and its extensive and exquisite collection of wood type specimen sheets. Read all about it!

And if you’re in the neighborhood, drop by the SFPL Main Branch, 6th floor,  and check the Grabhorn collection out for yourself.

past events

Saturday, June 13, 2015, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A DAY OF OAKLAND PRINTING

APHA NorCal went on an extended tour of Oakland print shops, from old-school Horwinski Printing to the Omni Collective’s Material Print Machine, with a lunch stop in between! The site visits were incredible, and lunch at the local taquería was delicious!

Read a brief review of the outing by APHA NorCal VP Lisa Dunseth here.

The postal invitation was designed and printed by the crew at MPM.

We heard back from them regarding our query as to how we could help out. They responded with this wish list of printing and bookbinding accessories.

If any APHA members would like to contribute to MPM, please contact them at materialprintmachine@googlegroups.com.

MPM WISH LIST

NEWS

Of interest to APHA NorCal Members:

Sad news from long-time APHA NorCal Member Eric Holub:

“We lost two dedicated printers in the last week. First, the legendary Graham Mackintosh, known and respected for his own work at White Rabbit Press, and as printer for Black Sparrow Press.

A few days later Bruce Washbish of Anchor & Acorn Press passed away following a stroke. Bruce’s father Bob Washbish was co-owner of Taylor & Taylor at one time, and if you go to the California Historical Society Kemble Library, there is a scale model of the Taylor & Taylor press-room that Bruce made as a teenager.

He was also the last printer to do the Book Club of California Quarterly News-Letter by hot metal composition.
They were both remarkable men who did things their own way.”

Ongoing through December 12, 2015

History San José and the San José Printers’ Guild present the exhibition Slugs, Dingbats, & Tramp Printers! Printing in Santa Clara Valley, opening April 2015 and running through December 12, 2015. For more information go to http://historysanjose.org/wp/events/slugs-dingbats-tramp-printers-printing-in-santa-clara-valley/

March 4, 2015, at 6 p.m.

For those that missed last November’s tour of the Grabhorn with Alastair Johnston, don’t despair: this Wednesday, March 4, he will repeat the performance (with the caveat that he is giving a slideshow, as opposed to the private tour APHA NorCal members got in November!)

He will present the illustrated talk at the SFPL’s Koret Auditorium. For more information on this event, go to SFPL.

Of interest to APHA NorCal Members:

Saturday, February 28, 2015

M&H Type celebrate 100th anniversary

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of both the PPIE and M&H Typefounders on Saturday, February 28, at M&H/Arion Press in the San Francisco Presidio. The day will feature tours and demos of the 100 year old Monotype machines from 12 – 5, and printing of a commemorative broadside. Go to M&H Type for more information.

Saturday, February 14, 2015, from 2 to 4 p.m.

CELEBRATING LETTERPRESS, VALENTINES, & THE PPIE

APHA NorCal teams up with the SFPL to help you last-minute lovebirds out on Valentine’s Day:

APHA NorCal is proud to co-sponsor the 4th Annual Valentine Broadside Printing Event at San Francisco’s Main Library. Join us on the 6th Floor as we print a broadside that celebrates both Valentine’s Day and the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition! All are welcome, but broadsides are limited to the first 100 people. For more information, go to www.sfpl.org.

Saturday, January 31, from noon to 2 p.m.

FREE Members Only CCSF press tour with Bob Pinetti!

Please join us on this very special tour of SF City College’s historical, beautiful, and functional letterpress shop. Master printer Bob Pinetti (92 years young!) will recount the provenance of presses and type, giving us a salty taste of local printing history.

Members who have renewed for 2015 can expect an email invitation shortly. Don’t miss out — renew now!

Sunday, November 16, 2014, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon

FREE Members Only SFPL Grabhorn Tour with Alastair Johnston!

This Members Only Sunday Salon was a great success. Alastair Johnston gave a spirited tour of the Grabhorn Collection to a full house. For a list of works viewed, click here.

Sunday, November 16, 2014, from 12 noon to 1 p.m.

APHA NorCal General Membership Meeting

The Annual Meeting was well attended, and we welcome Lisa Dunseth of SFPL Special Collections as our new APHA NorCal VP, with Grendl Löfkvist continuing as President, Gary Price continuing as Secretary, and Chris Kox continuing as Treasurer.

We also welcome two new Board Members, David Faulds of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, and Rob Saunders of the Letterform Archive. Congratulations all!

Minutes from the meeting, taken by new VP Lisa Dunseth, can be found here, and the next APHA NorCal Board Meeting will be January 28, 2015, held at the San Francisco Center for the Book, at 6 p.m

TO BE RESCHEDULED…

LITHOGRAPHY REVEALED!

This event will be rescheduled for SPRING 2015, as many who expressed interest were unable to make it on the original date. Apologies to those who signed up, and we will post the new date shortly.

Join us at the home and workshop of APHA NorCal Board Member Tom Goglio for a step-by-step tour of the lithographic process… and we mean old school, like commercial lithography was done in the 1800s!

A gourmet lunch is included, following the print demo.

This is a very special tour for NorCal Members Only — it’s time to renew, or join! Email us for more details (location, etc.) if you are eligible to attend.

past events

Saturday, May 17, 2014, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

PRINTERS’ FAIR AND WAYZGOOSE!

Come one, come all, to the San José History Park for the all-day Printers’ Fair and Wayzgoose! Enjoy the company of fellow printers and history buffs while perusing the wares of numerous vendors. And visit the APHA NorCal’s table for keepsakes and updates on Members Only events!

Check the San José Printers’ Guild website for more information: http://printersguild.wordpress.com/

Thursday, April 3, 2014, from 6-8 p.m.

RED ALL OVER:
An illustrated talk with Lincoln Cushing on Bay Area radical printing history

Koret Auditorium, SFPL Main Branch
100 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA

APHA NorCal is sponsoring an illustrated talk at the SFPL’s Koret Auditorium on Thursday, April 3, from 6–8 p.m. with Lincoln Cushing. Cushing is a well-known print historian and poster archivist, and he will be speaking on Bay Area political and countercultural print shops from the 1960s to the present.

This event is FREE and open to the public. We invite all current and future APHA NorCal members to attend!

Click here to view the official SFPL e-card.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — Printed by a woman

Click here to read this article by Mindy Belloff published in the 2010–11 Guild of Bookworkers’ Journal! Thanks to San Francisco Public Library’s Lisa Dunseth, also an APHA NorCal Board member, for the link.

 Saturday March 1, and Sunday, March 2, 2014

2014 San Francisco History Expo

The Old Mint
88 Fifth St. at Mission, San Francisco, CA

Link to the SFPL’s blog about the event here. We had a great time!

Come visit APHA NorCal at the SF History Expo this year, along with over fifty other fascinating and funky exhibitors. We will feature printing on a tabletop press, show a litho stone, distribute cool printing samples, and provide information about early printing in the SF Bay Area. Come on down!

February 1, 2014, 2–4 p.m.

Valentine’s Day broadside printing!

San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch, 6th Floor
100 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA

Guarantee yourself success this Valentine’s Day with a gorgeous broadside printed on the SFPL’s historic 1909 Albion handpress, and help the Library celebrate 50 years of  Special Collections in collaboration with Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía and artist Sal García. APHA NorCal is co-sponsoring this event — come meet your fellow APHA NorCal members and print yourself a beautiful commemorative broadside (limited to the first 100 people!)

January 4, 2014

W.A. Dwiggins Lecture: Black and White Smith

San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA

Start off the New Year with a fascinating slide lecture by Rob Saunders, curator of the Letterform Archive, on William Addison Dwiggins and his work. APHA NorCal will have a table at the event, advertising our upcoming activities, recruiting new members, and handing out keepsakes. Come on by!

http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1015025601 for more information.

June 12, 2004

Picnic and Field trip to M & H Typefoundry

M & H Type, 1802 Hays Street, The Presidio, San Francisco, California

The next meeting will be our annual picnic, proceeded by a behind-the-scenes tour of M&H Type, the venerable type foundry located in the historic Presidio district of San Francisco. Our host will be Andrew Hoyem, whose Arion Press is housed with M&H and its non-profit arm, the Grabhorn Institute. The tour and pot-luck picnic will begin at 11am on Saturday, June 11. FREE to APHA-NorCal members $10 for non-members (so why not join at the tour?)

September 6, 2003

APHA goes “Monotype” 

Patrick & Maxine Reagh invite APHA members and their guests to an afternoon of barbeque & Monotype at their rur-burb acres, 96 Bloomfield Road, Sebastopol. Both the grill and the Monotype caster (one of four from the Plantin Press) will be fired up. Bring food to share and something for the grill.

Mr. Reagh will publish The Bibliography of The Plantin Press next spring, letterpress from English Monotype, in Bembo and Fairbank Italic (Narrow Bembo), the house style of Saul & Lillian Marks. See the proofs of this important book that very day. Othmar Peters, monotypist extraordinaire & former proprietor of Mackenzie & Harris, will be at the keyboard.

December 7, 2002

Annual Meeting

Be of Good Cheer was the theme of APHA NorCal’s annual meeting, which was held in the elegant surroundings of Barbara and Fred Voltmer’s Havilah Press in Emeryville on Saturday, December 7th. Our first order of business was to install our chapter’s new officers: John McBride, president; Linnea Lundquist, vice president; Greg Graalfs, secretary; Chris Kox, treasurer. A discussion of our chapter’s goals for new membership yielded the hope that APHA would continue to include the engaged amateur or hobbyist among its core constituency. Here in Northern California there is a strong and vital presence of amateur printers, and we very much would like to see that group continue to be important to APHA as it moves forward with its plans for revitalization.

Several members brought work for the group to look at. Members had a chance for fabulous door prizes, which ranged from wood type (the Voltmers) to a book of Civil War photographs (Mills College) to special back issues of Printing History (APHA and Steve Crook). Now we look forward to a year of new activities under the leadership of John McBride and his fellow and sister officers.

Kathy Walkup, Retiring President

September 26, 2002

Reception and Opening: Recent acquisitions from the collection of Gale and Dorothy Herrick

Gleeson Library, University of San Francisco

APHA NorCal joins the Friends of the Gleeson Library at a reception for an exhibition of recent acquisitions from the collection of Gale and Dorothy Herrick.

June 8, 2002

Saturday in the City with Jack Stauffacher

Join us for a visit to the North Baker Research Library at the California Historical Society, followed by an exhibition walk-thru with Jack Stauffacher at his SFMOMA show.

10:30 am North Baker Research Library California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco (near Third). Our hosts at the California Historical Society will introduce us to the Kemble Collection on Western Printing and Publishing. We will then be able to view the current exhibition in the CHS gallery, “California in Time.” Admission will be free for APHA NorCal members, although donations to CHS are welcome.

11:30 am Exhibition, CHS museum shop & lunch on your own.

1:00 pm Jack Stauffacher*, “25 Prints,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street, San Francisco. Printer typographer Jack Stauffacher will take us on a walk-through of his exhibition of 25 experimental typographic prints from MOMA’s permanent collection, which are on view in the museum. A group admission rate of $8 ($5 for seniors) will be available when we all enter SFMOMA together (as a group)–cash or check only.

Grateful thanks to Linnea Lundquist for her inspiration and for her arrangements with the California Historical Society.
*Hot off the press! Jack Stauffacher is the American Printing History Association’s 2002 Lieberman Lecturer. He will be in conversation with type designer extraordinaire Matthew Carter on Thursday, October 24, 2002 at the Getty Center, Los Angeles. APHA NorCal plans to be there to cheer our home-town hero. Please join us!

May 11, 2002 

Summer Picnic at the Stone Type Foundry Orchards

Share Conviviality & Food with APHA members. Nothing formal, just a good time, though there may be some animated printing & typography chat, discussion about how to graft walnut trees, speculation on the history of printing in the Capay Valley, and/or an exchange of organic cooking recipes and gardening tips. If we’re lucky, we may also get a glimpse of sheep, llamas, and wild turkeys.

Sumner Stone’s Walnut Orchard in the Capay Valley Saturday, May 11. Rendezvous in the orchard at Noon. Expect to relax and stay for 2 or 3 hours. It will be warm! Bring sunscreen & wear light clothing. It’s a potluck picnic so RSVP with the dish you will be bringing to share. Suggestions for things that taste good on a warm day. veggies with dip, salads, chicken, exotic sausages, tofu burgers, fruit tarts, or light cheeses. Sumner will provide a grill and hot coals. APHA will provide plates, forks, drinking vessels and cold drinks (lemonade, white wine, and water).

September 9, 2001

ZAPFEST

In September APHA NoCal will join other community groups in the Bay Area to help sponsor “ZAPFEST :A Celebration of the life and work of Hermann and Gudrun Zapf.” Members will receive a special VIP tour of the exhibition organized by the Friends of Calligraphy at the San Francisco Public Library. Other events include lectures, receptions, and a conversation at Mills College on Sunday September 9, with Gudrun Zapf von Hesse, Anna Wolf, Georgianna Greenwood and Zapfest organizer Linnea Lundquist. 2pm, Olin Library.

September 15, 2000

Rich Gold on “Further into the Future of Reading”

San Francisco Center for the Book

September 2, 2000 

San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation

We will meet at the museum for an informal tour of “The Future of Reading,” an exhibition organized by Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. This fascinating exhibition includes Xerox PARC’s research into what reading might be like in the future, including wonders such as the book you can hear as you rub your hand over the pages. The tour will include a stop at the artists’ book studio, a part of the exhibition sponsored by the San Francisco Center for the Book. We will have a no-host lunch after the tour.