The American Printing History Association is pleased to introduce members who have agreed to serve as officers and Trustees on the APHA board. This dynamic group of talented people will grow our organization and keep APHA thriving. We’re excited they are joining us.

The Nominating Committee 
Ethan Lipton
Robert McCamant
Emily Martin
Nina Schneider, Chair

George Barnum, Vice President for Publications

George Barnum is retired Agency Historian at the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO). George was a contributing writer for the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. He has written on GPO’s history, the electronic transition in Federal depository libraries, and on rare and endangered government publications. [For APHA’s journal Printing History he c0-authored “Invisible Writing Made Visible: The U. S. Government Printing Office and Prisoner of War Stationery in the Second World War,” New Series Number 21 (Winter 2018).] He is active in the Chesapeake Chapter of APHA. George is a letterpress printer and hand bookbinder and is restoring a Victorian house in northeast Ohio. His full bio is available here.

George says: “As Vice President for Publications, I’d like to carry on the excellent work that Katherine, Brooke, Michael, and Paul have been doing. From my conversation with Katherine, it seems that the key to that will be some further development and refinement of the operating procedures that get the two issues of Printing History out each year, and looking for ways to expand the participation of members and contributors in the full range of the Association’s publications.  The journal and the blog are tremendous ambassadors for the Association, and I think they deserve a wider audience, and so I very much view them as a key part in the growth of the organization.”

Harold Kyle, Vice President for Membership

Harold Kyle is the founder and president of Boxcar Press, the largest specialty letterpress print shop in the United States. When not taming ancient cast-iron presses, Harold loves to hike and to code. He has served five years as a trustee of APHA and is currently the Treasurer of the Upstate New York Chapter. He lives in Syracuse, New York with his wife and two children.

Harold says, “As Membership VP, I hope to reach new members and increase engagement with existing members. I would like to raise the profile of APHA within book trade and design communities, in particular. I would also like to streamline membership management, especially to help facilitate chapter activities and membership renewals. I will try to rally existing members to help grow our superb website, conferences, and publications.”

Amelia Fontanel, Vice President for Programs

Amelia Fontanel is a curator at the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection, a renowned library that collects on design, typography, and the book arts. As manager of the Cary technology collection, she is responsible for teaching and maintaining some 23 different presses and thousands of fonts of metal and wood type. She is actively involved in the printing history community, holding an executive board position at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum and as president of the APHA Upstate New York Chapter. [For APHA’s journal Printing History she  has authored two articles “Arts et Metiers Graphiques: The Graphic Design Magazine of the Deberny et Peignot Type Foundry, Original Series Number 49 (2006) and “Multitudinous Tints: An Inventor’s Pursuit of Instantaneous Multicolor Printing” New Series Number 24 (Summer 2018).]

Amelia says, “As Vice President of Programs, I would like to work to streamline operations in organizing our annual conference and the annual Lieberman Lecture. To do this, all information about the VP Program activities will be accessible on the shared Google Drive. This will include target schedules and budgets for sponsoring these events, as well as meeting minutes and communications materials. I will also work to identify and train a successor and devise strategies so that this position is adequately supported within our organization. I will manage the 2020 conference at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum and the possible 2021 conference in St. Louis, MO.”

Diane Dias De Fazio, Trustee

(Simen Kot)

Diane Dias De Fazio is Curator of Rare Books & Book Arts at Special Collections, The University of Iowa Libraries where she collaborates in classroom instruction with faculty, and develops library collections with a focus on artist’s books, and expanding holdings in alternative and underground press, queer print culture, and work by Iowa BIPOC printers and artists. She is a 2016 IMLS-RBS Fellow and a recipient of the William T. Buice III scholarship, earned her BA at Fordham University, and holds Masters degrees from Columbia University and Pratt Institute.

Sonia Farmer, Trustee

Sonia Farmer is a writer, visual artist, small press publisher, and educator who uses letterpress printing, bookbinding, hand-papermaking, and digital projects to build narratives about the Caribbean space. She is the founder of Poinciana Paper Press, a small and independent press located in Nassau, The Bahamas, which works with writers and artists using multiple forms of publishing to advance the diversity of narratives in Caribbean art and literature. Her artwork has been regionally and internationally exhibited and is included in multiple institutional and personal collections. She is the author of Infidelities (Poinciana Paper Press, 2017) which was longlisted for the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, as well as the artist book A True & Exact History (Poinciana Paper Press, 2018) which won the 2019 Holle Award for Excellence in Book Arts. Her poetry has won the 2011 Prize in the Small Axe Literary Competition and has appeared in various journals and self-published limited-edition chapbooks. She holds a BFA in Writing from Pratt Institute and an MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa.

Kseniya Thomas, Trustee

Kseniya Thomas is the owner of Thomas Printers, a commercial letterpress print and design shop, where she has produced social stationery and fine art for nearly 15 years. She’s the co-founder and director of Ladies of Letterpress, an organization founded in 2008 and dedicated to the promotion and continuance of the art and craft of letterpress printing. Trained at the Druckladen des Gutenberg Museums in Mainz, Germany, Kseniya got her start setting type by hand and enjoys teaching others and encouraging others to share their skills. Her work has been featured in several letterpress books, design periodicals, trade journals, blogs—including Printing History, New Series Number 21 (Winter 2017). She lives and works in Ogden, Utah.