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New England Chapter—Past Events

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 Upcoming Events


2021

February 24,2021 6:30 PM (EST)

Via Zoom when  APHA New England presented our Student Membership Award at the Rhode Island School of Design 7th Annual Baker + Whitehill Student
Artists’ Book Juried Contest and Exhibition

 


2020

Wednesday, January 27, 7pm: “Outside the Box and Other Adventures,” a virtual talk by designer, educator, and writer Gail Anderson, co-presented with the Providence Public Library.
Join us for a lively evening with the Wonder Woman of graphic design, Gail Anderson, who will share stories behind the making of her book Outside the Box: Hand-drawn Packing from Around the World, highlighting the global resurgence of hand-drawn packaging and bringing us the stories and process sketches of forty letterers, illustrators, and designers from around the world, whose work stands out against the slick, computer-generated type and Photoshopped perfection of our age. She’ll also discuss other adventures in her illustrious career, including the story of choosing wood type for her US Postal Service stamp honoring the Emancipation Proclamation. An AIGA Medalist and the 2018 recipient of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Lifetime Achievement Award for Design, Anderson serves as Chair of BFA Design and BFA Advertising at the School of Visual Arts, where she has taught for 30 years, and the creative director at Visual Arts Press. She has served as senior art director at Rolling Stone, creative director of design at SpotCo, and as a designer at The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and Vintage Books. She has coauthored 15 books on design, typography, and illustration with Steven Heller. She serves on the Stamp Advisory Committee for the US Postal Service and the advisory board of Poster House. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the Milton Glaser Design Archives, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Program is free to all, but registration is required; please register here as
soon as possible! Registration link: https://provlib.libcal.com/event/7332284#bottom
Event link: https://provlib.libcal.com/event/7332284

2019

Wednesday, February 20 we gathered at the Rhode Island School of Design Library, 15 Westminister Street, Providence, RI  for the 5th annual presentation of the APHA New England student prize. 

Saturday, March 9 we joined with the John Russell Bartlett Society at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA in the Clapp Library’s first-floor lecture room for a talk by our APHA Vice President for Publications, Katherine M. Ruffin, who is also Director of the Book Studies Program and Lecturer in Art at Wellesley. We then recessed to an open house in the Book Arts Lab on the Fourth Floor of Clapp Library. 


2018

*Saturday November 17 we held our annual meeting at 12 noon in Solas Restaurant 710 Boylston Street, Boston and elected Alice Beckwith, President; Jordan Goffin, Vice President; Robert Soorian, Treasurer; Philip Weimerskirch, Secretary. We adjourned to the Boston Book Fair.

Saturday June 30 we convened at 2:00 in Eli Epstein’s Union Press, 440 Somerville Ave, Somerville, MA to view Eli at work with his handset wood and metal type, then at 3:30 we visited Michael Russem, designer of our periodical Printing History in his new Katherine Small Gallery at 108 Beacon Street, Somerville, MA and viewed work by the renowned designer, Ivan Chermayeff.

*Saturday, April 21st We heard David Godine at the Museum of Printing, 15 Thornton Ave. Haverhill, MA. Godine reviewed his Life in Brief Chapters, to a delighted sellout audience.

*March 24, 2018  we joined with the John Russell Bartlett Society and visited The Third and Elm Press in Newport, RI. In 1965, Calligrapher, Alexander and printer Ilse Buchert Nesbitt founded the Third & Elm Press.  Ilse’s woodblock prints can be found in limited edition books and note cards.  Her subject matter ranges from flowers and plants to landscapes.

*On February 21, 2018 at the Rhode Island School of Design we presented Travis Morehead an APHA gift membership to honor his book Sometimes the Thing You Want Bleeds in the Light. Following is the text of the presentation:

Travis’s work brilliantly gives us the traditional parts of a printed book stripped down to the basics of board, binding, and printed pages. His simplicity demands thoughtful observation. We see before us protective boards of highly polished walnut with the grain enhanced by sanding and bees wax; a radically reduced binding accomplished by wrapping tactically textured hemp twine around the boards to encase the pages of Prussian blue cyanotype photograms. Invented in the 19th century by Sir John Herschel, and used by the Victorian photographer Anna Atkins, cyanotypes do indeed bleed in the light, but they can be revived by binding them in darkness, as the twentieth century photographers Man Ray and Imogene Cunningham knew.

So along with this membership brochure for Travis, hoping to encourage his study of antique processes, we have included a back issue of our journal Printing History, with essays in it about Thomas Jefferson and the book arts, early color printing in the United States, and a history of  the Woodburytype a 19th century photomechanical process.


2017

Dragon Fly Bindery Afternoon

Saturday, September 9 at 1:30 for Dutch Treat Lunch at Chan’s Chinese – 267 Main St, Woonsocket, RI (Yelp). 

 Followed by a site visit at George and Patricia Sargent’s studio at 670 Park Avenue, Woonsocket, Rhode Island.  www.dragonflybinderystudio.com/

 

Lunch with Michael Winship

Saturday October 7 during the APHA Conference

APHA Conference October 6-7 American Antiquarian Society 185 Salisbury Street, Worcester, Massachusetts. “Good, Fast, Cheap: Printed Words and Images in America before 1900”. A richly informative list of conference speakers is found at https://printinghistory.org/programs/conference/2017-speakers/

The Keynote Address will be by Michael Winship, one of the Founders of APHA New England. His topic is Good, but not so Fast or Cheap.

Michael is the Iris Howard Regents Professor of English II at the University of Texas at Austin, was an editor for A History of the Book in America and has written and lectured extensively on American literary publishing of the industrial era.

Information about registering for the conference will be forthcoming from APHA National, and you can check www.printinghistory.org for updates.

 

Sex, Drugs, and Transcendence in the Ludlow Santo Domingo Library

Saturday, November 11 at 11:00 in the Edison & Newman Exhibition area, Houghton Library Harvard University, 15 Quincey Street Cambridge, MA followed by our annual meeting at a local restaurant. We will recess to The Boston Antiquarian Book Fair at the Hynes Convention Center. The Fair is free to the public until 7:00 PM. 10times.com/boston-antiquarian-book-fair


 


2016

On April 12, 2016 at 6pm we attended the Society of Printers 42nd Annual Dwiggins Lecture, where Bruce Kennett, author of a forthcoming monograph on W.A. Dwiggins –scheduled to be published by the Letterform Archive in 2016– provided new perspectives on that familiar character, Dwiggins. Selected works of WAD, his alter-ego Hermann Püterschein, and the Society of Calligraphers provided rich layers of wit and humor to the talk as was the case for Bruce’s presentation at the APHA Book Beautiful conference in Newport.

 This event was free and open to the public, and held in the Boston Public Library’s Abbey Room, 700 Boylston Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA 02116 – Tel: 617-536-5400. For Henry James description of this spectacular room go to http://www.bpl.org/central/abbey.htm.

 After the talk we gathered at the back of the room and went down the street to Solas Irish Pub in the Lenox Hotel, 710 Boylston Street.

saturday, december 12, 2015

Please join us for the APHA New England Annual Meeting. We have a series of exciting activities organized thanks to the librarians and letter press faculty from the Mass. College of Art and Design. Be sure to RSVP if you intend to attend any of the following events; we need a list of names for the security staff at the Library.

10:00 am

Assemble at 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston, in the lobby of The Mass. College of Art and Design, Tower Building for a site visit to the letter press facility

10:45 am

View highlights of the Lyons Type Collection, Kennedy Building at 625 Huntington Avenue

11:00 am

Chapter Business meeting, Godine Library back at 625 Huntington Avenue on the 12th floor.

11:30 am

Dutch Treat Lunch at a cozy pub, the Squealing Pig, 134 Smith Street around the corner from the Mass. College of Art and Design.


2015

saturday, august 1, 12 noon

314 Forest Ave, Portland, Maine

Susie R. Bock, Head of Special Collections, Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine leads us through the Glickman Family Library Special Collections with the help of Albert A. Howard a retired USM Rare Book Cataloger and currently Honorary Curator of Printed Books. The Albert A. Howard Rare Book Collection includes works of Bruce Rogers, Merrymount Press, W.A. Dwiggins, various small presses, a reference collection on book collections, c. 200 Greek and Latin books primarily from the 16th-18th centuries, and 19th c. chapbooks.

A Library donor is hosting a catered lunch for us in the Library so it is very important for members to reply to APHANewEngland@gmail.com and indicate any dietary restrictions if you plan to attend. We will be sending out suggested motels and hotels for those who want to make a weekend of this visit.


saturday, july 18

15 Westminister Street, Providence at 1:30

Claudia Covert, Special Collections Librarian at the Fleet Library will lead us through the Ordewer Collection and some selected examples of Artist’s Books where letterpress is a feature.

Selma Ordewer gave RISD her Collection on 20th Century American Typography in honor of Daniel Berkeley Bianchi, son of Daniel Berkeley Updike’s partner at the Merrymount Press. There are many fascinating limited editions of Merrymount books in the collection and you can preview the holdings at the RISD Library online catalogue at http://librarycat.risd.edu. Here are a couple of examples:

Codex quartus sancti Iacobi De expedimento et conversione Yspanie et Gallecie 
[Boston: Printed at the Merrymount Press for Ward Thoron, 1934]
[61] pages, 3 facsimiles ; 26 cm. 

George Crowninshield’s Yacht Cleopatra’s Barge 
Whitehill, Walter Muir, 1905-1978.
Salem, Mass. : Peabody Museum, [1959?]
19 pages, [4] pages of plates: illus. ; 26 cm.  

6 pm. February 19th Providence Public Library

Tobias Frere-Jones & the Updike Award

Tobias Frere-Jones will be our guest speaker at an event to award our first ever Updike Prize for Student Type Design. Tobias Frere-Jones, one of the most respected type designers working today. The lecture and ceremony, the first one from the Providence Public Library, start at 6pm, and a guided tour of the exhibition will be held at 5:30 (the Washington Street entrance will be open at 5:15). You can find out more. RSVP. Providence Public Library


2014

September 21. Election at the Annual Meeting. We thanked Paul Dobbs, Library Director at the Mass College of Art’s Morton R. Godine Library for arranging for our meeting and we then elected the following officers:

Alice Beckwith, President 
Jordan Goffin, Vice President
Bob Soorian, Treasurer 
Lydia Vivante, Secretary

After the election we viewed an exhibition on the Golgonooza Letter Foundry and Press, with Julia Ferrari as our guide. 

Julia Ferrari is one of the most revered letterpress masters in the field today. Her work is in museums, and private print collections worldwide. Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press is an atelier dedicated to the highest quality letterpress projects, from the design and fabrication of type to the printing of select portfolio projects. Ferrari has been approached by artists, writers, publishers, and poets to realize unique museum quality print editions

August 17 brought us to the brilliant and beloved printing historian/teacher, Frank Romano for a gourmet lunch and tour of his new library location at 1 Stiles Road, Salem, NH 03079, about 35 miles north of Boston. Frank’s over 50 years in printing are wonderfully documented in his library.

June 14. We met Meg Weston, President of the Maine Media Workshops+College, for a guided tour of the complex at 70 Camden Street, Rockport, Maine. APHA New England member, Charles Altschul, known for his work in letterpress and new media, recently gave the Maine Media Workshops+College many of the letterpress machines in their splendid new book arts studio


2013

November 16. At our Annual meeting where we celebrated APHA founder J. Ben Lieberman’s 99th birthday in the Providence Public Library, 150 Empire Street, Providence R.I. Following our meeting Jordan Goffin, Rare Books Librarian gave us a short talk highlighting special collections. Before the meeting we gathered for a Dutch treat lunch at 12 noon in the Trinity Brewhouse, 186 Fountain Street across the street from the Providence Public Library.

September 28, at 2:00 pm we met in the John Carter Brown Library, on the Brown University campus, at 94 George Street, Providence, Rhode Island where we  cosponsored a lecture “Vivid Imaginations: the History of the McLoughlin Bros.” by Laura E. Wasowicz, Curator of children’s Literature at the American Antiquarian Society. Laura profiled the firm that pioneered color printing technologies in the mid 19th century, that gave us the children’s picture book as we now know it. The Rhode Island Center for the Book, the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, and the John Russell Bartlett Society were our collaborators in this event.  Go to http://ribook.org/art-of-the-book-2013/ for information about the series of programs and exhibits associated with Laura Wasowicz’s keynote talk.

September 7. We toured the Museum of Printing, 800 Massachusetts Avenue, North Andover, MA 01845. Kim Pickard showed us around the new exhibits. Go to www.museumofprinting.org for more about the exciting year at the Museum.


2012

Saturday, November 19 at 10:00 am Stanley Ellis Cushing, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts  at the Boston Athenaeum led us on a tour of the Artist’s Books Exhibition and letterpress book marks at the Athenaeum. The tour was followed by our Annual Meeting in the Trustees’ Room at the Athenaeum, at 11:00 am. After the meeting, we adjourned to a nearby restaurant for a “Dutch Treat” lunch.

March 31. APHA New England began the spring with a field trip on Saturday,

at 2:00 pm in Boston’s North End when Gary Gregory, Executive Director & Printing Master gave us a historical tour and demonstration of his letterpress printing shop that is set up as The Printing Office of Edes & Gill, an 18th Century Print Shop on Boston’s Historic Freedom Trail at 21 Unity Street, Boston, 02113.

Gary is a self-taught colonial historian who has traveled the U.S. andEurope in his very active retirement to discover the printers behind the American Revolution. We all found the combination of history, political context and printing fascinating and we reconvened at the Green Dragon ale house to further discuss our own discoveries with Gary. 


2011

April 9. The New England Chapter of APHA journeyed to Historic New England’s Otis House in Boston, at the foot of Beacon Hill, for a tour of the house and a visit to their vast archive of New England related materials. There was a guided tour of the house and then spend some time in the adjoining archives. Of particular interest to chapter members was Historic New England’s vast collection of ephemera, historic bookplates and correspondence from Daniel Berkeley Updike. After lunch, members visited the nearby Boston Athenæum for a look at the Athenaeum exhibit of works by Edward Gorey.

march 12

Art of the Book Lunch

Historic Deerfield
Deerfield, MA

Spring sprung and we held a gathering at the Lunch
part of the Art of the Book symposium in Deerfield, MA.


2010

October 22, 2010

Fritz Eichenberg : Spirit : Life : Art

Sterling Memorial Library
Yale University, New Haven, CT

We joined lithographer Jeffrey Bertwell and University of Rhode Island Special Collections Librarian, Sarina Rodrigues Wyant for late afternoon talk about the life of virtuoso wood engraver Fritz Eichenberg (1901–1990).

After the talk, a short walk took us to The Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library to view select examples Eichenberg’s work in the new Special Collections reading room of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library. While we waited to see the selections, library staff gave tours of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library.


September 12, 2010

APHA NE Annual Meeting

Amherst & Northampton, Massachusetts

Trips to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Yiddish Book Center, and The Veatchs Arts of the Book.


April 20, 2010
Stephen O. Saxe

Turning Lead into Gold: Nineteenth-Century American Type Foundries and Their Specimen Books

The Philip and Frances Hofer Lecture
Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

From a shaky beginning in the new American republic, the type founding industry grew with westward expansion, economic development, and mechanization. In the process it produced some of the most fanciful, exuberant types ever seen. This lecture reviews the development of type-founding technologies and surveys the type specimen books the type foundries produced to promote their wares.

Following the lecture APHA New England members were invited to gather just out side the front door of the Houghton Library for a Dutch Treat meal in the area.


January 23, 2010 

January Meeting

Providence Public Library, Providence, RI

APHA New England will meet Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010 at 1:00 in the Trustee’s Room of the Providence Public Library, 225 Washington St. Providence, R.I. 02903, for a buffet lunch and our Annual Meeting, followed by a tour, by Rick Ring (PPL Curator 0f Special Collections) of the Updike Printing collections and we will also hear Rick’s news about the new Art Space 220 Public Letterpress Print Shop.


June 24, 2008 
Dear APHA New England Member,

Our next meeting will be a site visit to the Museum of International Paper History (8 Evans Road in Brookline, Massachusetts) on Sunday, July 13, from 2 to 4 pm. The director of the museum, Elaine Koretsky will give us a tour of the facilities and collections focusing on relationships between paper and printing history. Elaine is a renowned expert who directs papermaking workshops, leads tours to Asia and collects papers and related tools and texts from all over the world.

The museum’s website gives an enlightening overview and will surely entice your presence. www.papermakinghistory.org

Following our tour we will adjourn to a local venue to enjoy refreshments and conversation. Our new president, Bob Soorian, is researching the area for an air conditioned charming place. We look forward to renewing old friendships and welcoming new members.

Tiny State. Tiny Books: Miniature Books in Rhode Island

Anne Bromer,
“Miniature Books: 4000 Years of Tiny Treasures”
An illustrated lecture on the history and design of miniature books by Anne Bromer. Saturday, April 26, 2008 2 pm – 4 pm Providence Public Library Barnard Room- 3rd floor 150 Empire Street, Providence, RI. Free and open to the public.

Rhode Island exhibits of miniature books 
North Kingstown Free Library, April 1-30
Providence Public Library Special Collections, April 17 – May 31
Rhode Island School of Design, April 22 – 30
University of Rhode Island Library Special Collections, March 1 – April 30.

In addition, a workshop, A Taste of Tiny Books, is available.
Spend the morning making miniature books with book artist and RISD graduate Suzi Cozzens, and the afternoon listening to author Anne Bromer speak about the history and design of these “tiny treasures”.
Saturday, April 26, 2008 9 am – noon
Location: Rhode Island School of Design Bindery Studio 48 Waterman Street. Providence, RI
Instructor: Suzi Cozzens, Graphic Design Dept., Rhode Island School of Design
Fee: $40.00 ( includes materials fee )
Class size: 12 students
Class size is limited, so be sure to register early. Once the workshop is filled, there will be a wait list kept in case of cancellations. Please register by April 19 at the latest. Payment will be non-refundable after April 22.
To register: First contact Susan Newkirk at susanewkirk(at)hotmail.com or call 401.861.9342 , Rhode Island Center for the Book at PPL Program Chairperson
When confirmed, please make your check out to “Providence Public Library” and note that it is for Rhode Island Center for the Book miniature book workshop.
Send check to Susan Newkirk, 242 Morris Avenue, Providence, RI 02906


October 19, 2006
Dear APHA New England Members,

APHA New England is going to have our annual meeting and Wayzgoose November 19 at 2:00 at David Wall’s Applecart Press, 14 Maine Street, Brunswick Maine. We will hear the reports of officers, catch up on David Wall’s progress with polymer plates and letter press. and while swilling cider and devouring doughnuts discuss plans for next year’s events including our planned lecture in Rhode Island May 19 on the paper making career of Dard Hunter by Cathleen A. Baker, proprietor of The Legacy Press and Senior Paper Conservator, University of Michigan Libraries.

We are thinking of making 2007 the year of paper and going to the Cranepaper mill in Dalton Massachusetts and possibly the Parsons Mill in Holyoak MA., plus Ilse Buchert Nesbitt is in discussions with us on a workshop for making mulberry paper.

However, we are always open to suggestions from membership for programs so join us Nov. 19 and give us your thoughts or email ideas to ahrhbeckwith(at)aol.com  or dwall(at)applecartpress.com. APHA NE members will receive directions on how to get to the Applecart Press in their annual meeting announcement letters, but as always any APHA member is welcome.


April 16, 2006
Dear APHA New England Member,

Our next event will be Sunday June 11, 2006 at 2:30 PM when we visit John Kristensen’s Firefly Press in his new location, at 119 Braintree Street, Boston, MA 02134. Many of you will know of John’s wonderful letterpress works and might have visited his former location in Somerville, but the fabled press has moved and John agreed to give us a special tour on his open house weekend.

To reach John’s new location:

Take route 95 to exit 25 at I-90 Mass Turnpike toward Boston.
Exit 18 on the Left toward Allston/Brighton
Merge into Cambridge Street (going under rt 90)
Turn Right onto Franklin Street (just like John to call  Ben Franklin to mind)
Turn Left onto Braintree Street and follow it to 119.

(617 987 0599).

Please contact David Wall our Secretary if you will be joining us at Firefly Press.

All the best for a delightful Spring,

Alice Beckwith, President


May 20, 2007

“Third & Elm Handmade: Japanese Paper Made in Newport”

Newport Museum’s Coleman Center, 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island

A papermaking demonstration by Ilse Buchert Nesbitt, printer and proprietor of the Third & Elm Press and an expert in the creation of mulberry paper. Held at the Newport Museum’s Coleman Center, 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island


May 19, 2007

“The Legacy of Dard Hunter” 

John Hay Library, Brown University, 20 Prospect Street, Providence, Rhode Island

A lecture by Cathleen Baker, proprietor of The Legacy Press and Senior Paper Conservator at the University of Michigan Libraries. Held at the John Hay Library, Brown University, 20 Prospect Street, Providence, Rhode Island. The talk will be complemented by an exhibition of the John Hay collection of Dard Hunter materials, and an exhibition at the nearby Providence Athenaeum titled “Ilse Nesbitt, Paper and Tools.”


March 5, 2005

“The Brilliance of Cloth Book Covers: 19th Century Decorated Bindings”

Providence Athenaeum Reading Room, 251 Benefit Street, Providence, Rhode Island

Sue Allen will speak about the history of decorated American cloth bindings produced from the early 1830’s to the end of the 19th century. The Providence Athenaeum will have on exhibit examples of decorated bindings from their collection. Co-sponsored by the Rhode Island Center for the Book, the Providence Athenaeum, the John Russell Bartlett Society, the Friends of the Library, Brown University, and the American Printing History Association, New England Chapter. Free and open to the public.


Fall 2004
APHA New England held the annual meeting on Saturday, September 18, 2004 at the Moore Hall of Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. Our featured speaker was Jenni Matz, who screened her video biography /oral history of Abe Lerner.

We heard the Officers Reports for the past year and elected the following slate of new officers: Secretary: David P. Wall, Printer Publisher, Apple Cart Press; Treasurer: Robert Soorian, Accountant;  Vice President: Paul Albert Cyr, Curator of Special Collections, New Bedford Free Public Library. The only reelected officer is the President: Alice Beckwith, Professor of Art History, Providence College.


June 29, 2002

From Pen to Press: Creative Process in Book Design
Manuscripts and Books in the North East Children’s Literature Collection

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, 405 Babbidge Road Unit 1205, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 860 486 3646

Saturday, June 29, 1:30-3:00PM, Assemble at the main lobby of the Dodd Center for a tour with Curator, Terri Goldich, through collections of book dummies, sketches, illustrations, drafts, revisions and related materials. We will see “the nature of the creative process from conception to completion” in the works of such author illustrators as Richard Scarry, Barry Moser, Tommie dePaola and others.

Directions: From RI, take Rte. 44 to the intersection of Rte.195 south Storrs Road, turn left or South, pass Mirror Lake and turn right or north into Mansfield Road, turn left again at Whitney Road, the Dodd Center is one block ahead at the corner of Babbidge Road. From the north take rt 84 south to Rte. 195 south and follow as above. From the south take rt. 95 to Rte. 195 north to Rte. 84 north to Rte.195 south and follow as above.


October 7, 2001
John Randle, The Whittington Press

“Papers and Prospectuses”

Moore Hall, Room III, Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island (401 865- 2401 or 2354) 2:00 PM. Sunday.

The witty and charming Englishman, John Randle –founder, with his wife Rose, of the Whittington Press and the internationally acclaimed annual review for printers & bibliophiles, Matrix– will regale us with tales of letters and papers. We shall learn about and see examples of British hand-papermaking, and discover the ways book prospectuses give a unique insight into printers’ attitudes and aspirations. (The lecture will also be given in New York City on October 11.)

ANNUAL MEETING. Following John’s talk, we will hold the Annual Meeting and hear the officers reports and any other business to come before the membership, then we will vote on the following slate of officers:

Directions to Providence College. Call 401 865 1011 for directions to the College from all points. These directions will bring you to the corner of Eton Street and Smith Street. Follow Eton Street East to Huxley Avenue and turn Left (North) enter the campus at the blinking traffic light in the middle of the block. Park your car in the guest lot indicated by the officer at the gate and follow his directions to Moore Hall.


August 17, 2001

Tours of Smith College and Parsons Paper Company

Friday, 12:00 noon, Northampton, MA., join us at Fresh Pasta, 249 Main Street 413 586 5875 for lunch.

A Day of Paper & Letters in Western Massachusetts

Parsons Paper Mill, 84 Sargent Street, Holyoke, MA (800 842 9029)

10:00 am, Assemble at the main entrance to the paper mill for a tour of about an hour. Parsons Paper Company was founded in 1853 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. By 1890, they were the world’s largest producer of fine papers. Today, Parsons makes numerous kinds of excellent papers including a high grade artists’ paper for which they employ 19th century machinery.

Treasuries of the Smith College Library

Neilson Library, Mortimer Rare Book Room 413 585 2907

2:00-4:30, Assemble at the Mortimer Rare Book Room for an overview of the Smith College collection with special emphasis on paper-related items including paper molds, Dard Hunter papers and paper by the 20th century paper maker Douglas Howell. The Curator, Martin Antonetti and Barbara Blumenthal, Mortimer Rare Book Room Assistant will guide us through their fascinating holdings.


July 26, 2001

Boston Calligraphy Discovery Tour

Boston Public Library Rare Books and Manuscripts 
700 Boylston Street, Copley Square

Assemble at the entrance to the department of Rare Books and Manuscripts. Margaret Shepherd, calligrapher and author of Learn Calligraphy will lead us on a tour of 26 alphabet treasures inside the Boston Public Library and in the surrounding neighborhood. Shepherd is well known for her texts commemorating members of the First and Second Church at 66 Marlboro Street. You may view Margaret’s work athttp://www.margaretshepherd.com.

Late comers can catch up with the tour at 66 Marlboro Street where we will be trying out our skills with parallel strokes and basic letter shapes, under Margaret’s direction. We will end the day at Rugg Road Paper, 105 Charles Street and then go out for dinner when Rugg Road closes at 8 PM. If members cannot make the earlier calligraphy tour they can still join us for the paper adventure and we will have additional copies of the self guided map of Margaret’s calligraphy tour for you to follow on your own.


February 22, 2001

Ellen Cohn “Franklin in France: The Passy Press”

Providence College, Slavin Center (Student Union), Room 100
Providence, R.I. (401 865 1011) 4:30 p.m.

APHA’s New England Chapter will hold a joint meeting with the John Russell Bartlett Society and the Art and Art History Department of Providence College on Thursday, February 22 at 4:30 PM in room 100 of the Slavin Center (Student Union) at Providence College. Our speaker will be Ellen Cohn, Editor of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, at Yale University. Her topic will be Franklin in France, the Passy Press. Call 401 865 1011 for directions to Providence College.


October 28, 2000

Greer Allen “Carl Rollins: First ‘University Printer'”

John Hay Library, Providence, R.I. (401 863 2146), 2:30 p.m.

The dynamic Greer Allen will give us a slide illustrated analysis of Carl Rollins’s career as University Printer at Yale and probe the human dimensions of Rollins work and personality. If you have ever heard Greer lecture you know what a treat you have in store, and if you have not heard him before then take advantage of this opportunity jointly sponsored by APHANE, The John Russell Bartlett Society and Sam Streit Director of the John Hay Rare Books Library.


August 12, 2000

Annual Meeting and Lunch

Franklin Spa, 229 Spring Street, Newport, R.I. (401 847 3540) 11:30 a.m.

Assemble at the long table at the west end of the restaurant. During lunch, we will hear the officers reports and any other business to come before the membership, then we will vote on the following slate of officers:

President, Alice Beckwith
Vice President, Philip Weimerskirch
Treasurer, Paul Cyr
Secretary, Walker Rumble

Franklin Spa is an informal lunchroom on the corner of Franklin and Spring Streets and of course the street evokes the history of the press at which Benjamin Franklin learned to print. After the lunch meeting we will view James Franklin’s press in its restored splendor at the Museum of Newport History and then go to the Third and Elm Press. Third and Elm Press, run by Ilse Buchert Nesbitt, is one of the best- known fine printing establishments in New England today, and Ilse has a new gallery on her second floor.


June 3, 2000

Sneak preview of the new Museum of Printing, North Andover

The New England Chapter of the American Printing History Association will meet in North Andover, MA on

Saturday, 3 June at 1:00 p.m. for a sneak preview of the new Museum of Printing.
Soon to celebrate its grand opening, the Museum of Printing is “the world’s largest collection of historic and rare letterpress and offset printing equipment.” It “includes at least one of most of the important letter presses made in the 19th and 20th centuries, both platen and cylinder. Other technologies such as etching and offset lithography are also represented. The museum has a wide variety of typesetting machines from the hot-metal and phototype eras, including some peculiar ones as well as case upon rack upon stand of foundry type. The Museum’s Library has catalogues, maintenance manuals, and influential books relevant to the various printerly arts.” See www.museumofprinting.org for more information on the Museum and its support group, the Friends of the Museum of Printing.

Non-members are welcome to attend the meeting and tour. If you plan to attend, please notify APHA New England Chapter President Alice Beckwith at: ahrhbeckwith(at)fastmail.fm

The tour and meeting are free. If you plan to attend, please notify APHA New England Chapter President Alice Beckwith at: ahrhbeckwith(at)fastmail.fm