New York Chapter Past Events
“Birdseye View of Lower Manhattan.” An engraved copper plate made by W.T. Littig & Co, from a panoramic watercolor by Richard Rummell (1848–1924), circa 1914. Public domain.
The Paper Legacy Study Collection at the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Friday, May 10, 2019
6:00-7:30 p.m.
1000 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10028
Free; RSVP required (email apha.newyork@gmail.com)
In 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Thomas J. Watson Library established the Paper Legacy study collection: an initiative at Watson to document the work and histories of prominent professional American decorative paper artists, active in the U.S. from the late 1960s to the present.
More than 20 artists have been collected to date, including such distinguished producers of marbled, paste, painted and printed papers as Cave Paper, Chena River Marblers, Madeleine Durham, Lost Link Design, Moth Marblers, Marbler’s Apprentice, Marblesmith, Diane Maurer, Paul Maurer, Maziarczyk Paste Papers, Iris Nevins, Susan Pogány, Hook Pottery Paper, Sage Reynolds Paste Papers, Deena Schnitman, Peggy Skycraft, and Robert Wu, among others. Each artist is represented in the collection by a self-selected, representative body of specimens, a biographical questionnaire, and additional materials, including exhibition histories, correspondence, notebooks, and material recipe books. (See sample images on Instagram here)
Watson Library is pleased to host APHA-NY for a pop-up display of selections from the Paper Legacy collection, with a guided talk about the project and display by Mindell Dubansky, Museum Librarian, Preservation, at Watson Library, who envisioned and is leading the initiative.
To RSVP, email apha.newyork@gmail.com with the name(s) of those attending. Registration priority will be given to active members of APHA-NY, with remaining spots open to guests of members and prospective members as space permits. (For information about joining APHA, please visit: https://printinghistory.org).
About Thomas J. Watson Library:
Thomas J. Watson Library is the central research library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its collection of books and periodicals relating to the history of art is one of the most comprehensive in the world. In addition to supporting the research activities of the Museum staff, Watson welcomes a broad range of students and researchers college age and above, and is open to the public without appointment or charge.
Tschichold and the New Typography: Graphic Design Between the World Wars
Curator-led tour of the exhibition by Paul Stirton
Wednesday, May 15, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Bard Graduate Center
18 W 86th Street, New York, NY 10024
The New York Chapter of the American Printing History Association is pleased to present a tour of the exhibition, Tschichold and the New Typography: Graphic Design Between the World Wars, by exhibition curator, Paul Stirton, Associate Professor, Bard Graduate Center. To RSVP, please email apha.newyork@gmail.com with the names of those wishing to attend. Registration priority will be given to active members of APHA-NY, with remaining spots open to non-members as space permits.
About the Exhibition:
“Tracing the revolution in graphic design in the 1920s, this exhibition displays materials assembled by typographer and designer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) in Weimar Germany. Published in Berlin in 1928, Tschichold’s book Die Neue Typographie was one of the key texts of modern design, partly due to its grasp of Constructivist ideas and new print technology, but equally, because it was a manual for practicing designers. In the years leading up to its publication, Tschichold struck up a correspondence with many European artist-designers, including Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky, László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Piet Zwart, and Ladislav Sutnar, among others. In the course of this, Tschichold exchanged and acquired many examples of their design work, some pieces now quite famous (such as El Lissitzky’s Pro dva kvadrata [The Story of Two Squares], 1920) while other items are modest and ephemeral, such as tourist brochures, handbills, headed notepaper, product catalogues, and magazine advertisements. This collection, purchased by Philip Johnson and donated to the Museum of Modern Art, forms the basis of this exhibition, tracing the development of the new ideas that revolutionized graphic design in the 1920s.”
2019
The Paper Legacy Study Collection at the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Friday, May 10, 2019
6:00-7:30 p.m.
1000 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10028
Free; RSVP required (email apha.newyork@gmail.com)
In 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Thomas J. Watson Library established the Paper Legacy study collection: an initiative at Watson to document the work and histories of prominent professional American decorative paper artists, active in the U.S. from the late 1960s to the present.
More than 20 artists have been collected to date, including such distinguished producers of marbled, paste, painted and printed papers as Cave Paper, Chena River Marblers, Madeleine Durham, Lost Link Design, Moth Marblers, Marbler’s Apprentice, Marblesmith, Diane Maurer, Paul Maurer, Maziarczyk Paste Papers, Iris Nevins, Susan Pogány, Hook Pottery Paper, Sage Reynolds Paste Papers, Deena Schnitman, Peggy Skycraft, and Robert Wu, among others. Each artist is represented in the collection by a self-selected, representative body of specimens, a biographical questionnaire, and additional materials, including exhibition histories, correspondence, notebooks, and material recipe books. (See sample images on Instagram here)
Watson Library is pleased to host APHA-NY for a pop-up display of selections from the Paper Legacy collection, with a guided talk about the project and display by Mindell Dubansky, Museum Librarian, Preservation, at Watson Library, who envisioned and is leading the initiative.
To RSVP, email apha.newyork@gmail.com with the name(s) of those attending. Registration priority will be given to active members of APHA-NY, with remaining spots open to guests of members and prospective members as space permits. (For information about joining APHA, please visit: https://printinghistory.org).
About Thomas J. Watson Library:
Thomas J. Watson Library is the central research library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its collection of books and periodicals relating to the history of art is one of the most comprehensive in the world. In addition to supporting the research activities of the Museum staff, Watson welcomes a broad range of students and researchers college age and above, and is open to the public without appointment or charge.
Tschichold and the New Typography: Graphic Design Between the World Wars
Curator-led tour of the exhibition by Paul Stirton
Wednesday, May 15, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Bard Graduate Center
18 W 86th Street, New York, NY 10024
The New York Chapter of the American Printing History Association is pleased to present a tour of the exhibition, Tschichold and the New Typography: Graphic Design Between the World Wars, by exhibition curator, Paul Stirton, Associate Professor, Bard Graduate Center. To RSVP, please email apha.newyork@gmail.com with the names of those wishing to attend. Registration priority will be given to active members of APHA-NY, with remaining spots open to non-members as space permits.
About the Exhibition:
“Tracing the revolution in graphic design in the 1920s, this exhibition displays materials assembled by typographer and designer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) in Weimar Germany. Published in Berlin in 1928, Tschichold’s book Die Neue Typographie was one of the key texts of modern design, partly due to its grasp of Constructivist ideas and new print technology, but equally, because it was a manual for practicing designers. In the years leading up to its publication, Tschichold struck up a correspondence with many European artist-designers, including Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky, László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Piet Zwart, and Ladislav Sutnar, among others. In the course of this, Tschichold exchanged and acquired many examples of their design work, some pieces now quite famous (such as El Lissitzky’s Pro dva kvadrata [The Story of Two Squares], 1920) while other items are modest and ephemeral, such as tourist brochures, handbills, headed notepaper, product catalogues, and magazine advertisements. This collection, purchased by Philip Johnson and donated to the Museum of Modern Art, forms the basis of this exhibition, tracing the development of the new ideas that revolutionized graphic design in the 1920s.”
Zapf Centennial Symposium
Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
The Grolier Club
47 E 60th Street, New York, NY 10022
Free and open to the public
RSVP to Maev Brennan at mbrennan@grolierclub.org or (212) 838-6690.
The NY Chapter of the American Printing History Association is proud to be a co-sponsor of the Zapf Centennial Symposium, organized by The Grolier Committee on Modern Fine Printing. The symposium speakers include:
• Dr. Robert Bringhurst, a Candian known for his work as a linguist, cultural historian, typographer and author of The Elements of Typographic Style
• David Pankow, Curator Emeritus, The Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Graphic Arts Collection, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Ferdinand Ulrich, typographer, writer and educator, and type designer, who is a doctoral student at the University of Reading, United Kingdom
• Julian Waters, a former student of Hermann Zapf, who works as a lettering designer, international teacher, and lecturer
Additional co-sponsors are the Center for Book Arts, Society of Scribes, Type Directors Club, Typophiles, and the Cary Graphic Arts Collection, Rochester Institute of Technology.
This symposium is being held in conjunction with the exhibition, Alphabet Magic: A Centennial Exhibition of the Work of Hermann & Gudrun Zapf, on view at the Grolier Club, February 20–April 2. 2019.
Alphabet Magic chronicles the extraordinary artistic achievements of Gudrun and Hermann Zapf with the most comprehensive exhibition of their work to date. Zapf’s typefaces Palatino, Optima, and Zapfino (to name a few) are a part of our everyday lives in the United States and Europe, as well as around the world. He was also at the forefront of type technology. Zapf’s Marconi alphabet design was the first typeface ever created specifically for digital typography. Gudrun Zapf von Hesse secured her own design legacy through typefaces such as Diotima, Carmina, and Shakespeare Roman. Although Gudrun and Hermann Zapf are perhaps best known for their type design, over the course of their long careers they engaged with nearly every aspect of the book arts. Hermann considered himself a book designer at heart, Gudrun is a noted bookbinder, and both were master calligraphers.
Included in the exhibition are rare specimens of their typefaces, landmark works using their typefaces, original calligraphic works of art, and examples of fine bookbinding. In addition to completed works, ephemeral process work for some of Gudrun and Hermann Zapf’s most important typefaces and publications offers a behind-the-scenes look at the masters at work. Alphabet Magic is drawn primarily from the two largest Zapf collections in the United States: the private collection of exhibition co-curator Jerry Kelly—Zapf’s student and friend; and the Zapf Archive at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), headed by exhibition co-curator Steven Galbraith. Of special interest are sketches, layouts, and proofs for Hermann Zapf’s groundbreaking Feder und Stichel (1950), Manuale Typographicum (1954, 1968), and Orbis Typographicus (1990). As Robert Bringhurst has written, Hermann Zapf has been “widely recognized as one of the most poetic of type designers, or, to put it another way, as the author of some of the loveliest printing type ever made.”
2017
Max Beckmann in New York, German Expressionism in the Watson Library
2016
Amos P. Kennedy, Jr., “Talking LOUD and Saying Nothin”
Friday, October 28, 2016, 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
The Center for Book Arts
28 W 27th St.
New York, New York 10001
Presented in part with the The Center for Book Arts
Amos P. Kennedy, Jr. is a letterpress printer, papermaker, and builder of artist books. Self-described as a provocateur and a “humble Negro printer,” his work embodies his passion for stirring up strong emotions and encouraging people to think in previously unexplored ways. In addition to his work as a bookbuilder, he is an educator and journeyman printer who travels the globe teaching people how to print on traditional letterpresses with metal and wood type, showing Laura Zinger’s documentary Proceed and Be Bold, and hosting his Cash and Carry poster shows. He studied under master paper and print maker Walter Hamady at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Kennedy lives and works in Alabama.
Blackberries, Willows & Fax: The Ingredients of U.S. Banknotes
Friday, June 24, 2016, 6:30 pm
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
Please RSVP to: mr.joelmason@gmail.com
Harley J. Spiller will present this one-hour program prepared expressly for members of the New York Chapter of APHA and hosted by the Center for Book Arts. Focused on the printing of U.S. banknotes, Spiller will read from his book and lead a discussion ranging from Benjamin Franklin’s innovations to today’s powerful Super Orlov engraving presses. Participants view and handle rare specimens of U.S. and international banknotes, and experience firsthand how simple and complex technologies are used to discern between real and counterfeit notes.
After the presentation, Spiller, the Senior Educator and Chief Creative Officer of the Museum of American Finance, a Smithsonian affiliate, will sign copies of Keep the Change: A Collector’s Tales of Lucky Pennies, Counterfeit C-Notes, and Other Curious Currency his 2015 Princeton Architectural Press book which The New York Times deems “beautifully written and designed.”
The Typophiles Luncheon to Honor Lili Wronker
Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015, 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Mark Noonan on “City of Print: New York and the Periodical Press”
Limited to 25 Please RSVP jmason@citytech.cuny.edu
This one hour-long “City of Print” walking tour will begin at Union Square, head east to Stuyvesant Park, north to Gramercy Park, and then to Madison Square Park. Along the way, Professor Noonan will discuss the notable buildings and sites that were important to the rise of New York’s periodical press.
Particular attention will be paid to how specific places and the city’s history connect to the editorial and marketing practices and content of magazines such as The Century, The New Masses, McClure’s and Harper’s Weekly. Noonan will also discuss the key roles played by editors, artists, and writers across eras. All participants will receive a beautiful, walking tour map.
Mark Noonan is Professor of English at New York City College of Technology (CUNY). He is author of Reading the Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine: American Literature and Culture, 1870-1893; “Howling Mad: Allen Ginsberg, Mad Magazine, and the Culture Wars of the 1950s” (in Seriously Funny: Humor in Journalism), and “Getting the Word Out: Disseminating Working-Class Literature in the Periodicals” (in the Cambridge Companion to Working-Class Literature). He is co-editor of The Place Where We Dwell: Reading and Writing about New York City and served as Executive Editor of the Columbia Journal of American Studies from 1998 to 2009. He presently serves on the Advisory Board of American Periodicals. This summer, Noonan served as Director of the NEH Summer Institute, “City of Print: New York and the Periodical Press.”
Meet at the south end of Union Square Park (14th Street between University Place and Fourth Avenue, NYC) by the equestrian statue of George Washington
Optional lunch at Pete’s Tavern (129 East 18th Street, corner of Irving Place, NYC; reservations recommended: tel. 212–473–7676)
tuesday, may 19, 2015, 6-7:30 p.m.
Ed Colker on “A Journey with Printers and Poets, from Paul Revere to Edward Hopper and Continuing…”
2015 History of Art Series: “Repositioning the Archive”
Tuesday, September 16, 2014, 6:30–8:00 p.m
Tour limited to 20 RSVP required
The Lower East Side is blessed with an especially dense concentration of vintage neon signs. Signs like these advertised businesses large and small throughout the city beginning in the 1920s and 30s. They fell out of favor in the 1960s thanks to rising costs, restrictive zoning ordinances, and the appearance of less costly forms of outdoor advertising. In recent years, they have all but disappeared as old, independent businesses across the city have succumbed to rent hikes and old age.
Our tour will take us past about a dozen signs dating to the 1930s, 40s and 50s, including that of the Orpheum Theatre, possibly the oldest surviving neon sign in New York. We will see them at dusk, as they start to come to light and when they look their best. Some have been beautifully restored; all are in perpetual danger of disappearing. We will discuss their materials, design, origins and future.
about tom rinaldi
Originally from Poughkeepsie, Tom Rinaldi is a graduate of Georgetown University and Columbia University’s MS program in historic preservation. Currently he is an architectural designer for Easton Architects, a New York-based firm specializing in the restoration of historic structures.Tom wrote the beautiful and extensively researched book New York Neon and has lectured extensively on the subject. His previous book is Hudson Valley Ruins, on abandoned historic sites in the Hudson Valley.
meet at:
John’s Restaurant
302 East 12th Street, NYC
(between First and Second Avenues, closer to Second Avenue)
6:30 p.m.
The tour’s last stop is at Katz’s Delicatessen on Houston Street. Attendees may choose to enjoy a nosh at this famous emporium featuring pastrami or corned beef on rye!
Type casting demonstration and Exhibition tour at the Grolier Club
thursday, april 3, 2014, 2:30 to 3:30 pm
Stan Nelson, retired specialist, Graphic Arts Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, will conduct a demonstration of typecasting, using equipment and techniques that would have been familiar to Theodore Low De Vinne.
exhibition tour
After the demonstration, co-curators Irene Tichenor and Michael Koenig will lead a tour of their exhibition “The Dean of American Printers.”
These events are presented at the Grolier Club in conjunction with the exhibition: “The Dean of American Printers: Theodore Low De Vinne and the Art Preservative of All Arts” Curated by Irene Tichenor and Michael Koenig, February 19 through April 26, 2014 at the Grolier Club, 47 E 60th St, NYC. Catalogs are available for sale at the Club.
Three Panels on the History of Book Design at the Center for Book Arts, NYC
The following three events have a nominal charge of $5 for APHA members and are held at The Center for Book Arts, 27 W 28th Street, 3d Fl., New York, NY
friday march 7, 14, and 21, 2014 at 6:30 pm
The 2014 History of Art Series: Book Design A series of public discussions with scholars, writers, and artists.
the nineteenth century (friday, march 7, 6:30 p.m.)
from william morris to america
Panelists: Mark Samuels Lasner, Senior Research Fellow, University of Delaware Library; William S. Peterson, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Maryland; and Jane Siegel, Rare Books Librarian, Columbia University
the twentieth century (friday, march 14, 6:30 p.m.)
european avant-garde, livres d’artistes, and the american influence
Panelists: Jared Ash, Special Collections Librarian, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Michael Russem, proprietor, Kat Ran Press; and Marion Caws, Professor of English & Comp Literature at CUNY Graduate Center
the twenty-first century (friday, march 21, 6:30 p.m.)
changing technologies and new expectations
Panelists: Mark Dimunation, Chief of Rare Books & Special Collections Division, Library of Congress; Ellen Lupton, writer and Curator of Contemporary Design, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; and David Senior, bibliographer, Museum of Modern Art Library
Irene Tichenor, “De Vinne and the Grolier Club.”
wednesday, march 19, 2014, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm. at the grolier club, 47 east 60th street, new york, ny
Lecture by Irene Tichenor, curator of “The Dean of American Printers” exhibition, and author ofNo Art Without Craft, the Life of Theodore Low De Vinne, Printer. Reception follows.
december 2, 2013
Trajan’s Column: TheTypographic Legacy AD113–AD2013.
Rose Auditorium at 41 Cooper Square
41 Cooper Square (at East 7th Street), New York, NY
An evening with Sumner Stone, T. Corey Brennan,Tiziana DAngelo and Paul Shaw, cosponsored by the LubalinType@Cooper Lecture Series.
monday, february 25, 6 p.m.
Tour of the Associated Press Corporate Archives
450 West 33rd Street, 15th floor
The AP Corporate Archives is the official repository for all records of enduring historical value created by AP, regardless of format. The records span the years 1848 to the present and are organized into 40 record groups totaling 2,000 linear feet. They include personal papers, organization, editorial and governance records, wire copy, photographs, recordings, artifacts, oral histories, film, video and rare books. The tour was led by Valerie Komor, Director of the AP Corporate Archives, who presented items of interest in the history of printing, communication, and journalism.
On view in the Corporate Archives gallery is an exhibition on the history of the AP logo, which was recently redesigned.
December 14, 2011
Printing for Kingdom, Empire, and Republic: Treasures from the Imprimerie Nationale
The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York City
Curator H. George Fletcher, lectured on this major exhibition at the Grolier Club. APHA members were welcome to attend. APHA members were also invited to join Mr. Fletcher for three noon tours of the exhibition on December 12, 14 or 15.
Printing for Kingdom, Empire, and Republic surveys the history of the French national printing establishment, the Imprimerie Nationale, arguably the most important printing house in Europe. Drawn from the vast and comprehensive archives of the Imprimerie Nationale, the exhibition will document the significant influence of the press, not only on printing and the book arts, but on French—and therefore European—literary culture from the mid-sixteenth century to the present day. The exhibition is being organized by the Grolier Club, the Groupe Imprimerie Nationale, S.A., and the Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC), France’s largest archive of authorial and publishing materials.
December 10, 2011
For Decoration and Agitation: Stencil and Pochoir Books and Prints
Newark Public Library
5 Washington Street
Newark, NJ 07090
APHA members and their guests were invited for a guided walk-through of the exhibition, For Decoration and Agitation: Stencil and Pochoir Books and Prints, with its curator, Jared Ash, Acting Head, Special Collections Division. Drawn almost entirely from the Library’s Special Collections, the exhibition is international in scope, and explores stencil and pochoir in book and journal illustration (children’s literature, fine press, and fashion design), fine art, and political and social action-oriented prints and posters. Artists in the exhibition include: Guy Arnoux, Georges Barbier, W.A. Dwiggins, Shepard Fairey, Serge Gladky Albert Gleizes, E. McKnight Kauffer, Jane Kent, Ivan Maliutin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Joan Miro, Georges Lepape, E.A. Seguy, Keisuke Serizawa, Anthony Velonis, and M.P. Verneuil, among others.
Following a tour of the “official” exhibition, APHA members had the opportunity to see additional pochoir works from the Library’s collections, not included in the exhibition.{Exhibition on view from October 18, 2011, through January 14, 2012}
December 1, 2011
APHA Annual Holiday Party!
Hosted by member Russell Maret
140 East 71st Street, #501
New York City
A few bottles of prosecco, nibbles, and good cheer were on hand!
November 12, 2011
Tour of Lothar Osterburg’s Photogravure Studio
232 3rd Street Building B #303
Brooklyn, NY 11215
www.lotharosterburgphotogravure.com
Photogravure artist Lothar Osterburg will take APHA members on a tour of his studio, where he makes photogravures of small, sculpted models of windmills, lighthouses, sailboats among others, staged in evocative settings. Osterburg photographs the models through a magnifying glass or with a macro lens, creating scenes of ambiguity and mystery. Working in the tradition of the master photographers from the turn of the last century, Osterburg is not only the photographer but has also mastered the difficult technique of photogravure platemaking and printing, thus controlling all the steps in his artistic process.
October 26, 2011
Alessandro Colizzi
“Bruno Munari: Unreadable Books”
Parsons School of Design
2 West 13 Street, 10th Floor Lab
New York City
From the Parson’s website: “Starting in 1949 Bruno Munari (1907–1998) launched his Libri illeggibili (Unreadable books), a series of design experiments on the form, materials, and purpose of the book as an object. A key feature of these publications with no text or images is that the medium itself becomes the message, leaving the ‘narrative’ to the perception of the object in its materiality. Despite the fact they were made as limited editions (sometimes single copies), the Unreadable books received a wide critical acclaim, also at international level, attaining within a few years no less than twenty different editions. For Munari these leaflets were primarily research artifacts, an exploration of visual communication principles. Such an interest is directly related to his Futurist militancy during the 1930s, from which the Milanese designer assimilated an unprejudiced attitude to the creative process …”
October 22, 2011
Linotype, Ludlow and Lunch Gothic Press
1317 Avenue Z
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY 11235
George and Peter Pompilio, proprietors of the Gothic Press, a small, family-owned and Brooklyn-based print shop, have working Linotype and Ludlow typesetting equipment which they continue to use to print jobs for clients. Following demonstrations of their equipment and a Q and A session, we will adjourn to “Narjis Cafe,” a nearby local Russian restaurant for optional lunch.
May 3, 2011
Pace Paper Studio Tour
with Ruth Lingen, Director/Master Printer and Akemi Martin, Master Papermaker
157 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY
Pace Paper, the Brooklyn studio of Pace Editions, is dedicated to papermaking, relief printing and bookmaking. Under the helm of director, Ruth Lingen, Pace Paper has produced editions with artists such as Chuck Close, James Siena, Donald Baechler and Robert Ryman, working in handmade paper and large relief prints. Ruth and Akemi will gave a tour of the studio and talked about techniques and collaborations, both current and historic.
April 13, 2011
Sébastien Morlighem
Deberny & Peignot: The Golden Years (1897–1939)
Co-sponsored with the Type Directors Club
347 West 36th Street, Suite 603,
New York City
This illustrated lecture told the story of the creation and growth of Deberny & Peignot, the most famous French typefoundry of the 20th century. Morlighem explained how the foundry was built by the Peignot family, first by accumulating the stock of several small Parisian foundries in the late 19th century and then, after World War I, merging with the venerable Deberny foundry. During the time the foundry was run by Georges Peignot it initiated a new era in French typefounding with punchcutters replacing artists as the instigators of new letterforms. In the Art Nouveau era it commissioned faces from Eugène Grasset and George Auriol, two of the leading artists of the period. Later, in the Art Deco era it worked with the brilliant poster artist Cassandre on several type designs that are still in use today.
Sébastien Morlighem, a graphic designer specializing in books and records, studied type design at the École Supérieure Estienne in Paris. He created the Bibliothèque typographique collection for Ypsilon Éditeur and co-authored its two books on French type designers Roger Excoffon and José Mendoza y Almeida, both of which have been very well-received.
March 16, 2011
Tour of The Arm Letterpress in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
281 North 7th Street,
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Daniel Morris, proprietor of The Arm and co-owner of The Dale Guild Type Foundry, showed us the workings of his public-access letterpress studio in Williamsburg.
March 7, 2011
Paul Shaw
“Type Design as a Second Career: W.A. Dwiggins Starts Over at Age 49”
Rose Auditorium, Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square at East 7th Street
New York City
This talk placed Dwiggins’ type design efforts into the context of his wide-ranging career as a commercial artist, examining the impact of calligraphy, historical typefaces, stencils, marionettes and book design on his typefaces. It explored his thoughts and theories about type design, especially the M-Formula which has had a far-reaching influence on contemporary digital typefaces. Dwiggins’ career was also situated within the context of type design as a nascent profession in the 20th century.
June 10, 2010
Paul Moxon
Book Arts Hither & Thither
The Grolier Club
47 Eas t 60th Street
New York City
The NY Chapter co-sponsored a talk with the Grolier Club Committee on Modern Fine Printing and the Typophiles. APHA member Paul Moxon will speak on his many visits to academic book arts programs and book arts centers.
April 29, 2010
A Memorial Tribute to Lowell Bodger, 1944–2010
Columbia University,
Butler Library, Room 523
535 West 114th Street
New York City
Lowell Bodger served as president of APHA’s New York Chapter from 1989 to 2006. Jointly hosted by APHA and the Columbia Rare Book & Manuscript Library, this special evening will celebrate Lowell’s life and achievements as a designer, typographer, filmmaker, collector, diarist, teacher, writer, and printer. Lowell’s family, friends and colleagues are invited to come and share their thoughts and memories. The evening will be accompanied by an exhibition of Lowell’s letterpress work. A reception will follow the tribute.
April 8, 2010
Simon Loxley
Book and Type Designer Frederic Warde
The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York City
Simon Loxley, author of Type: The Secret History of Letters spoke about the troubled life and brilliant work of book and type designer Frederic Warde (1894–1939). Warde is the subject of Loxley’s forthcoming book,Printer’s Devil: The Life and Work of Frederic Warde, which was based in part on research carried out using the Grolier Club’s Frederic Warde archive.
March 24, 2010
Dan Visel
The Future of Reading
History of Art Series sponsored by the Center for Book Arts
Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
A discussion of what digital publishing can take from the traditions of print publications. With Dan Visel, The Institute for the Future of the Book.
March 3, 2010
A Force Beyond Function: The Conversation, Technology and Significance of the Codex
History of Art Series sponsored by the Center for Book Arts
Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
A panel discussion centered on the physical form of the book as an expression of technology. With Jeff Peachey, Book Conservator; Sarah Lowengard, Historian of Technology and Science, The Cooper Union; Maria Fredericks, Drue Heinz Book Conservator, Morgan Library & Museum; and John Townsend, Independent Bookbinder and Conservator.
December 10, 2009
Living Posters: An Evening at the Chisholm-Larsson Vintage Poster Gallery
Chisholm-Larsson Gallery,
145 Eighth Avenue @ 17th Street, New York
For more than 30 years in New York City, Chisholm–Larsson Gallery has offered a wide selection of original vintage posters. Its award winning collection includes Art Nouveau and Art Deco product and liquor posters by Cassandre, Cappiello, and others; travel posters of all kinds; fashion; politics (Spanish Civil War, WWI, WWII, Propaganda and Civil Rights); and theater and film. Specialties include classic European and American movie posters by artists such as Ballester, Martinati and Saul Bass. They also feature one of the largest collections of Italian, French, Swedish and Polish film posters in the world. The evening will be hosted by Robert Chisholm.
December 3, 2009
Private tour of “William Blake’s World: ‘A New Heaven Is Begun’” exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum with curator Anna Lou Ashby
225 Madison Avenue @ 36th Street, New York
Drawn from the Morgan’s extensive holdings of works by William Blake (1757–1827), this exhibition is the Morgan’s first in more than twenty years devoted to the breadth of Blake’s literary accomplishments and artistic influence. Former director Charles Ryskamp and curators Anna Lou Ashby and Cara Denison have assembled many of Blake’s most spectacular watercolors, prints, and illuminated books of poetry to dramatically underscore his genius and enduring influence. The show includes more than 100 works and among the many highlights are two major series of watercolors, rarely displayed in their entirety.
November 5, 2009
APHA tours NARA (National Archives and Records Administration–Regional Archives, Northeast Region)
201 Varick Street @ Houston, New York
NARA is the Federal Agency that, by law, preserves and provides access to permanently valuable noncurrent Federal records with historical, legal or fiscal value. A national resource in a local setting, it contains over 83,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from 1865 to the 1990s, among them photographs, maps and architectural drawings, created or received by nearly 80 Federal agencies. This behind-the-scenes tour conducted by NARA Archivist Dorothy Dougherty, will give APHA members access to NARA’s rich and varied collections.
May 26, 2009
Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas
“Fancy: Ornamented Typefaces and Artistic Printing in the Nineteenth Century.”
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
A unique opportunity to hear and see an illustrated talk on MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, the biggest and most influential American type foundry of the nineteenth century, and the ingenious eccentricities of the artistic printing movement that challenged the limitations of letterpress printing. Angela Voulangas and Doug Clouse are the authors and designers of The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: A Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers, and other Freaks of Fancy (Princeton Architectural Press, May 2009). Doug Clouse is also the author of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan: Typographic Tastemakers of the Late Nineteenth Century (Oak Knoll Press, 2008). Co-sponsored by the Type Directors Club.
February 26, 2009
Russell Maret
“Letter Forms as Content.”
Type Directors Club, 347 West 36th Street, Suite 603, New York
A show and tell with letter designer and book artist Russell Maret; part of the Society of Scribes’ 2009 annual meeting. Event co-sponsored by APHA-New York and the Type Directors Club.
January 27, 2009
John Randle
“The Decisive Moment.”
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
John Randle, proprietor of the Whittington Press (UK) and publisher of the legendary journal Matrix, will be accepting APHA’s 2009 Institutional Award on behalf of the Whittington Press at APHA’s annual meeting this Saturday, January 24. Mr. Randle’s talk is co-sponsored by APHA-New York, the Grolier Club’s Committee on Modern Fine Printing, and The Typophiles. All of John and Rosalind Randle’s books printed at Whittington have been illustrated, and images have always been an important part of their lives. This talk brings together images from various sources and in various genres but all sharing a particularly strong visual impact.
December 9, 2008
Don Carli
“The Carbon Footprint of Print and Digital Media: Why you should care and what you can do about it.”
Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Butler Library, New York
Don Carli is the President of Nima Hunter, a consultancy providing strategic planning, marketing research, and technology assessment. An expert in printing technologies, he is the technology editor of Print on Demand magazine and consulting editor to Digital Imaging and Aktuel Grafisk Information magazines. Carli is research director of The Greening of Print, a research project investigating environmentally preferable procurement and production of printing and packaging in North America. Carli has given lectures on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, environmentally preferable procurement, recycling, responsible enterprise printing, and stakeholder relationship management, and he has been a speaker at several conferences in the United States as well as in Brazil, Sweden, and Italy. Co-sponsored by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Columbia University.
October 15, 2008
An Evening at Home with Elaine Lustig Cohen
New York, N.Y.
Elaine Lustig Cohen was married to the graphic designer Alvin Lustig from 1948 until his death in 1955. She was his office manager and carried out his designs for him after diabetes left him blind. After his death she became a graphic designer in her own right, designing stationery, catalogues, books and architectural signage for Meridian Books, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, Philip Johnson and other clients. In 1973 she and Arthur Cohen, her second husband, established Ex Libris, an antiquarian bookstore dealing in the books and printed ephemera of the European avant-garde of the early 20th century.
May 29, 2008
Gordon Bond
James Parker (1714-1770): A New Jersey Printer on the Eve of Revolution
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
Gordon Bond, an amateur historian, is the author of a new book on James Parker published by the New Jersey Heritage Press. He serves as co-chairman of the committee working to establish the Woodbridge Township History Museum and Vice President of Amateur Astronomers, Inc. in Cranford, New Jersey. Gordon is currently working on a folk grave marker survey project in New Jersey with Stephanie Hoagland. Free and open to the public.
March 26, 2008
Romano & Ross: 60 years of Art and the Tipoteca Italiana
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
John Ross is a graphic artist and maker of artists’ books. He teaches printmaking at the New School. Claire Romano is a painter, graphic artist, and Professor Emeritus at Pratt Institute. In 1991 John and Claire established the High Tide Press, which issues limited editions of books designed, typeset, illustrated, and hand printed by John himself. Since 1998 John has worked at the Tipoteca Italiana in Cornuda, Italy, collaborating with its technicians to produce several new works. Free and open to the public.
February 28, 2008
Scott-Martin Kosofsky
On Wavering: The Aesthetics, Culture, and Technology of Once and Future Fine Books
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
Scott-Martin Kosofsky, president of Boston’s Society of Printers, is a book designer, editor, and author well known for his work on complex books in Jewish studies, art, and music. As a writer, Scott’s The Book of Customs: A Complete Handbook for the Jewish Year (HarperCollins, 2004) was winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Free and open to the public.
December 4, 2007
50 Years of Helvetica
Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
A tour of the MoMA exhibition with curator Christian Larsen, Department of Architecture and Design.
November 2, 2007
Production not Reproduction: The Influence of Offset Printing on Artists’ Books
Panel at 6:30pm — “Production not Reproduction: The Influence of Offset Printing on Artists’ Books” at the Center for Book Arts. Exhibition and artists’ talk, moderated by the exhibition’s curator, Tony White. The event is co-sponsored with the Center for Book Arts, and the suggested donation of $5/$10 is waived for APHA-New York members.
October 27, 2007
Poetry into Print Panel and Discussion
The Morgan Library and Museum
Poetry into Print Panel and discussion including: Jerry Kelly, graphic designer; Mindy Belloff, Intima Press and Studio on the Square; and Alicia Martinez and Richard Kuczkowski, Poetry in Motion [subway project]. This is the inaugural meeting of the New York City Book Culture Seminar. Free admission. Tea and cookies to follow. Reservations are necessary since the seminar is limited to 44 participants. You will receive a confirmation of your registration. The New APHA poetry portfolio, Verse into Type, will be available for viewing. Sponsored by the American Printing History Association, with assistance from the Bibliographical Society of America, The Morgan Library and Museum, and the Palmer School of Library and Information Science of Long Island University.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
At Home with the American Type Founders Co. Library
Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Butler Library, New York, N.Y.
A hands-on session with selections from one of the country’s best collections of type specimens, and other wonderful things.
May 22, 2007
Letterpress Unbound
Join us at The Grolier Club for a screening of video programs about letterpress master printers Ruth Lingen and Peter Kruty produced by Champe Smith & Sally Gardner. Ruth discusses type and printing, and shows some of the artist’s books she has collaborated on with artists Lois Lane, Chuck Close, and her one posthumous work with Alexander Calder.
Peter is joined by artist Mikhail Magaril in a meeting about their project together, The Nightingale, a book with Mikhail’s woodcuts in a Chinese style. In addition, Peter shows works he collaborated on with artists Lesley Dill, Shelagh Keeley, and Robert Peterson. Producers Champe Smith & Sally Gardner will be at the screening joined by the printers.
May 2, 2007
Mathieu Lommen
Boeken! Dutch Book Typography, 1907-2007
Columbia University, 435 W 114th Street, Butler Library, Room 523.
In this illustrated survey of classical Dutch book and type design from Art Nouveau to the digital era, Mathieu Lommen traces the various trends during that time: from books inspired by William Morris and the Arts & Crafts aesthetic to the influence of programmatic modernism after World War II and beyond to the rediscovery of microtypographic refinements in recent years. Some of the designers whose work will be highlighted include Jan van Krimpen, Harry N. Sierman, Bram de Does and the type designers of The Hague Academy.
Mathieu Lommen is curator at the Special Collections Library, University of Amsterdam. He is an editor of the scholarly journal Quaerendo and co-author of many books, including several in English: Dutch typefounders’ specimens (1998), Bram de Does: Typographer & Type Designer(2003), and Sem Hartz and the making of Linotype Juliana (2006).
Co-sponsored by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University; New York Chapter of the American Printing History Association; and the Type Directors Club. Free and open to the public.
December 11, 2006
Paul Shaw
From Milton to Mattresses: The Early Work of W. A. Dwiggins, 1905-1930
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
W.A. Dwiggins is best known today as a type designer for Mergenthaler Linotype and a book designer for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. But before he was associated with either of those two companies he had already established a reputation as one of the leading commercial artists in the country. In recognition of this, the AIGA awarded Dwiggins its gold medal in 1929. His experience working for jewelers, furniture companies, vacuum cleaner manufacturers, canned food purveyors, tobacco companies, paper mills and others led him to coin the phrase “graphic design” in 1922 and formed the basis for his 1928 book, Layout in Advertising. This talk will focus on Dwiggins’ early career, looking not only at his advertising work but also his close connection with Alfred Bartlett and D.B. Updike. Most of the work to be shown will be unfamiliar.
Paul Shaw is both a graphic designer and a design historian. As the principal of Paul Shaw / Letter Design he has won awards from the AIGA, Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club and Print magazine. As a design historian he has written about written about blackletter type, Bartolomeo Sanvito, George Salter, Morris Fuller Benton and W.A. Dwiggins. Paul teaches the history of graphic design and the history of typography at the School of Visual Arts; and calligraphy at both Parsons School of Design and University of the Arts. He is currently working on a full-length biography of W. A. Dwiggins.
June 2, 2004
Mark Batty
The Complexities, Trials and Tribulations of Making a New Edition of Joseph Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing
This edition brings new scholarship to Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises(1683), the first book ever written on printing and printing types. The text, edited by John Lane, has been extensively annotated and expanded for scholars and artists in the fields of printing, typography and the graphic arts. John Lane, a leading bibliographer and historian of type and printing, has based this edition on that of the Oxford Univesity Press (1962), edited by Herbert David and Harry Carter.
Before founding Mark Batty Publisher in 2001, Mark Batty was president and CEO of the International Typeface Corporation, and director of marketing for Letraset. He is president of the Association Typographique International (ATypI), and a board member of the Fine Press Book Association. Free and open to the public.
March 9, 2004
Justin Howes
Typographical Monstrosities: The Grotesque in Nelson’s England
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
An account of the fierce debates which greeted the appearance of sansserif letterforms on London posters and store-fronts between 1803 and 1805. On this subject, Howes says “the topic emerged as a result of hunting down Updike’s 1918 joke about the ‘Fashionable Egyptian Sign-boards’ that had quite shocked polite taste in London a century earlier: ‘An Irishman describing the Egyptian letters, which at present deface the metropolis, declared that the thin strokes were exactly the same as the thick ones.’ One writer (anonymous) said ‘Yet let us hope it is merely the folly of the day, a fungi [sic] which will disappear as speedily as it has arisen.’ It is through these debates that a modern vocabulary for the discussion of letterforms evolved.”
Howes is a British typographer, type designer and historian. His recent book design projects include the British Library’s new study of the Dove’s Press by Marianne Tidcombe; The Golden Cockerel Press, by Roderick Cave and Sarah Manson; editions of Wycliffe’s and Tyndale’s New Testaments; and bibliophile editions for the Roxburghe Club.
December 10, 2003
Lili Wronker
The Hebrew Alphabet from Antiquity to the Compute
The School of Visual Arts, 209 East 23rd Street, New York
The video is described as a visual journey covering letters in stone, manuscripts, paintings, signs, printing, typography, and calligraphy, incorporating photography by Erich Wronker and videography by Anita Weber and Michael Tiranoff.
Lili Cassel Wronker has been active in the books arts for over sixty years. She has been a book jacket designer, children’s book illustrator, and calligrapher. She and her husband Erich were proprietors of a private press, The Ron Press. Her involvement in many organizations includes membership in the Typophiles and founding membership in the Society of Scribes and in APHA.
November 13, 2003
Peter Bain
Film Type
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
During the display type era in New York, wherein film and photographic media freed type design from the constraints of metal, designers embraced phototypesetting and made the city a center of new typeface design. Bain will discuss this period, present specimens and offer a critique of display typography.
Peter Bain is a typographic designer, and principal of Incipit, a studio whose work includes typeface design, lettering, and typography. His interests include the history of typefaces. In 1998 he co-curated, with Paul Shaw, the exhibition “Blackletter: Type and National Identity,” at the Herb Lubin Study Center for Design and Typography at Cooper Union.
December 11, 2002
Liana Lupas, Curator of the Scripture Collection
The Library of a Single Book
The American Bible Society Library and Archives
The Library of the American Bible Society includes more than 55,000 title in over 2,200 languages and dialects, dating from the thirteenth century to the present. Dr. Lupas will show and discuss a unique visual history of the art of the printed word.
Liana Lupas is Curator of the Scripture Collection at the American Bible Society. She is past Professor of Classics at the University of Bucharest, Romania; at Columbia University; and at Hofstra University
May 21, 2002
Virginia Smith
Kabel to Corbu: The Spirit of Modernism Pervading All the Arts
The Grolier Club,47 East 60th Street, New York
Virginia Smith with speak on relationships between typography of the Early Modernist period and design in other fields, including architecture and haute couture — material covered in her forthcoming book Visual Set: Typography and the Design Arts. She will show results of her recent research in the Imprimerie Nationale in Paris, in the archives of the Louvre and in private collections, including original photographs of the famous Art Deco Exposition of 1925 in Paris, and rare period photographs taken when Le Corbusier’s “white boxes” of the 1920’s were first built.
Virginia Smith is Professor of Art at the City University of New York, and a past president of the American Printing History Association.
April 26, 2002
David Small
Beyond Printing: Design for Dynamic Display
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
David Small’s work presents a compelling vision of how computers can redefine the paradigm of printed typography. His experiments ask fundamental questions about how reading, writing and. expression are evolving in response to computer technology. The result is a personal vision of the future of computer-mediated typography.
David Small is Principal of Small Design Firm, Inc., in Cambridge. His Ph.D. at the MIT Media Labs focused on the display and manipulation of complex visual information. His thesis, Rethinking the Book, examined how digital models, in particular the use of 3-D and dynamic type, will change the way designers approach large bodies of information.
November 9, 2001
Alastair Johnston
Alphabets to Order
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
Typographer and letterpress printer Alastair Johnston discusses his recentAlphabets to Order: The Literature of Nineteenth Century Typefounders’ Specimens (published by Oak Knoll Press and The British Library). Johnston surveys the inseparable visual and literary experiments of the anonymous craftsmen who set English and American type specimen books during the “typographical explosion” of the 19th century.
With the arrival of display types, the specimen books became the “playground of the compositors.” Johnston will show “the controlled chaos” of 19th century typefounders’ specimen books, and discuss some of the “labyrinthine byways” he traveled in exploring these texts. “Lost in the stacks I encountered poison candy, vice and superstition. Then found some peculiar books, lost to time, that revealed the reading habits, politics and whimsies of typestickers of yore” –some of which may be compared to the later work of concrete poets and dadaists.
Alastair Johnston is a typographer and letterpress printer at the Poltroon Press in Oakland, California, which he founded in 1975 in partnership with Frances Butler. He is well known as a historian, lecturer, and author on books and type, and edits The Ampersand, published by the Pacific Center for Book Arts.
October 11, 2001
John Randle, The Whittington Press
Papers and Prospectuses
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
John Randle, proprietor of The Whittington Press, will show and discuss two unique publications of his press:
Fine Papers at the Oxford University Press. A descriptive catalogue, with text by John Bidwell, assembled in 1999 to present samples from among 20,000 sheets of hand- and mould-made papers dating from 1890, forgotten leftovers rediscovered and bought from Oxford University Press in 1986.This book remains the most comprehensive account of British hand-papermaking to date.
British Private Press Prospectuses, 1891-2001. An account by David Butcher of the prospectuses issued by British private presses, both famous and less well-known, that traces the development of the private press during the twentieth century. This work contained a portfolio of rare, original prospectuses from a collection assembled by Randle over the past fifteen years.
The Whittington Press, founded in 1971 by John and Rosalind Randle, will have published by early 2002 some 160 titles, including belles lettres, collections of wood-engravings and other imagery, bibliographies, type specimens, and the internationally acclaimed annual review for printers and bibliophiles, Matrix, now in its twenty-first year.
December 15, 2000
Jerry Kelly
Gallery talk and reception for the exhibition “The Fine Art of Letters: The Work of Hermann Zapf”
The Grolier Club, New York
Hermann Zapf, recognized as one of the foremost type designers, calligraphers, and typographers of the twentieth century, has designed more than 200 typefaces, including Palatino, Optima, Zapf Chancery and Michelangelo. His manual of calligraphic styles, Pen and Graver (1949), set a standard for several generations of calligraphers; his calligraphic broadsides, book jackets, and limited edition silk-screen prints have been reproduced widely.
Jerry Kelly is a designer, printer and calligrapher working independently in New York, and a partner in the Kelly/Winterton Press. He has also been a designer/representative of the Stinehour Press, and The Press of A. Colish. He has taught at Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, and Queens College. He is author of articles in journals including AIGA Journal, Matrix, Fine Print, Calligraphy Review, and Bookways. He also co-authored with Martin Hutner, A Century for the Century (1999).
November 13, 2000
Jean Bourges
Odyssey of the Printable Palette
The Grolier Club, New York
The idea of enabling artists to prepare color work in a more readily printable form has been a century in realization. Jean Bourges will discuss the science and art of “getting color to the paper,” color choice, specification of pigments, inks, paints, and other colorants. Her father Albert Bourges, at first an engraver, wanting to involve artists in platemaking and resolve the disparate viewpoints of artists, invented the Bourges Color Notation System, and later Bourges Artists’ Shading Sheets. Jean Bourges is the author of Color Bytes (1997). Before joining her father to start a new company, she worked as an engineering draftsperson in the U.S. Army Map Service.
April 3, 2000
James Mosley
Primitive Types: The Sans-Serif Letter from Neo-classical Icon to Tool of commerce
March 31, 2000
James Mosley