From the contact form:
I am researching printing during the 1960s-1970s. I am particularly looking at materials used for the printing press called offset powder or french chalk. Do you know any names of these type of products made by big brands which would have been used during this period?
I appreciate you taking the time to read and consider this.
Indexing machines, ca. 1905. (Courtesy US GPO)
The following query appeared on this site recently:
Please, I would like to know the term used for the “thumb indents” found in older hardbound dictionaries, one at the start of each new letter. Also, was making these indents considered part of the binding process, and how was it accomplished? [Read more]
The Friends of Dard Hunter (FDH) and the American Printing History Association (APHA) welcome proposals for their joint conference “Matrices: The Social Life of Paper, Print, and Art,” at the University of Iowa Center for the Book Iowa City, Iowa, October 25–27, 2018. Proposals are due March 31, 2018. FDH and APHA invite proposals for presentations, demonstrations, and workshops that explore the technological and cultural matrices of art printed on or made from handmade paper. PDF. [Read more]
From the contact form:
Please, I would like to know the term used for the “thumb indents” found in older hardbound dictionaries, one at the start of each new letter. Also, was making these indents considered part of the binding process, and how was it accomplished?
Robin Atkins
From APHA’s Facebook page:
I’m writing a piece on the reception of Swedish novelist Fredrika Bremer in the US in the 1840s, and have come across the printer and publisher Jonas Winchester. Is this a photograph of him, from Printing History 9 Number 1 1983? Is it possible to get hold of the article by James J. Barnes, “Jonas Winchester: Speculator, Medicine Man”, or can you tell me more about the photo?
Homes of American Authors (New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1853). (From the collection of the author)
It has become a commonplace to associate the industrial revolution in the United States with the emergence of a mass culture aimed at a popular and commercial marketplace and to characterize the output of American printers and publishers of the industrial era with such adjectives as “good, fast, and cheap.” Many accounts echo this assessment, pointing to a supposed “century-long quest to make books more quickly, more cheaply, and in greater numbers than ever before.” If not exactly pejorative, such assessments do not hold much promise for the connoisseur of high-quality fine printing. [Read more]
Via the contact form:
I have a rare booklet ca. 1891 titled Southern California a Few Facts About a Fortunate Country. The printer was Los Angeles Litho Co. Anybody know anything about this firm?
Regards, Jan Hanna
Used books adorning a printing press at Bókakjallarinn in Reykjavík. (A. Fontanel)
A winter vacation to Reykjavík, Iceland is a must if you want to trade cold Northern cityscapes for colder, but breathtaking, geothermal hot springs, ancient geysers, and a chance to view the Aurora Borealis. Those attractions were so alluring, but this printing historian was inevitably drawn to used bookshops and thrift stores for the true flavor of this capital city. My busman’s holiday led to a mini-tour of the letterpress establishments in town. [Read more]
Jonathan Wells presenting (Robert McCamant)
Michael Knies presenting (Robert McCamant)