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Request to Borrow Timeline

Via the contact form:

Hi there. I am amazed to see this organization exists! I am an employee for a paper merchant in Texas and I am glad to find this website. I was intrigued by the printing timeline posted on the home page and wondered if there was a printed version of it in poster or brochure format? I am the Co-President of our local AIGA chapter and we have organized a Women Lead Letterpress Workshop for March 30th. I was hoping I could distribute to our attendees a copy of the timeline. Let me know if that’s possible. Thanks!

Louis Cuellar, San Antonio AIGA

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Texas A&M Book History Workshop

Registration has opened for the sixteenth annual Book History Workshop at Texas A&M University, scheduled for 21-26 May 2017. Taking place at Cushing Memorial Library & Archives, the Workshop provides an intensive, hands-on introduction to the history of books and printing.  [Read more]

An Uncommon Conclusion

Seth Gottlieb

The completed press, named the Uncommon Press, at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at RIT. (Photos by Seth Gottlieb except where noted)

This is the sixth and final post in a series that began last year.

Building a wooden printing press takes more than physical means. It requires a great deal of patience and humility. Of course, it also takes tremendous hubris to complete one within a single calendar year. The project would be completed on time and under budget, we told ourselves. There was no other option.  [Read more]

A Bay Area Celebration of Fred and Barbara Voltmer

Invitation, designed and printed by Li Jiang at Lemoncheese Press. (Li Jiang)

APHA NorCal is joining forces with a whole fleet of other Bay Area organizations, listed below, to celebrate the contributions of APHA members Fred and Barbara Voltmer whose handpresses were refurbished or repaired by the Voltmers. Organizations include: Arion Press, American Bookbinders Museum, Book Club of California, Bridwell, Havilah Press, Jonathan Finegold, Mills College, Noble Impressions, Philoxenia, SF Center for the Book, SFPL Main, Rare Books Room, University of San Francisco, and Vallejo/McCuen. RSVP by February 23.

Printing History 21 on Press

Front and back cover of Printing History 21. (Michael Russem)

Here’s a peek at Printing History 21, the first issue produced by the team of Brooke Palmieri, editor; Michael Russem, publication designer; and Katherine Ruffin, Vice-President for Publications.  [Read more]

2017 APHA Awards and Mark Samuels Lasners Fellowship Winners

L-R George Barnum, Government Publishing Office Agency Historian, Nina Schneider, APHA President, Lisa Unger Baskin. (Casey Smith)

At 2 pm, Saturday, January 28, The American Printing History Association’s Annual Meeting took place in the Trustees’ Room at the New York Public Library. Among the highlights was the presentation of the 2017 APHA Awards and the Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship. The individual award was conferred to Lisa Unger Baskin and the institutional award was conferred to the U.S Government Publishing Office and accepted by George Barnum. The Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship was awarded to Amanda Stuckey

Call for Proposals 2017

Sara T. Sauers

The American Printing History Association (APHA) and the Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAViC) at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) welcome proposals for their joint conference2017confheader

APHA and CHAViC invite proposals that explore the production, distribution, reception, and survival of printed words and images in America to 1900. In an era in which the process of design had not been separated from production, the purpose of the conference is to explore the inter-relation between composition, design, and printing processes. PDF  [Read more]

2017 Annual Meeting

The American Printing History Association’s Annual Meeting will take place 2 pm, Saturday,  January 28 in the  Trustees’ Room at the New York Public Library. Among the highlights will be the presentation of the 2017 APHA Awards and the Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship. The individual award will be conferred to Lisa Unger Baskin and the institutional award will be conferred to the U.S Government Publishing Office. The Mark Samuels Lasner Fellow will be Amanda Stuckey. Committee statements regarding the winners will be posted after the meeting. APHA encourage all members to attend. The meeting is free and open to the public.

Exhibition & Symposium Celebrates The Mark Samuels Lasner Collection

Mark Samuels Lasner and his collection in the Morris Library. (Evan Krape / University of Delaware)

Mark Samuels Lasner and his collection in the Morris Library. (Evan Krape/University of Delaware)

APHA’s own Mark Samuels Lasner, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Delaware Library and a collector of Victorian books, manuscripts, and artworks, recently donated his collection to the University of Delaware Library. To honor this gift, the library is putting on an exhibition “Victorian Passions: Stories from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection,” curated by Margaret D. Stetz, on view in the Special Collections Gallery, UD Library, from February 14-June 3, 2017[Read more]

Benjamin Franklin, born this day in 1706

Paul Moxon, Website Editor

Much has been written about this founding father of the United States. His contributions as a diplomat, statesman, civic activist, scientist, and inventor are well known. Readers of this website will be quick to add that he was also an author, printer, editor and publisher. To the last appellation,  I wish to direct attention to an article that was overlooked when first posted: Penn Connections: Provost William Smith’s Sermon on “the Death of a Beloved Pupil,” Printed by Ben Franklin in 1754.