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]

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]

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.

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]

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. 

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 conference

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]

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]

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.

Via the contact form:

I am researching a book, and one of the people in it closed out his career in the 1980s at Steenland Lithography, apparently in the metro Philadelphia area. He was Steenland’s “director of research,” so I assume it was a company of some size. But I have been unable to find any references to it, its business, its fate. I’m seeking guidance to someone who might know about the industry in that area in that period or who might know the Steenland name. Any direction you could provide to secondary sources would be terrific, too. Thanks very much, and I look forward to returning the favor.

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