It was the June of 1993 and the Amalgamated Printers’ Association Wayzgoose was in Keithsburg, Illinois. A very small, rural community on the Mississippi River. So small, in fact, that there were no motels/hotels within a half an hour’s drive. The deal that year was that folks could come and camp, or rooms and cabins in town would be rented out for the weekend to the adventurous. Nearly everyone went that route. [Read more]
Designed by architect George Fletcher Babb, this device was first used it as a motif in the terra-cotta cartouche at the entrance of the De Vinne Press Building. Appearing on De Vinne Press imprints from 1886 on, it depicts a tablet bearing a saying of Prometheus in Greek: “and further I discovered for them [i.e., mankind] numeration, most striking of inventions, and composition, nurse of the arts, producer of the record of all things.” This color version is from the title page of the De Vinne Press 1907 type specimen.
No one has earned a place in the annals of American printing history more solidly than Theodore Low De Vinne (1828–1914). His encyclopedic understanding of the craft, his advancement of its technology and design, his appreciation of its history, his business leadership, and his many writings earned him, among his contemporaries, the designation “Dean of American Printers.” [Read more]
I would like to thank my fellow committee members: Hosea Baskin, antiquarian bookseller of Northampton, Massachusetts; and Richenda Brim, a librarian at the Getty Research Institute and a letterpress printer, for their good work. There was a strong field of proposals, and diverging opinions on the committee, but one proposal strongly appealed to all three of us. The 2014 Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship is awarded to Elizabeth Upper for her proposal, “The Earliest Artifacts of Color Printing: Early Modern Frisket Sheets, c.1490-c.1620.” [Read more]
APHA’s Individual Achievement Award is presented to Roger Stoddard (left) and the Institutional Achievement Award is presented to David R. Godine (right) by APHA President Robert McCamant. Photos by Joel Mason.
With the American Printing History Association meeting and reception, Bibliography Week in New York comes at an end. Good fun, good talks, and good fellowship! Congratulations to our new officers Sara T. Sauers Vice-President for Programs, and trustees Jae Rossman, Haven Hawley and Fran Durako; as well as thanks to outgoing officers Kitty Maryatt for Programs and trustees Carl Darrow and Joan Friedman. [Read more]
A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of a beloved Pupil by William Smith, Inscribed half-title (left) and title page with mourning border (right). Bridwell Library Special Collections, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Posted in honor of Franklin who was born January 17, 1706.
For many people, the most interesting rare books are those whose histories reveal authentic connections to known people, institutions, or events. One such book is Bridwell Library’s copy of a sermon printed in 1754 on the occasion of the death of a student at the Academy of Philadelphia, the first incarnation of what is today the University of Pennsylvania (my alma mater). It was printed by Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), founder of the Academy, and inscribed by its author, Rev. William Smith (1727–1803), who soon became the first Provost of that Academy, for presentation to a fellow educator back in England. The inscription on the half-title page reads: “The Author / To the rev. Dr. Green Master of / Bennet College, Cambri[dge] / Philadelphia / Oct r. 19th. 1754.” A brief review of the circumstances surrounding this inscribed pamphlet reveals both an intriguing personal drama and early connections between academic life and the printing press in colonial America. [Read more]
The American Printing History Association (APHA) with the Friends of Dard Hunter (FDH) announce our new (ad)venture: Joint Annual 2014 Conference in San Francisco, California from Thursday, October 16 to Saturday, October 18, 2014 at San Francisco Center for the Book. Proposals are due by March 15, 2014. PDF
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APHA with the Friends of Dard Hunter (FDH) announce our new (ad)venture: Joint Annual 2014 Conference in San Francisco, California from Thursday, October 16 to Saturday, October 18, 2014 at San Francisco Center for the Book. [Read more]
This is your editor’s wish for one and all before the year begins in earnest. From The Golden Hind Press Commonplace Book (1955), an edition of trial pages limited to fifty copies. A note on the page says: “Toward the close of his life the bishop composed a summary of his teachings, the Etymolgiae. The book had immense success and served as a manual of universal knowledge throughout the next five centuries.”
The Golden Hind Press, established in 1927, was the private press of Arthur W. Rushmore (1883–1955) who for many years had been the director of design and manufacture for Harper & Bros., Publishers and had five designs selected for AIGA’s Fifty Books of the Year.
Armandus de Bellovisu, Expositio super Thomae de Aquino libellum de ente et essentia. Padua: Matthaeus Cerdonis, 29 August 1482. Bridwell Library Special Collections, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
It is a commonplace in book history that early typography often served the purposes of the major universities, whose administrations and faculty quickly took advantage of the new printing press technology to supply books for its students. However, it is extremely unusual to find a copy of a fifteenth-century printed book that can be associated with a particular student enrolled during a particular academic term at a particular university within a particular class taught by a particular professor. [Read more]
Jethro Lieberman speaks about the press at Christie’s on the eve of the auction. Photo: Paul Romaine.
The Cary Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology announced today that it has acquired the Kelmscott/Goudy press, so named because it was first owned by William Morris then later Frederic Goudy. This famous iron hand press auctioned by Christie’s on December 6, expected to sell for between $100,000-150,000, actually fetched $233,000. [Read more]