Clockwise from top left: Sandro Berra, Jim Hamilton, Jim Moran, Rob Saunders, and Mark Barbour.
Sat., Nov. 7 | This distinguished panel discussed the wide variety of approaches to preserving the history and craft of printing. Each panelist gave an introduction to his institution, followed by a discussion led by Jim Hamilton. [Read more]
The American Printing History Association is pleased to introduce members who have agreed to serve as officers and Trustees on the APHA board. This dynamic group of talented people will grow our organization and keep APHA thriving. We’re excited they are joining us.
The Nominating Committee
Ethan Lipton
Robert McCamant
Emily Martin
Nina Schneider, Chair
Left: The Model 5 Linotype and Cpl. Jimmie Kreiter in Pneumonia Hollow, Chaumont, France. (GPO 20101229029) Right: Jimmie Kreiter and the General Pershing Linotype at GPO, 1950s. (GPO 20101229028)
A few days before the U.S. Government Printing Office History Exhibit opened in 2011, one of our maintenance supervisors brought a man whom he introduced as his father in to the new main room of the exhibit area, looking concerned. [Read more]
Gordon’s US Patent model for a platen job press mounted on the base of the case made by GPO carpenters. (GPO)
On Wednesday, March 15, 2017, Frank Romano, President of the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Massachusetts, visited the Government Publishing Office in Washington to transport an 1874 U.S patent model of a platen printing press which GPO is lending to the museum. APHA’s Chesapeake Chapter sponsored a “going-away party” in GPO’s Visitor Center at which GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks and Deputy Director James Bradley formally turned over the model to Romano. The model was prepared for transport to the museum by cabinetmaker John Beckel of the GPO Carpenter Shop, who constructed a specially fitted case for the model to travel in. [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 Government Printing Office Division of Testing and Technical Controls Paper Analysis Laboratory, late 1930s. (GPO Photo Collection)
George Barnum & James T. Cameron: Making the Invisible Visible: Wartime Wonders at the U.S. Government Printing Office ♥
John Risseeuw: Alloy Analysis of Historic Metal Printing Type
Both speakers in this session summoned science. But just a dram of detail is divulged now. Mr. Barnum’s talk (Mr. Cameron did not attend) will be posted in full on this website after all the conference events are summarized. Prof. Risseeuw’s investigations are ongoing, therefore the aim is to avoid mischaracterizing his conclusions. [Read more]
Rick Jay thrills the audience at the Huntington Library with his “blow book” while Alan Jutzi looks on. (Paul Moxon)
Collecting the Enigmatic: Ricky Jay in conversation with Alan Jutzi
Every person who registered for this year’s APHA conference “The Black Art & Printer’s Devils : The Magic, Mysticism, and Wonders of Printing History” undoubtedly shared a least one (or several) moments of thinking, “Well, what’s this going to be like?” when looking over the program. The speakers presented a rich menu of surprises and enticements. And leading that bill of surprises was the keynote speaker on Friday evening, October 7, the bibliophile, scholar and performer, Ricky Jay. [Read more]
The Government Publishing Office in Washington D.C. recently acquired two original news photographs of its most famous and beloved Linotype.
The machine, a Model 5, serial no. 14168R, shipped in June, 1910, to Pierre Lafitte & Co., a Paris agent, and was purchased by a French printing firm. Had it not been one of two requisitioned for the American Expeditionary Force by Major W.W. Kirby seven years later, the machine might well have ended its life in the same obscurity shared by many of its Brooklyn-built brethren. [Read more]
The completion of GPO Building 3 (at right) in 1940 brought the total floor space of the GPO facility in Washington, DC to 33 acres.
The United States Government Printing Office (now known as the Government Publishing Office) was called the “Largest Print Shop in the World” for many decades beginning around the turn of the twentieth century. Everything about the operation at that time and through the 1970s seems, especially in our age of miniaturization, just huge. The plant, affectionately called “The Big Red Buildings,” eventually expanded to four structures on North Capitol Street amounting to 33 acres of floor space. The annual production of documents was nothing short of vast, reaching well into the billions of copies annually by 1940, when 5600 people worked there. At its peak, in the 1970s, our employee roll reached over 8000. [Read more]
R. Hoe & Co No. 5703 at the Center for Book Arts with its new tympan and frisket. The HVAC duct doubles as the frisket stop.
Richard Minsky: “Restoring and Adjusting Two Iron Handpresses” ¶ Amelia Fontanel: “One Press to Rule Them All: The Kelmscott/Goudy Legacy at the RIT Cary Collection”
After two solid days of all things hand press (and beyond), it would have been hard to imagine a more a propos final session than Richard Minsky and Amelia Fontanel’s talks on the restoration of three iron hand presses. [Read more]