[August 28, 2001] Things have really been hopping with the undergraduate college presses since the end of last year, and the 2001-2002 academic year may well go down in history as a significant turning point for Yale's wonderful printing tradition in the new millennium. Here is a summary of what has happened, and where things stand:

ALI BABA'S WAREHOUSE OF PRINTING DELIGHTS

Thanks to fortuitous timing, the interest of many of the college Masters and student printers, the support of Associate Provost Lloyd Suttle, the amazing generosity of the Mandel family, and some unbelievable hard work by Yale printing supporters such as Raleigh D'Adamo, Yale became the beneficiary of an absolutely unparalleled gift. Donated for the use of the college presses has been the last major American commercial inventory of letterpress printing equipment, supplies and furniture, from the American Printing Equipment & Supply Corp. in Long Island City, NY. During June and July, we successfully brought up over fifteen truckloads of otherwise unobtainable letterpress history, including many thousands of pounds of brand new foundry type, dozens of presses, type cabinets, imposing stones, drying racks, worktops and much, much more. We have begun to move these into the college presses, and will continue over the next few months. What remains when we finish will be donated to other not-for-profit institutions or sold off to letterpress aficionados, and the proceeds devoted to an ongoing fund to support undergraduate printing at Yale. Many of you have visited the warehouse that Yale has rented for us to temporarily store this marvelous cache, and tours are available on request for those who haven't...it is guaranteed to blow you away!

THE HONORABLE COMPANY OF COLLEGE PRINTERS

This venerable organization, a Yale student group with a long and illustrious (albeit somewhat episodic) history dating back to the 1930s has seen a resurgence on two fronts. The core student group will hold its Sixth Revival Meeting early this Fall, under the direction of its new and enthusiastic Master of the Chappel, Andi Young (the newly-appointed Branford Printer). Andi will be working to gain, at long last, "registered organization status" for the group with the Yale Dean's office, and will be ably assisted by Julie Ochs (current Grande Dame of Yale student printing), Matthew Underwood (Davenport) and Allison Master (JE). One of the first events of the revitalized HCCP will be a recruiting table at the Freshman Bazaar of Undergraduate Organizations, which will be held Sunday afternoon, September 2 in Beinecke Plaza. Everyone who is available is encouraged to attend and help reel in some new freshman talent. We are currently hoping to produce some interesting signage and demonstrations for the event, and the first order of business will be to let everyone know what wonderful resources are available to students through the college presses.

At the same time, a group of interested alumni college printers and supporters have formed the HCCP Alumni Chappel, whose mission is to aid the undergraduate group with equipment, resources, advice, financial aid,and moral support. A delightful "pre-organization" luncheon was held at the Grolier Club in New York last Spring, and was attended by several current student printers, fellows and printing alumni. Already there are over a dozen members, whose Yale experiences span a sixty year history and include work in the Branford, Berkeley, Pierson, Davenport, Silliman, Timothy Dwight, Trumbull, Saybrook and Jonathan Edwards Presses. Many of the group currently are proprietors of their own fine presses, and we hope to arrange field trips and other events to bring both groups closer together. Recruitment for the alumni group will continue with notices on various personal and class mailing lists and in the Yale Alumni magazine.

THE HCCP PRESS LIBRARIES

One of the first contributions of the HCCP Alumni Chappel is to donate to each of the working college presses a well-stocked library of out-of-print manuals on printing, binding, typography and the book arts. These libraries have been assembled from a range of private collections and specialized dealers, and include the following works: Cleeton & Pitkin "General Printing"; Polk "The Practice of Printing"; PIA "Composition Manual"; Gage "Platen Press Work"; Merriman "ATA Type Comparison Book"; Updike "Printing Types: Their History, Form & Use"; Craig "Designing with Type"; Allen "Printing with the Hand Press"; Bigmore & Wyman "A Bibliography of Printing"; and several others. We hope that these libraries (which come with appropriate bookplates :-) will remain in the Presses to help instruct future generations of student printers.

THE ARTS OF THE BOOK COLLECTION AND THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PRESS

Jae Williams, who was appointed last year as the new Curator of the Arts of the Book Collection at Sterling Library (as well as holding down several other appointments in the library) is an active supporter of Yale's undergraduate printing scene, and, of course, the ex-officio proprietress of Yale's Bibliographical Press. Under her guidance, there are several exciting projects underway utilizing the Library's unparalleled collection of type, wood engravings and book-binding tools. Jae is actively expanding Yale's permanent collection of the work of the college presses, and will be mounting a major exhibition later this year of the work of the Yale's student printers over the past sixty five years. Jae encourages anyone who has extra copies of anything printed at one of the college presses (from books down to ephemera) to donate it for the library's collection. Contributions can be sent to:

Ms. Jae Williams
Curator, Arts of the Book Collection
120 High Street, Room 177
PO Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
(203) 434-1712

THE COLLEGE PRESSES

The most exciting news, however, has been the resurgence of the college presses themselves. After several years of neglect and disorder, caused in some part by the college renovations, but also because of a disconnect between the various interested parties (students, Masters, alumni, fellows, administration, etc.) we have finally started to get things coordinated, and the results are showing! Visit our College Press Section to see all the latest updates!

So, that is what has been happening so far with Yale's undergraduate printing program. We look forward to seeing everyone in person at one or more events this year, and will try to establish a Printing Events calendar for the Fall term, to be circulated by e-mail and maintained on this site. In the interim, everyone is encouraged to get involved, support a press, or drop us an e-mail if you are interested in volunteering time or other resources to this cause.