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[May, 2002] 2002 LOHMANN PRIZES AWARDED FOR UNDERGRADUATE PRINTING
An Honorable Mention in the letterpress category went to Joshua Dunn, Head Printer of the Jonathan Edwards College Press, for his series of beautifully done ephemeral material in support of JE Press and other college activities. Both of the Lohmann First Prize award winners were participants in this year's near-legendary Art of the Book College Seminar, sponsored by Jonathan Edwards and Pierson Colleges, and taught by Howard I. Gralla in the Pierson Press. This credit-bearing course, which has been been offered half a dozen times over the past two decades, provided not only an incomparable introduction to the history of the printed word throughout five hundred years, but also hands-on instruction in printing and book production using the facilities of the college presses. MACARTHUR LAUREATE CLAIRE VAN VLIET WOWS AUDIENCE AT YALE WAYZGOOSE
Van Vliet is the proprietor of the Janus Press in Newark, Vermont. Founded in 1955, Janus' publications number approximately 100. Many have been designed, illustrated, typeset, printed (sometimes on paper made by the artist) and bound by Ms. Van Vliet herself. Claire Van Vliet served printing apprenticeships at a newspaper in Oberursel/Taunus, Germany, and the Pickering Press in Maple Shade, New Jersey. She has been an artist in residence and lecturer throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand. Primarily a publisher of first edition poetry, she illustrated several Franz Kafka texts in the 1960s. In the 1970s she pioneered the use of colored paper pulps for book illustration, and more recently she developed a variety of distinctive non-adhesive book structures. Van Vliet has created a significant body of watercolors, drawings, etchings, lithographs, woodcuts and paperworks. Her primary subject in these works on paper has been the Vermont landscape. However, her landscape interest expanded to include the American Southwest after receiving the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship Award in 1969. Her work has been the subject of about 40 solo exhibitions in the United States, Canada and Scandinavia. LETTERPRESS SALE OF THE CENTURY ANNOUNCED TO SUPPORT COLLEGE PRESSESThanks to the letterpress pixies, the generosity of many people, including the Mandel family of American Printing Equipment and Supply Corp., and the unbelievably hard work of many supporters of the HCCP, a giant cache of rare printing equipment has been made available to the letterpress community. This incredible find includes the world’s largest inventory of New Old Stock Hamilton Imposing Surfaces and tens of thousands of pounds of brand new foundry type, as well as hundreds of other new and used letterpress goodies. All of this material is presently in an easily accessible, dock-high warehouse in New Haven, CT directly off the intersection I-95 and I-91. As faithful fans of the HCCP will know, this extraordinary collection of material has been used over the past year to restore Yale's undergraduate presses. It has supplied new imposing stones and type banks for Davenport, foundry type for JE, supplies for Pierson, cases for Branford, and completely recreated from scratch the stunning new print shops in both Berkeley and Silliman. Now that Yale has had first pick, however, this unbelievable treasure house is being made available to a wider audience. In the interests of helping along the current Renaissance of letterpress printing around the country, and providing support to several worthy organizations who are working hard to keep the letterpress tradition alive, this treasure trove is being offered for sale at unbelievable discounts to printers who belong to (or join!) four or more of these wonderful letterpress support groups. Note that as a special deal to support printing at Yale, there is an interesting twist:. While purchasers who meet the qualifications can buy the material outright, they also have another option: in exchange for making a tax-deductible contribution to Yale for the HCCP in the amount of 125% of what they otherwise would have spent, the owner of the materials will give them whatever they want from the collection...for free! [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: THE HONORABLE COMPANY OF COLLEGE PRINTERSThis 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). 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. THE HCCP PRESS LIBRARIESEach of the working college presses has been donated 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 PRESSJae 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 THE COLLEGE PRESSESThe 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. |
At the annual
Wayzgoose of the Yale Honorable Company of College Printers, held on May 2, 2002
at Rose Alumni House, three letterpress printers from the college presses were
awarded Lohmann Prizes, Yale's official recognition for excellence in
undergraduate printing. First Prize awards went to Charles Forelle, for his
stunning edition of Descartes' Geometry, translated, illustrated and bound by
Mr. Forelle, and Elizabeth Svoboda, for her equally stunning and imaginative
production of Rudyard Kipling's tale of How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, also
illustrated and bound by Ms. Svoboda (with the binding made of a specially
treated paper that looks and feels remarkably like the aforementioned rhinoceros
skin!)
Claire Van
Vliet, printmaker and publisher of limited edition artist's books, was the
featured speaker at the 2002 Wayzgoose of the Yale Honorable Company of College
Printers. Ms. Van Vliet presented a slide lecture, "My Life in Letterpress,"
followed by a show-and-tell of many of her books that are in the Yale Library's
comprehensive collection of her work. She walked the attendees page-by-page
through some of her most famous books, including Aunt Sallie's Lament, a tour de
force of paper making, paper engineering, design and letterpress printing.