Printing the National Geographic - video

[Dave Hughes]

Did you know that the National Geographic Magazine was printed letterpress right up until the late 1950s early 1960s? This illustrated lecture tells the story:


https://youtu.be/8y6QktLWisc

Here's the poster's description:

This was a lecture presentation given at the Grolier Club in New York City for The American Printing History Association (APHA) in 2013. Most people do not realize that high-speed cylinder letterpress was used to print millions of copies of the National Geographic Magazine right into the late 50s and early 60s, long after letterpress printing had given way to offset and rotogravure by most mass-market periodicals. In doing the research for this lecture I talked to several retired NatGeo employees who had worked in the production department in the 50s and 60s and have since passed away.

[Eric Holub]

I had a childhood subscription to Natural History magazine from the mid-60s, and it was printed by letterpress well into the 1970s, though as I recall mostly single-color, presumably by electrotype duplicate plates. Random National Geographics also passed through.
I am surprised to hear that many of the earlier National Geographic magazines that I thought were three-color process could be poorly-separated four-color process work.
All these copies are out-of-hand now, but if I can see another, I will get out my loupe (and screen determiner).