Category: Location

Stan Ballard

Stan Ballard and colleagues pictured at the Financial Times
Stan Ballard and colleagues pictured at the Financial Times.

About three years ago Steve Ballard posted in the Metal Type forum asking if anyone remembered his father Stan Ballard, a letterpress comp who unfortunately died in 1988.

John Bowles recently got in touch, and even took a trip up to his attic to find this photograph of Stan. Read the Full Article . . .

Edgecombe Printer, 1971

Edgecombe Printers

Many thanks to Dan Williams for sending in this article taken from a 1971 edition of the American publication “Graphical Arts Monthly.” It explores how viable a small letterpress print shop was in the early 1970s.

IS LETTERPRESS dead for the small printer? Edgecombe Printer in Kalamazoo, Mich, is a good example of a shop that is making a profit with letterpress in competition with offset. Read the Full Article . . .

Northcliffe House, 1980s

Northcliffe House
Malcom Watts preparing the moulds for Sunday People June 1986 at Nortcliffe House.

Another batch of pictures, sent in by Ken Flemington. Says Ken: “They were taken at Northcliffe House, home of the Daily Mail, where we were printing the Sunday People. They were taken in June 1986 and I am in one of the photos. I will also include one of me using a Polymer platemaking machine which replaced hot metal at Holborn for the short period before closure in 1988.

“I hope the readers enjoy these photos as much as I enjoy the other photos of printers and printing on your excellent site. Sadly this is all I have.” Read the Full Article . . .

Daily Mirror Foundry, 1980s

General view of the foundry with (L-R): Brian Chalker, John Wakefield (chargehand) and Bob Teasel.
General view of the foundry with (L-R): Brian Chalker, John Wakefield (chargehand) and Bob Teasel.

Many thanks to Ken Flemington for getting in touch with the site and sending these photographs in. Some pictures include Ken’s son!

American Machines

Ken says: “The Woods were American machines which were only used as a last resort as they were extremely unreliable and difficult to fix when little things went wrong.” Read the Full Article . . .

US Govt. Printing Offices

US Govt Printing Office
Just catalogued as Government printing offices presses. I would guess the photo was taken before World War 2.

The photographs on these pages are reproduced courtesy of the United States Library of Congress, and were taken in US Government Printing Offices in Washington, DC.