Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!
Many thanks to Flickr user Gridula for allowing these photographs that he took at the John Jarrold Printing Museum, in Norwich, Norfolk, UK to be used on Metal Type.
Says Gridula: “An absolutely stunning example of a smaller Soldan Lightning Proof Press. I didn’t even know this was in the museum so when I walked round the corner and saw this I nearly fell over.
I recently paid a visit to the Beck Isle Museum of Rural Life, where they have recreated what they thought a small rural printing office would have looked like in the late 19th Century.
I found the imprint on this one quite interesting. It says: “Printed at the office of R Bonk, Paper-hanger, Market Place, Pickering.”
I recently paid a visit to the Bradford Industrial Museum in Yorkshire, here in the UK.
If anyone is planning a trip there, I recommend that you go on a Wednesday when museum volunteers Jimmy Young, Donald Stott and Michael Booth are on hand to demonstrate the equipment and answer any questions you may have.
The photographs on these pages are reproduced courtesy of the United States Library of Congress.
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.
These pictures were categorised as Printing Shops in Washington, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, c1920-1950, although taking a clue from the clothing worn, I would guess that they could be pinned down to c1930.
What puzzled me about the photographs is that a great deal of attention seems to be being paid to a fairly run-of-the-mill-looking printing press.
Matt Henderson, of Henderson Printing, 7627 B Hull Street Rd, Richmond, Virginia, USA kindly sent in these logos that he’s been working on recently. Matt is keen to get his hands on more logos that he can turn into high quality artwork.
Higher-resolution versions of these images are available for download in a zip file here: Metal Type Library – Miscellaneous.
Alan Runfeldt runs a 1930s era print shop in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, USA. As well as traditional letterpress printing Alan rescues, restores and passes on old letterpress equipment such Kelsey Excelsior Platen Presses, Chandler & Price Platen Presses and Vandercook & Challenge Proof presses. He also collects, catalogs, uses and some times passes on fonts of hand-set foundry type and wood type as well as the cases and cabinets to keep them in.
I don’t think this press is in Alan’s collection, his website says the press is in Philadelphia. I had to include the picture, though, it’s got to be the oldest litho press I’ve seen.
Deep in the countryside of Wiltshire, in the UK, lies the disused World War Two Airbase RAF Wroughton. In six huge, decaying hangars named in typical military style: L1, L2, etc. lie thousands of the modern world’s greatest treasures, guarded round-the-clock by British Army veterans.
The Airbase acts as a storage facility for the Science Museum. The Museum’s public face in South Kensington can only show eight per cent of their massive collection.
Many thanks to Jim Daggs, of Ackley Publishing Company, Ackley, Iowa for sending in these photographs.