International Printing Museum

We are offering a discount on May and June Book Arts Institute Workshops! Get 15% off one workshop with promo code "FLASH15" or 25% when you buy two tickets for the same workshop. Pair up to save! To see available workshops, head to printmuseum.org/bookarts (link in bio) #BookArts #Workshops #Letterpress #Printmaking #Bookbinding #PrintingMuseum #PrintingHistory #HandsOnCreativity #SoCalEvents #CreateWithUs #Bookmaking #PopUpBook #PaperMaking #HotFoilStamping #RISO #Risograph #PressurePrinting #PaperMarbling #Craft #Letterpress #Printing #GelliPlate #NaturalInks #PaperMarbling #PressurePrinting #TextileScreenPrinting #ScreenPrinting #WoodType #Workshops #AdultWorkshops

Clickety-clack, clickety-clack… give that key a tap-tap-tap! 📖 Before the delete keys or autocorrect, there was the rhythm of words hitting paper on typewriters. Join us for a Typewriter Festival on June 27 at the International Printing Museum. Try typing on vintage typewriters, write a poem, join a never-ending story, shop merch from vendors, and feel the magic of analog creation. Bring your own typewriter for the type-in or some repair estimates from our experts. When: Sat, June 27, from 12 pm–5 pm How: Tickets at printmuseum.org/typewriter (link in bio) #typewriter #vintagetypewriter #typewriterlove #analog #analoglove #typing #vintage #vintagetypewriter #nationaltypewriterday #event #weekendevent #losangelesevent #losangeles #passport2history #socalmuseums #clickclack #typein #crafts #ideas #community #typetown #love #write #create

Our replica Parlor Press is based on a design by the engineering firm Holtzappfel & Co., which produced a series of small presses in the 1830s. The Parlor Press was designed by the English printer and inventor Edward Cowper. James Moran speculates in his book Printing Presses that Cowper’s design might have been inspired by a much older invention called a “Bellows Press.” With Augustus Applegath, his brother-in-law, Cowper also worked to improve flatbed and cylinder presses at the Bank of England and the Times. In 1839, Holtzappfel & Co., which had made small-scale Stanhope presses, began to manufacture Cowper’s Parlor Press. No copy of the first set of instructions seems to have survived. The third edition of the press’s manual, Printing Apparatus for the Use of Amateurs (1846), contains descriptions of three sizes of Cowper’s press and of Holtzappfel’s Monotype printing press. As the name suggests, the Parlor Press was mostly used by Victorian hobbyists who wanted to print cards for fun in the comfort of their own parlor. For some reason, the Parlor Press did not catch on in America to the extent that it did in England. In the States, small job platen presses became the most popular press for amateurs. #hotmetaltype #metaltype #typecasting #letterpress #letterpresslove #museumcollection #printing #printinghistory #printinghistory #printingpress #parlorpress #InternationalPrintingMuseum #museumcollection

Happy Wood Type Wednesday! Meet Mikado. Mikado was apparently inspired by Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera of the same name. The show opened in London in March of 1885 and in New York later that same year. According to Nicolete Gray in her classic book on ornamented typefaces, the English foundry of Sir Charles Reed and Son introduced a metal type called “Japanese”, also in 1885. She characterized this typeface and other oriental based typefaces as superficial in their foreign influence. Nonetheless, it appears several of the American Wood-type companies copied it later. The 1906 Hamilton wood-type specimen catalog shows four versions of this design: one by Hamilton and three by acquired companies. The versions by Wells, and Morgans & Wilcox are called Mikado. The Hamilton and Page versions use model numbers 204 and 156, respectively. It is difficult to determine the specific dates when this particular wood type was introduced, but the earliest wood type catalog we could find showing Mikado is the 1888 Page catalog. Incidentally, another English foundry, Miller and Richard, introduced a metal typeface in 1887, also named Mikado. That typeface is totally different than the one presented here. #wednesday #woodtype #woodentype #typography #mikado #woodtypelove #printing #print #woodentypography #printmuseum #wednesday #museum #typography #graphicdesign #design #typeface #antique #antiquewoodtype

This summer, the Printing Museum is hosting the Amalgamated Printers' Association (APA) for their summer Wayzgoose. There will be a dozen workshops, and you are invited! Guests do not have to be a part of the APA to join these Book Arts Institute workshops. Come on down to the Printing Museum July 22, 23, and 26 for a workshop including paper marbling, windmill press operations, slim case bindings, hot foil stamping, pressure printing, and more! To register for workshops, head to printmuseum.org/apa #BookArts #Workshops #Letterpress #Printmaking #Bookbinding #PrintingMuseum #PrintingHistory #HandsOnCreativity #SoCalEvents #CreateWithUs #Bookmaking #PaperMaking #HotFoilStamping #RISO #ScreenPrinting #Risograph #PressurePrinting #PaperMarbling #Craft #Letterpress #Printing #APA #Printers

1880 C & M COLUMBIAN No. 2 JOBBER The Columbian No. 2 Jobber was manufactured in Boston by Curtis & Mitchell from 1878 to 1891. Although a clamshell press, this Columbian No. 2 jobber has a device that provides a pause in the action for the platen to facilitate feeding. Despite the name, this platen press has no relation to the ornate Columbian presses created by George Clymer. What it does have in common with the original Columbian, however, is its ornate decorations. This press has cast iron cameos on each side, a “C & M” monogram on the treadle, and red and gold pin-stripping all over the legs and flywheel. To learn more at the presses and machines at the Printing Museum, head to printmuseum.org/collection. #hotmetaltype #metaltype #typecasting #letterpress #letterpresslove #museumcollection #printing #printinghistory #printinghistory #printingpress #platenpress #platen #postage #columbianrotarypress #columbianrotary

Clickety-clack, we are bringing typewriters back! Join us for QWERTY: A Typewriter Festival at the International Printing Museum on Sat, June 27; a day of analog celebration. Try vintage machines, shop for typewriters and type-themed merch, compete in a no-backspace typing challenge, and take part in a never-ending story. Come for the nostalgia, stay for the rhythm. 📍Save the date: Sat, June 27, at 12pm–5pm To purchase tickets and learn more, head to printmuseum.org/typewriter (link in bio) #typewriter #vintagetypewriter #typewriterlove #analog #analoglove #typing #vintage #vintagetypewriter #nationaltypewriterday #event #weekendevent #losangelesevent #losangeles #passport2history #socalmuseums #clickclack #typein #crafts #ideas #community #typetown #love #write #create

Meet De Vinne. It was initially a metal typeface named after Theodore De Vinne, a major printer in the late 1800s. According to the book “American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century” by Mac McGrew, De Vinne began a two-year correspondence in 1888 with the Central Foundry to promote the need for a simpler display typeface to replace the heavily ornamented typefaces in fashion at the time. The result of the design work by Nicholas Werner and Gustav Schroeder was issued circa 1891 and quickly became a successful and popular display typeface. Unlike many typefaces named after their designer, this one was named De Vinne for the man who saw its need. McGrew also shows another typeface named De Vinne (roman-like) produced by Linotype in 1902, and it should not be confused with the earlier display typeface. Within a few years, De Vinne (display typeface) was copied by other metal type foundries, and by 1895, it was copied in wood type and featured in Hamilton’s 1995 catalog. #wednesday #woodtype #woodentype #typography #devinne #woodtypelove #printing #print #woodentypography #printmuseum #wednesday #museum #typography #graphicdesign #design #typeface #antique #antiquewoodtype

May there be Book Arts Institute Workshops all May long! 💐 We are offering a variety of workshops all month long in a variety of disciplines, including: • Slim Case Bindings – Sat, May 9 • Pattern Play: Design Your Own Table Linens – Sat/Sun May 9 & 10 • Intro to Typesetting & Letterpress Printing – Sat/Sun, May 16 & 17 • Gelláge – Sun, May 17 • Pop-Up Book Making – Sat, May 23 • Intro to Risograph Printing – Sat, May 23 • Western Style Paper Making – Sun/Mon, May 24 & 25 • Book Making: The Art of the Fold – Sun, May 24 •Foil with Class: The Art of Hot Foil Stamping – Sat, May 30 • Cyanotype Prints & Drum Leaf Binding – Sat/Sun, May 30 & 31 To register for one of these workshops and see more in 2026, head to printmuseum.org/bookarts (link in bio) See you this May! #BookArts #Workshops #Letterpress #Printmaking #Bookbinding #PrintingMuseum #PrintingHistory #HandsOnCreativity #SoCalEvents #CreateWithUs #Bookmaking #PopUpBook #PaperMaking #HotFoilStamping #RISO #Risograph #PressurePrinting #PaperMarbling #Craft #Letterpress #Printing #GelliPlate #NaturalInks #PaperMarbling #PressurePrinting #TextileScreenPrinting #ScreenPrinting #WoodType #Workshops #AdultWorkshops

Boop! 😻 Curator Mark Barbour and Pica the Museum cat have the type of friendship every printer hopes for. Too bad Pica is just in it for the pets and treats... #Museumcat #printmuseum #printingmuseum #ottmar #linotype #letterpress #catpictures #kitten #PicaTheMuseumCat #PrintingCat #Pica #pointsize #picastick #letterpress #letterpressprinting #12pt

One of the most distinctive types of 19th-century iron hand presses is the acorn press. While most handpresses assumed a similar shape to the wooden common presses that predated them, these squat metal presses had a large iron frame in the shape of an acorn that housed the press’s toggle mechanism. The design for the Adams Acorn press in the Museum’s collection was patented by Rev. Abraham Ogier Stansbury in 1821. Stansbury was a jack of all trades. In addition to being an inventor, he was a bookseller, a publisher, a minister, a grocer, and a superintendent at a school for the deaf. Perhaps inspired by his previous experience with printed materials, Stansbury designed a feature with a toggle mechanism that differed from the toggles on other iron hand presses, like the Columbian presses that were on the market at the time. Initially, the press was made out of wood and resembled a common press. Eventually, it was made entirely out of metal, with its distinctive acorn-shaped iron frame. Neither the acorn shape nor the toggle was a completely new idea, though. The acorn design was likely borrowed from the Smith Acorn Press, which was already on the market, and the toggle might have already been in use on other common presses in England. The Cincinnati Type Foundry was the first company to manufacture the Press when Stansbury obtained his patent in 1821. Later on, it was produced by the manufacturing giant R. Hoe & Co. The Museum’s acorn press was manufactured by Isaac Adams sometime after 1845, when Stansbury’s patent had lapsed. This Adams Acorn Press was the pride and joy of Robert Jones, an artist and printer residing in Stamford, CT. He had acquired the press back in the 1950's from another hobbyist collector. Jones kept the press in a little shop behind his house that he nicknamed “The Glad Hands Press.” We acquired it from him in August 1990, when Director Mark Barbour went on a road trip in search of a Stansbury press to add to the collection and connected with Jones while he was in the midst of clearing out his shop. Learn more about the Museum collection, head to printmuseum.org/collection #InternationalPrintingMuseum #printinmusuem #printingpress

TOMORROW! Meet Carolee Campbell of Ninja Press on Saturday, May 2, from 3 PM to 6 PM. Hosted by the BOOK ARTS GUILD, Carolee will talk about her work as a fine letterpress printer and book artist. Following the presentation, guests will explore the expressive possibilities of Sumi ink and salt. Experiment and embrace the balance of control and chance through Carolee's expertise and guidance. Tickets are $5; space is limited. To register for this event, head to printmuseum.org/guild #bookarts #bookartsguild #printingmuseum #printmuseum #ninjapress #metaltype #letterpresslove #letterpress #printmaking #poetry #ladiesinletterpress #typesetting #bookbinders #bookmakers #bookartists #bookbinding #sumiink #guild