The Typography of Independence: 250th Anniversary

The first event in our year of programming is this Friday — stop by Common Press between 12–2 to print your own broadside! (details on the events page, link in bio) Join the University of Pennsylvania’s Common Press for The Typography of Independence, a year-long program celebrating revolutionary-era papermaking and printing techniques that made the first edition of the Declaration of Independence. Through free, public hands-on workshops and live demonstrations, we invite all Philadelphians to explore the materiality and production of this locally-made document. The Typography of Independence is funded in part by the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincen-tennial, The Sachs Programs for Arts Innovation, and Penn Libraries. #declarationofindependence #upenn #penibraries #commonpress #letterpress #printing #papermaking #printmaking #philly #philadelphia

Cloth collected from the community to beautiful handmade paper sheets in one day, with our new mould and deckle and our new vat. Undoable without @ericahonson genius and @southernletterpress chaos. 250 more sheets to go.

1: cut fabric soaked overnight going into the pot to cook in soda ash / 2: fabric after cooking for 2 hours / 3: after 30 minutes in the beater / 4: after 1 hour / 5: after 2.5 hours / 6: checking pulp in glass cup / 7: the studio / 8: the paper, light grey! (a little test sheet) / 9: the second batch, purple! @ericahonson cooked and beat the first 2 batches of fiber this weekend for the @typeofindependence project! We collected 156lbs of cotton and linen fabric from people around Philadelphia between September and December. Here’s the breakdown: ~ 27lbs w/ synthetic content (not suitable for paper) ~ 10lbs set aside for type cleaning ~ 25lbs removed (seams, hems, zippers, buttons, etc.) ~ 94lbs cotton/linen fiber (lots of tees and bits from sewing projects, some bedsheets, some underwear, thread, yarn, etc.) remaining for making paper! We’ll be making paper through mid-April during our residency @historicrittenhousetown where there’s a 2lb Reina beater. It could easily take over a hundred hours to beat all the fabric / textiles to a pulp. We’re planning to beat 28lbs to start; the batches of pulp will be mixed together so that all ~500 (hopefully) sheets of paper are the same color.

We got the keys to start our month-long residency to make paper for our Declaration replicas at the studio (the yellow building behind the magnolia tree) at @historicrittenhousetown . We'll be using the rags we collected to make paper pulp and pull sheets of 16 x 20 inch paper to print on over the summer. This location is beautiful and historical... It is the first location of papermaking in the United States (they used the water power of the creek seen here!). Join us on Saturday 3/14 from 2 to 4 p.m. for an open house! Link in the bio.

And the papermaking begins! We are sorting the rags we collected to figure out which are 100% cotton. A fashion design grad student dropped by to tell us how to tell what is cotton!

Printing revolutionary words at Common Press today! Come by and print your own.

Resetting the Declaration in our own words today at Common Press. And revolutionary poster printing. Stop by!

Did you know some prints of the first edition of the Declaration are missing words, which apparently fell out during the printing process over the night of July 4, 1776? Letterpress printing is a core part of our country's history. Learn more tonight at a lecture with preeminent Declaration scholar Emily Sneff, NOW ONLINE and ready to help you fight cabin fever. Link in bio! Join us tonight 1/27 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. to learn about the fascinating history of printing and distribution of the first edition of the Declaration. Dr. Emily Sneff, a leading expert on the history of the Declaration of Independence, will share some of the stories behind the first printings of the founding document of the United States. From spelling errors and typesetting challenges to copies of the Declaration that ended up in unexpected hands, this presentation will explore the process of declaring independence. It will connect the first printings to the core themes and material focus of the Common Press's America 250 programming, The Typography of Independence. #america250 @upennlib #declarationofindependence #declarationstories

Wow, what a semester! We love how much you love letterpress printing! Common Press printed with over 1200 people; worked with over 40 classes to integrate letterpress printing into student-scholar projects; acquired many pounds of brand new Caslon type from Swamp Press for our Typography of Independence project; collected many bags of cloth from the people of Philadelphia for papermaking at Historic Rittenhouse Town this spring; learned so much about the material culture of document production and distribution in 1776; used our newly refurbished handpress (thanks to Ari); and honestly so much more!  Thanks to everyone who printed and created with us in 2025. And, drum roll: Astrid was our most frequent Independent Studio User this semester, logging over 100 hours in one semester and printing CUSTOM PLAYING CARDS. And our most requested typeface was Arrighi, which has many broken/worn letters, but users persisted! Let's all get some rest and reconvene in 2026! Thanks to everyone who printed in 2025! 1. Ben acting like he never seen a press before at NSO 2. A class from SP2 exploring Joy 3. The 20 books and students from LARP studio course 4 & 5. Unpacking Caslon and look at those long s characters! Hawt! 6. Rag collection at HRT 7. Broadside paying tribute to papermaking in 1776 8. Broadside paying tribute to Caslon type 9 & 10. Jessica went to see the Dunlap Broadside at the National Archives (swoon) 11. Our beautiful 1889 handpress Rene with a new frisket. 12&13. Letterpress printed playing cards (hawt!)

We printed by (electric) candlelight yesterday to understand what it was like to set and print the Declaration of Independence over night in 1776. I think the results were more romantic and calming than what John Dunlap experienced....

Join Common Press for a special Open Studio Session: holiday card printing, in candlelight! Light in the Revolutionary era Wednesday, December 3 from 2 to 4 p.m. Registration encouraged. register here For this special open studio session, we will be recreating the lighting inside a print studio circa 1776, using only electric candles to light the Common Press. You’ll choose between printing a folded card or broadside (a single-sided print meant for public display) about lighting in 1770s and the winter solstice. To learn more about this topic, visit our Makers Blog. This Open Studio is part of Common Press’s The Typography of Independence program. Check here for the full calendar of events. Free and open to everyone, including non-Penn cardholders. You will need either a PennCard or a photo ID to enter the building. If you don't have a PennCard, you will need to bring a photo ID and sign in at the security desk at the entrance to Fisher Fine Arts Library for access. See University access guidelines here.

PENN! Bring us your 100% cotton or linen fabric to recyle into paper! TOMORROW, Wednesday 11/5 at Penn's Employee Resource Fair at Pottruck, 12:00 - 1:30pm Look for the Common Press table!