By Ben Marks — Once upon a time, in a galaxy suspiciously similar to our own, people decided what movies to see on Friday nights and at Saturday matinees by thumbing the pages of their daily newspapers until their fingers were dark with ink. Eventually, after much rustling and folding, they’d arrive at the paper’s “entertainment” section, where single-color, text-and-graphics advertisements for the latest flickers from Hollywood promised thrills, chills, action, laughs, and romance. There were no...

To Hell With Helvetica: Is an 1874 Type Catalog the World's Most Beautiful Book?

By Ben Marks — William Hamilton Page was not the first American to earn a living cutting slabs of end-grain sugar maple into precisely ornate blocks of wood type, but he was definitely the first American to push this once-ubiquitous printing format into the realm of fine art. The proof of Page’s artistry can be found in , an 1874 sales catalog of wooden fonts and graphic flourishes manufactured by Wm. H. Page & Co. Considered by typography nerds to be “The Most Beautiful Book in the World,” Page’s...

Music of the Presses: How an L.A. Printer Kept the Art of the Album Cover Alive

By Ben Marks — While most of the buzz about the resurgence of vinyl records has focused on the skyrocketing sales of grooved discs designed to spin on turntables, the vinyl renaissance has reminded many of us old-timers how much we missed the album-cover art on record jackets. Whether it was using the gatefold of “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” to clean a Baggie of pot or getting lost in the psychedelic lettering of “American Beauty,” album-cover art was an important part of how multiple...

Don't Panic: Why Technophobes Have Been Getting It Wrong Since Gutenberg

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — When humans first developed the wheel, there were surely some naysayers who bemoaned the jobs it would eliminate, the unsafe speeds of newfangled carts, or the damage wheels would do to our most cherished relationships. Today, we’re all too familiar with the knee-jerk reactions that accompany every advance in modern technology: Self-driving cars will steal jobs from professional drivers, or social-networking apps will eliminate face-to-face interaction with other humans. The overarching fear...

Cache of Historic Newspapers Unveils the Mysteries of Old New Orleans

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — Whether you’re into comic books, antique jewelry, or vintage motorcycles, it typically takes a lifetime to build an admirable collection, years spent scouring flea markets, garage sales, and auction houses for each new addition. But for Joseph Makkos, a writer with a passion for antiquated printing techniques, his prized collection appeared all at once—in the form of a Craigslist ad offering thousands of historic New Orleans newspapers. . "It's like looking at a photocopy of Picasso's...

Does Facebook Have a Secret Paper Fetish?

By Ben Marks — On February 1, 2012, at exactly 5:02 p.m., the day Facebook announced it was finally going public, the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, posted a photograph of his desk on his personal Facebook page. Along with a MacBook Air, dry-erase marker, and bottle of G Series Gatorade, Zuck’s work station featured a plain white poster bearing the all-caps red message, “STAY FOCUSED & KEEP SHIPPING.” "Posters give us something to share back to Facebook." Earlier that day, at 11:48 a.m., Ben Barry...

Globe Poster Wood-Type Archive Preserved

By Ben Marks — Good news for poster lovers: the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is purchasing about 75 percent of the Globe Poster Company’s working collection of wood type, images, and illustrations. Based in Baltimore, Globe was one of the pre-eminent letterpress printers in the United States. Though not as old as Hatch Show Print in Nashville, which has been around since 1879, Globe produced boxing-style letterpress posters for everything from burlesque acts to rhythm-and-blues revues to...

Four Hundred Years of Printing in America

By Emory F. Hanaburgh — Though slow in its beginning, John Gutenberg started the mighty force which rolls interminably on; the force that nations may browbeat but never conquer; that kings, dictators and even democracies may hinder but never halt – the press. This is the five hundredth anniversary of the invention of printing; it is also the four hundredth anniversary of the beginning of printing in the New World, the three hundred and fiftieth of printing in South America and the three hundredth in the...

Getting Started With an Antique Letterpress

By Elizabeth Nevin — If you are thinking of getting into letterpress printing or collecting antique printing equipment, congratulations. It is a very satisfying hobby and craft. However, like any other field of interest, there is a lot to understand before starting to invest your time and money. Buying a letterpress involves some knowledge of the equipment and process, so I hope this basic guide will be of help. What press should I buy? A few questions to consider: 1. How much space do you have for your...