Arts-Area

3/10: The Bibliographical Press spring lecture

Kelmscott-Goudy Press at RIT. Image courtesy of the Cary Graphic Arts Collections, RIT.
March 7, 2016

The Kelmscott-Goudy Press Legacy at Rochester Institute of Technology

by Amelia Fontanel, Associate Curator, RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection

3pm Lecture in Sterling Memorial Library (SML) lecture hall

4pm Printing Demonstration in The Bibliographical Press, L&B Room, SML

In 1891 a simple iron printing press was made in London and sold to William Morris, the founder of the Arts & Crafts movement. Whereupon this press was employed to produce the legendary book commonly known as The Kelmscott Chaucer, completed in 1896. For over a century since, admirers have sought to pull a print on this press—each perhaps striving to absorb the greatness of its successive proprietors, many of them luminaries in the typographic arts, including the American type designer Frederic W. Goudy.

This Kelmscott handpress is now held at the Cary Collection in Rochester, New York, where it is the centerpiece of a dynamic program for teaching book arts history and practice. Please join us on March 10 at 3:00 pm to hear Amelia Fontanel, associate curator of the Cary's graphic arts collection, as she describes the press’s impressive provenance and detailed restoration. Then join us afterwards at 4:00 pm for keepsake printing at the Yale University Library Bibliographical Press, located in Sterling Memorial Library.

Image: Courtesy of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection.

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