Stop by the Historical Society tomorrow at our Christmas Open House and print yourself a Holiday Coaster! You’ll need one to keep those holiday drinks from putting rings on your coffee table, so why not have one you printed yourself on a 168 year old press. I’ll see you in the print shop between 2:00 and 5:00! Corner of Oak and Main in Ephrata. Free museum tours and refreshments too!
Come see us on Saturday, September 15 at the Lancaster Printers Fair. The 300 block of Queen Street in Lancaster will be full of stands demonstrating and selling printed goods and equipment. Street fair is from 11 – 4. There are additional activities the night before. See the whole schedule here.
The model paper makeing operation fills up the length of the exhibit (on right here). There’s a lot packed into this exhibit including some Ephrata history.
Most of us from the field trip made a multipurpose visit to the National Museum of Industrial History on Saturday. Of course we wanted to see their Print and Papermaking exhibit now that it’s complete. Paul had some matrices for their newly acquired Linotype. And we also had some questions about some presses we’re privately restoring/repairing to ask the purveyor of the Excelsior Press, who is the exhibit’s resident letterpress expert.
The exhibit is really great and worth the trip while it’s still there! What really amazed us was the working model of a paper making operation. It really makes paper. Frank, the resident mechanical wizard, gave us a full tour of it.
Saturday, June 23, 2018 10 AM – 2 PM Tri-County Scrollers club members will again set up their saws at the museum of the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley at the corner of Main and Oak Streets in Ephrata, PA. We’ll also have the Print Shop open the extended time and will be demonstrating the craft.
Come talk to us if you’re interested in beginning either craft or need tips to improve what you already do. The Tri-County Scrollers will have crafts available to buy. There are examples of some great scroll saw work from over a hundred years ago and printing from over 200 years ago in the museum to see as well. The event and the museum is free. Come check us out!
So Madelyn, Jeff and I were at the print shop today. Jeff finished printing some QSL cards. It’s a HAM radio thing that we’ll soon be able to produce for others. Madelyn finished sorting some Thompson Quillscript and printed some Ephrata Cloister brochures. I proofed the type shown which we have a 2/3 case of. It’s not a totally complete case (there is a lowercase “r”, I just somehow got an “i” instead, but there’s probably more around the shop somwhere. Any idea what the typestyle is?
UPDATE: Identified!! Thanks to American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century by McGrew.
Most of the Print Shop crew enjoyed a day out at the Chesapeake Printers Fair in Havre de Grace, Maryland. It was a beautiful day hosted by Glyph, a wonderful print studio and stationary store. We saw many of our friends there and it was fun catching up with them and seeing their current work. At the risk of forgetting someone we saw:
… and yes, I was so absorbed in the event that I forgot to take any pictures.
We traveled to Bethlehem for a special visit to the National Museum of Industrial History at the Steel Stacks complex. Check it out at nmih.org and plan a visit! A special printing exhibit will open there soon. We’ll post details here.
Check out this TED talk from our friend, Chris Fritton, about his project which included a visit to the Conestoga Press.
Printing themed mosaics that will be part of the exhibit at NMIH.
We enjoyed a visit from folks from the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem. They are working on a printing exhibit that will open next year, though we’re anxious to return the visit to their place as soon as possible. You can check it out here.
Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus of the Museum of Printing in Haverhill (that’s pronounced HAY-verill) Massachusetts was in the area at the invite of Paul from the print shop and I was able to spend two days touring around the County. We visited an Amish print shop, Stevens Tech, Millersville University, the Railroad Museum of PA, the Heritage Printing Museum, .918 Club, the Ephrata Cloister, two Ben Franklin statues, and of course the Conestoga Press… where of course I got NO pictures. Enjoyed hearing the talks to the two colleges and the .918 Club as well as learning much at each stop and the conversation in the car. Here he photographs the press at the Cloister.
