While potatoes specifically were not historically documented as printing blocks, the concept of using alternative materials for printing highlights the ingenuity and resourcefulness of people during challenging times.

Today we offer inhabited initials for your scrolling pleasure, enjoy! #inhabitedinitial #historiatedinitial #printinghistory #latintexts #initials #bookstagram #printingtype #soecialcollections #antiquarianbooks books https://www.instagram.com/p/CYtyo3fLycG/?utm_medium=tumblr

From: Luckombe, Philip, -1803. A concise history of the origin and progress of printing. London : W. Adlard and J. Browne, 1770

Z124 .L94

"Horizontal splinters, slanting rains, elongated immateriality."

Appreciating the weird poetry of type specimen books for today's #typographytogether April challenge.

What's your favorite line?

Type specimens from Lawrence Johnson's Second Supplement to the Specimen Book of Plain and Fancy Types, Ornaments, and Combination Borders. [Philadelphia, ca. 1850?]

#MiniatureMonday!

This week we celebrate the history of books! The Book in History : from Manuscript Volumes to the Present Time describes the long history of printing and books in Europe, starting from manuscript traditions and ending in the 19th century, all within this tiny book. Amazing how the printing press revolutionized the world, and how small you can make it!

Published in 1985 at the Hillside Press by Eleanor I. Irwin. Bound in full leather with gilt decorations and marbled endpapers. Includes several reproductions of printers’ marks.

Smith Z4.Z9 I7 1985

#vintageadvertising #printinghistory #oldbooks #booktography #bookobsessed #bookshop https://www.instagram.com/p/BqNU8N_AMbB/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1rfb0oq4d1r5b

25th September 1639, the first printing press in the North American Colonies is established in Cambridge Massachusetts by Elizabeth Glover. On the same day in 1690, the first multi page newspaper is published in the America’s as ‘Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick’. After one edition, the newspaper was shut down by the colonial government. The paper’s single edition was edited by Benjamin Harris, who that same year would publish the ‘New England Primer’. Also on the same day in 1791, English-born American printer William Bradford died. Joining William Penn at his new colony in 1686, he became the proprietor of Pennsylvania's first printing press, and in 1690, helped construct the first paper mill in the English colonies. In 1693, he was appointed to the position of public printer for New York, this was followed jointly by the position of public printer of New Jersey in 1702. In 1723 he was approached by Benjamin Franklin, who was interested in printing and asked him for a job. Bradford referred him to his son, who was a printer in Philadelphia. Franklin would himself by 1728, set up a printing house, becoming the publisher of ‘The Pennsylvania Gazette’. Bradford three years previously had started New York’s first newspaper the ‘New-York Gazette’. The paper would last until 1744, when James Parker, a former apprentice of Bradford’s, founded a rival newspaper the ‘Weekly Post Boy’. Parker’s paper was backed by Benjamin Franklin. All art shown is for sale on the website: www.ofgraveconcern.com Follow @ofgrave.concern for more tales from history. #newenglandhistory #newenglandlife #printingpress #prıntıngpress #printingpresses #printinghistory #colonialhistory #17thcentury #massachusettshistory #bostonhistory #puritan #williampenn #benjaminfranklin #newspapers #colonialstyle #pennsylvaniahistory #newyorkhistory #historyofprint #historyofprinting #18thcentury #18thcenturyhistory #17thcenturyhistory #papermill #printinghouse #historicaltype #typeface #typefacedesign #colonialrevival https://www.instagram.com/p/CUNeKitlNdL/?utm_medium=tumblr

In conjunction with the Guild of Book Workers’ Standards of Excellence Seminar, I visited the University of Washington Libraries’ Special Collections.  I really loved how their seminar room is decked out with tons of cool bookbinding and printing tools that can be used as teaching aids.

Ruth Adomeit’s copy of Fruits of Philosophy (1832), the first book printed on birth control in the US (anonymously, by a physician, and designed to be discreetly passed to patients, and for the publication of which he was arrested). #miniaturebooks #birthcontrol #printinghistory #lilylibrary https://www.instagram.com/p/B09KdxDHpXt/?igshid=1nzs184tebp7w

#berrima #musuem #homewares #history #old #historygeek #historylovers #historybuff #museumlover #berrimamuseum #photography #historyphotographed #photographer #samsung #note9 #printing #printinghistory (at Berrima, New South Wales) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzC-RkfheVh/?igshid=179captsbz9f0

While that still isn’t exactly a sports car fast, it is still much quicker than most printers.

#printingfacts #didyouknow #printingmachines #packaging #printingandpackaging #printinghistory #HPOfficeProX #worldsfastestprinter #machinedalal  

Digging into my type - my small library sometimes makes type design challenging…but, I’m happy with this! . . . . @printinghistory #woodengraving #letterpress #lead #type #printmaking #erie #canal #buffalo #newyork #queencity #nickelcity #flourcity #infecteddistrict #libertypole #niagarariver #lake #warof1812 https://www.instagram.com/p/CZpcWmjF49n/?utm_medium=tumblr

When you can’t choose just one... These finis pieces are from an 1812 type specimen of metal ornaments by Edmund Fry (London). We can relate that top one, how about you?

The written words that you’re reading right now is on the latest media that is the end result of what began with chisels and stones millennia ago.  Gutenberg and his printing press transformed the process and world history.  It made the rebirth of learning, the Renaissance greater than it would have been.

 Perhaps printing in its latest iteration may take the life of the human mind to a higher level in our time as old Gutenberg’s press did in his.

More Science History at http://science.historyweblog.com/

This is the best part of my prior post! #patricksweeney with a powerful and amusing presentation on early touring #entertainers at #esa38 @ephemerausa annual conference! 👨🏻‍🎨 @theboxsf and @reflectur_com are highly #entertained this morning at #esa38 More to come as the @ephemerausa conference continues here in #greenwich #connecticut 👨🏻‍🎨 #ephemera #history #graphicdesign #designer #rarity #antiquarian #lettering #illustration #printing #letterpress #stonelithography #allthingsprinted #printinghistory #entertainers #performers #tour #touring #troupe (at Hyatt Regency Greenwich)

3rd February 1468, death of German inventor, blacksmith, goldsmith, printer and publisher Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg’s invention of European movable type, and a screw press influenced by the agricultural screw press used for wine production; ushered in a printing revolution and was a pivotal moment during the Renaissance, and Reformation. The invention also enabled later key developments during the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment, by the spread of information to a mass audience, and the dissemination of learning and knowledge; coupled with a subsequent rise in literacy. By 1455 Gutenberg had perfected the methods of metal cast movable type, and the screw press, completing his Bible, known as the Gutenberg Bible in this year. Gutenburg was not celebrated during his lifetime. His name first appears as the inventor of typography in 1504, with a portrait not appearing until 99 years after his death in 1567. Letterpress Candles shown are for sale on the website www.ofgraveconcern.com/candles #historicalillustration #illustrationwork #historymystery #historymysteries #historylesson #historyfacts #hiddenhistory #historicalmystery #historicalmysteries #darkhistory #oddhistory #historicalstories #historicalstory #Gutenberg #PrintingHistory #PrintingPress #printmaking #printmaker #printedart #handprintedcollective #handprinted #medievalmanuscript #15thcentury #gutenberg #johannesgutenberg #type #bookstagram #printing #letterpress #letterpresslove https://www.instagram.com/p/CK6xCV7nn9b/?igshid=1q5bcc82jsuhj