Grants Programme
Grants for 2008 details
The PHS is pleased to continue its limited number of small grants for the fourth year, including:
Research on topics relating to the history of printing
Publishable reports on archives relating to the history of printing
Grants are limited to historical research in: printing technology, the printing and related industries, printed materials and artefacts, type and typefounding, print culture, and printing processes and design.
Applications for research funding may be up to £1,000; applications for publishable reports on archives, up to £500. In both cases grants may be used to cover material or other expenses, including travel, subsistence, photography, etc. Applications should specify the amount requested and offer a budget for the use of funds envisaged; costs incurred before application are unlikely to be successful. Students, academics and independent researchers may apply. Some preference will be given to independent researchers.
The application should consist of: 1) a one-page covering letter, containing a brief curriculum vitae, and the name, address and email of one referee (who has agreed to serve as referee), and 2) a 1- or 2-page description of the project and budget. The project description should state its purpose clearly, and succinctly. Please note that your compliance with these instructions will form part of our evaluation of the application, so be certain not to go beyond the 3 pages of hard copy. Post your application to the PHS Grants & Prizes Sub-Committee, Peggy Smith, 18 Market Hill, Clare, Sudbury CO10 8NN, UK; email can be used for questions, but not for submitting the application: m.m.smith@reading.ac.uk. Application deadline: 1 January 2008. Awards will be announced at the PHS AGM in April, for disbursal in May.
Donald Milham Award: In the Print
The second half of the 20th century was a period of growth and affluence for British industry; for the printing industry it was a period of rapid change. Letterpress had gone just about as far as it could go in relation to reproduction quality and was slowly and surely slipping over the precipice.
The copying machine spurned by the jobbing printer, was taken up by newcomers and with the aid of the Varityper a whole new industry was created. Later the introduction of the desktop computer with digital scanning revolutionised colour printing and brought offset-printed low-cost colour to even the humblest brochure.
It is important that these changes are recorded for future generations and the best persons to do this are the very persons who were involved at the time. Accordingly the Printing Historical Society has created the Donald Milham Archive and invites members of the printing industry to send factual details of those difficult times and at the same time possibly win cash prizes for their entries. Donald Milham was a letterpress machine minder and his son Peter Milham, wishing to use part of his father's legacy to commemorate his memory, funded the project. Open to anyone from tea lady to chairman who spent three years or more in the British printing industry, all entries will be archived in the St Bride Library, for access by future printing historians. For further information and entry details for the 2008 prizes, please send a stamped, addressed, envelope to 'In the Print', PO Box 4119, Wells BA5 2UF, or email frobson@mbzonline.net. Prize winners for 2007 will be announced at the AGM in April 2008.
Grant recipients for 2007
Recipients of the 2007 Grants for research in printing history are:
Paul Dijstelberge, Digital photographs of Dutch type, 1540-1700, for a database
Rebecca Herman, George Baxter Exhibition in the Leeds City Art Gallery, May-June 2007
Edward Law, The 19th-century process of anastatic printing
Ann Pillar, The publicity material of Ludlow Typograph
David Shields, The visual origins of the grotesque Italian display typeface
Karen Weaver, Anne Ward, 18th-century printer in York
Grant recipients for 2006
The grants for research into printing history for 2006 were awarded to Alastair Johnston for research on Richard Austin & Son; Eric Kindel and Fred Smeijers for reconstructing the working methods of Gabriel Bery, maker of stencils; Sean Lynch for setting up a teaching press for Belfast schools; Dr Angela McShane-Jones for work on political broadside ballads 1640-1695; Rathna Ramanathan for work on little presses in Britain after World War II; Dr Joe Rock for work on Scottish book illustration; and Paul Shaw for work on his biography of W.A. Dwiggins.