Apply for a research grant soon!
We are still inviting applications for research grants under our annual grant scheme but the deadline for submissions has almost arrived — Friday 22 March 2024. The total amount available this year is £3,000. Please see the eligibility details on the grants page for full details.
Complete alphabet of rescued Doves Press type to go on show
An exhibition will run from 2 March to 27 April 2024 at Emery Walker’s House, 7 Hammersmith Terrace in London, displaying the type that was famously thrown into the River Thames. The show will be accompanied by a programme of events including an online talk on 21 February, walking tours and mudlarking experiences, and open days and tours at the house.
Further details: https://www.emerywalker.org.uk/events
Worldwide handpress database available from AEPM
It is very gratifying to be able to report that the Association of European Printing Museums has published Bob Oldham’s remarkable database of hand presses online in a searchable format. The information was already available through private enquiry, but publication in a convenient and accessible form brings it to a wider audience. Thank you Bob, thank you AEPM!
About the Worldwide hand press database - AEPM
Edit — clarify by what means the information was previously made available
Research grant applications invited
We invite applications for research grants under our annual grant scheme. The total amount available this year is £3,000. The deadline for submissions is Friday 22 March 2024. Eligibility and application details are on the Grants page.
The Society awarded the following research grants in 2023: £950 to Dr Matthew Payne for research on the first printer in the City of London, specifically on documents relating to John Lettou in Vallettta and Rome; £630 to Dr Shanti Graheli for work on Aldine advertisement lists in editions of the 1570s and 1580s, using Oxford libraries; £420 to Chiara Betti for research and digitisation work on 18th- and 19th-century printing plates in the collections of the Society of Antiquaries.
Giles Mandelbrote, Chairman of the PHS Grants and Prizes Sub-Committee, commented: ‘We thought it was a very strong field this year and we could have awarded more grants if additional funding had been available’.
You still have time to take part in this year’s Prize for New Scholarship
The ‘Printing Historical Society Prize for New Scholarship’ is being offered again this year (2023), with an extended deadline of 1 January 2024. The Prize will be given to the best new article on any printing-historical subject, suitable for the Society’s Journal. The winning author will receive the ‘Printing Historical Society Prize for New Scholarship’ for the year, a purse of £500, membership of the Society for one year, and publication in the PHS Journal (and digitally, subject to the usual processes of peer-review). The competition is open to all, but those new to the subject (current students, early-career scholars, independent researchers and anyone new to printing history) are particularly encouraged to take part by sending their article (between 4000 and 8000 words, in Word format) to the Journal Editor ( editor@printinghistoricalsociety.org.uk), along with a short covering-letter describing their research. The results will be announced before the end of the calendar year. Full details are here. The Editor will be happy to answer queries and discuss possible subjects and approaches for submissions.
Annual St Bride Foundation conference
St Bride Foundation is hosting its annual conference on Saturday 11 November 2023. The list of speakers suggests the event will be broad in scope and the talks stimulating; the Foundation describes the event as ‘celebrating innovation, inspiration, imagination and invention’. Tickets are available in-person and online.
Booking is open now. Full details: https://sbf.org.uk/whats-on/view/the-annual-st-bride-foundation-conference/
Voluntary posts open on our committees
The Printing Historical Society is seeking a new Honorary Treasurer to serve on its committee. Applicants must be members of the Society.
The National Printing Heritage Committee is seeking a new Secretary to serve the committee.
For more information about either of these voluntary and unpaid roles, please contact the Hon Secretary.
Cultures of the book: a summer school at the University of Reading
‘Cultures of the book: lithography, consumption, reading’ is a summer school on 20 and 21 June 2023 at the Departments of Typography & Graphic Communication and Special Collections at Reading.
The event will explore how books have been made, consumed and read following the invention of lithography in the early nineteenth century. The summer school combines talks by leading scholars and practitioners with a hands-on approach using the collections and archives of both departments. The cost is £200.
Call for entries: PHS research grant 2023
We are offering up to £2,000 in research grants for 2023. The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday 14 April.
Call for entries: PHS Prize for New Scholarship
We are now accepting submissions for the PHS Prize for New Scholarship, which will be awarded in Spring 2023.
The competition is open to all, but it is intended especially to encourage submissions from those new to the study of printing history. The winning entry will be published in the Journal of the Printing Historical Society.
The deadline for entries is 1 January 2023.
Typographic Surprises! Edinburgh in Print
Our online event series continues with a look at some of the sites and traces left of print’s 500 year history in Edinburgh. Our speaker is Dr Helen S. Williams.
Our online event series continues with a look at some of the sites and traces left of print’s 500 year history in Edinburgh. Our speaker is Dr Helen S. Williams.
The talk is on Thursday, 20 October 2022 at 18:30 BST. Admission is free, and donations in support of the Society’s work are welcome. Get tickets here
New web site launched
Our new web site is now live. We hope the result is not only attractive but more accessible, making it easier for visitors to learn about the Society and its activities.
Our new web site is now live. We hope the result is not only attractive but more accessible, making it easier for visitors to learn about the Society and its activities.
The previous site remains online: visit https://mt.printinghistoricalsociety.org.uk.
If you are a new visitor, welcome! Should you decide you would like to join the Society, our membership application form is now here.
Mailing list
A new mailing list is available for Society members to communicate with each other. If you have an interest in printing history you are welcome to join the list.
A new mailing list is available for Society members to communicate with each other. Go to https://groups.io/g/printinghistoricalsociety to sign up.
If you have an interest in printing history but you are not a member, you are also welcome to join the list.
Bamber Gascoigne
The death has been announced of Bamber Gascoigne, on 8 February 2022, after a short illness.
The death has been announced of Bamber Gascoigne, on 8 February 2022, after a short illness. He was Vice-President of the Printing Historical Society and formerly Patron of the National Printing Heritage Trust. A full obituary will be published in the next number of the Journal of the Printing Historical Society.
Bibliographical Society awards Gold Medal to Professor Michael Twyman
From time to time the Bibliographical Society awards a Gold Medal for distinguished services to bibliography to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the development of the subject and the furtherance of the Society’s aims. Over forty awards have been made since the Medal Fund was established in 1929. This year the Society’s Gold Medal will be awarded to Professor Michael Twyman, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. Professor Twyman has long been internationally acknowledged for his research and publication in the history of typography, lithography, ephemera, and graphic design, and, of course, for establishing a BA course in Typography & Graphic Communication at Reading and then a full department for such study in 1974, both the first of their kind in the world. He retired from full-time teaching in 1998 but still teaches postgraduate students and is also the Director of the Centre for Ephemera Studies. He will be presented with the Gold Medal at the Bibliographical Society’s meeting on Tuesday, 16 November 2021.
The Printing Historical Society would like to congratulate Professor Twyman, President of the Society, on the occasion of this award.