Last updated Graborn Press Building in San Francisco
The Grabhorn Institute is a nonprofit organization formed in October 2000 for the purpose of preserving and continuing the operation of one of the last integrated facilities for typefounding, letterpress printing, and bookbinding in the fine press tradition, as a living museum and educational and cultural center. It is named in honor of the brothers Edwin and Robert Grabhorn, who established the Grabhorn Press in San Francisco in 1920. The press was "one of the foremost producers of finely printed books in twentieth-century America."[1] The Grabhorn Press Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco, California.
The Grabhorn Institute was founded when Andrew Hoyem, the proprietor of the Arion Press (the successor to the Grabhorn Press), and the type foundry M&H Type, facing eviction from their location in San Francisco in 2000, confronted the logistical and financial problem of moving over 140 tons of metal type plus heavy iron and steel printing presses and typecasting and bookbinding equipment to a suitable new facility. The press and foundry comprised a complete, traditional bookmaking facility, including the last large-scale hot metal type foundry in the country.
Support raised by the Grabhorn Institute enabled Arion and M&H to relocate to the Presidio of San Francisco as a cultural tenant in April 2001. In recognition of its work to preserve the typecasting and letterpress printing operation, the Grabhorn Institute was designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as part of "the nation's irreplaceable historical and cultural legacy" under its Save America's Treasures program.[2]
Activities of the Grabhorn Institute include exhibits and lectures related to fine printing and book arts and an apprenticeship program to preserve the crafts of typecasting, letterpress printing, and bookbinding. It also conducts tours of the historic production facility, which includes the M & H Type foundry, established in 1915 with Monotype typecasting machines that came to San Francisco for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition; twelve letterpress printing presses; a bindery for hand bookbinding; and a large collection of rare typefaces passed down from the Grabhorn brothers and the noted San Francisco printer John Henry Nash.
According to Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, "The collaboration among Arion Press, M&H Type, and the Grabhorn Institute is a model for preserving historic manufacturing equipment, keeping alive disappearing crafts, and printing beautiful artifacts—all in one enterprise."[3]
The Grabhorn Institute received a California Heritage Council Award in 2002 for "preservation of the last fully functioning type foundry and integrated letterpress printing facility."[4]
Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable type into the "bed" or "chase" of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type, which creates an impression on the paper.
American Type Founders (ATF) was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States. The new company, consisting of a consolidation of firms from throughout the United States, was incorporated in New Jersey.
Punchcutting is a craft used in traditional typography to cut letter punches in steel as the first stage of making metal type. Steel punches in the shape of the letter would be used to stamp matrices into copper, which were locked into a mould shape to cast type. Cutting punches and casting type was the first step of traditional typesetting. The cutting of letter punches was a highly skilled craft requiring much patience and practice. Often the designer of the type would not be personally involved in the cutting.
Rare Book School (RBS) is an independent non-profit organization based at the University of Virginia (UVa) supporting the study of the history of books, manuscripts, and related objects. Each year, RBS offers about 30 five-day courses on these subjects. Most of the courses are offered at its headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia but others are held in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. Its courses are intended for teaching academics, archivists, antiquarian booksellers, book collectors, conservators and bookbinders, rare book and special collections librarians, and others with an interest in book history.
The Type Archive is a collection of artefacts representing the legacy of type founding in England, whose famous type foundries and composing systems supplied the world with type in over 300 languages. The Archive was founded in 1992 by Susan Shaw in Stockwell, South London.
Type casting is a technique for casting the individual letters known as sorts used in hot metal typesetting by pouring molten metal into brass moulds called matrices.
William Joseph "Dard" Hunter was an American authority on printing, paper, and papermaking, especially by hand, using sixteenth century tools and techniques. He is known for, among other things, the production of two hundred copies of his book Old Papermaking, for which he prepared all aspects: Hunter wrote the text, designed and cast the type, did the typesetting, handmade the paper, and printed and bound the book. A display at the Smithsonian Institution that appeared with his work read, "In the entire history of printing, these are the first books to have been made in their entirety by the labors of one man." He also wrote Papermarking by Hand in America (1950), a similar but even larger undertaking.
Fine press printing and publishing comprises historical and contemporary printers and publishers publishing books and other printed matter of exceptional intrinsic quality and artistic taste, including both commercial and private presses. Their dedication to fine printing distinguishes them from other small presses. Fine press publications are often published in limited editions, that are swiftly bought up by book collectors and libraries.
The San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB) is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Mary Austin and Kathleen Burch in San Francisco, California in the United States. The first center of its kind on the West Coast, SFCB was modeled after two similar organizations, The Center for Book Arts in New York City and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis.
Andrew Hoyem is a typographer, letterpress printer, publisher, poet, and preservationist. He is the founder and was the director of Arion Press in San Francisco until his retirement in October 2018. Arion Press "is considered the nation's leading publisher of fine-press books," according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Arion Press "carries on a grand legacy of San Francisco printers and bookmakers," according to Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times. Hoyem’s work in preserving the nation’s last typefoundry has been recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Arion Press in the United States of America "is considered the nation's leading publisher of fine-press books," according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Founded in San Francisco in 1974, it has published 116 limited-edition books, most printed by letterpress, often illustrated with original prints by notable artists.
Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of paper sheets that are folded together into sections or sometimes left as a stack of individual sheets. The stack (signature) is then bound together along one edge by either sewing with thread through the folds or by a layer of flexible adhesive. Alternative methods of binding that are cheaper but less permanent include loose-leaf rings, individual screw posts or binding posts, twin loop spine coils, plastic spiral coils, and plastic spine combs. For protection, the bound stack is either wrapped in a flexible cover or attached to stiff boards. Finally, an attractive cover is adhered to the boards, including identifying information and decoration. Book artists or specialists in book decoration can also greatly enhance a book's content by creating book-like objects with artistic merit of exceptional quality.
Dan Carr was an American poet, type designer, typographer, printer, teacher, punchcutter, environmentalist, human rights activist and New Hampshire State Representative. He co-founded Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press*, Trois Fontaines,* Four Zoas Night House** and was an editor for the Four Zoas Press, all literary presses.
Frank Brannon is a book and paper artist, and the proprietor of Speakeasy Press.
Donovan James McCune was an American pediatrician who conducted pioneering research on McCune–Albright syndrome. He was also a collector of rare books, including many incunabula, and a devotee of letterpress printing.
James Mosley is a retired librarian and historian whose work has specialised in the history of printing and letter design.
Jane Bissell Grabhorn (1911–1973) was an American artist, typographer, bookbinder, and printer.
Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press, named after the city of art and imagination in the poetry of William Blake, is a printing press founded in Boston, Massachusetts, by partners Dan Carr and Julia Ferrari in 1979. The press moved to New Hampshire in 1982. It focuses on preserving the arts of letterpress printing, punch cutting, and bookbinding through the creation of handmade books as well as the education of both students and interns. Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press and its subsidiary businesses Enitharmon Bindery and Trois Fontaines publishing are currently run by owner and co-founder Ferrari after the death of Carr in 2012.
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