This past Friday, Feb. 11, the Dunham Letterpress Studio held its first event of the semester, Valentine’s Day card printing. The workshop was hosted by Special Collections Education and Outreach Librarian Seth Gottlieb, who also runs the Letterpress Studio. For the program, students in groups of seven learned about the history of the location and made five Valentine’s Day cards themselves in the Studio. Students saw the machinery and equipment, listened to Gottlieb explain the process of setting type and ran paper through the press themselves to make their cards.
Gottlieb explained the history of the Studio briefly during the workshop, but went into more detail in a later interview. The Studio was first established in 1964 by Michael C. Lang ’67 who contacted Clark H. Minor (Class of 1902), who owned the college’s first printing press. Minor donated the printing press back to the College and it still remains on campus in the Studio today. Lang later donated money to fund special collections education and outreach and the operations of the Studio. The press was originally known as the Alexander Hamilton Private Press, and was previously located in Root Hall. It produced roughly half a dozen books. The publishing operation was later rebranded as The Alexander Hamilton Press.
Hidden in the Dunham basement, many students who attended the event never knew it existed before the workshop Matt Mirkovic ’23 described his surprise after attending the Valentine’s Day workshop, “I think the letterpress might be the best kept secret at Hamilton. I lived in Dunham my freshman year and did not know what was right below my feet. I think it would be great to get more awareness as well as more workshops in the studio because it’s awesome!”
Students who could not attend the event can look forward to workshop opportunities. The Studio plans to continue hosting multiple workshops like the one held on Valentine’s Day throughout the semester.
Currently, students can access the Studio in a variety of ways through class visits, workshops and independent studies. Margaret Mallavarapu ’24 recently did a letterpress independent study, with Gottlieb teaching and supervising. Each week, the students in this independent study collaborated to print poems for visiting authors or event posters. Mallavarapu was most interested in learning the process of printing from her independent study, “I found it really cool learning how to use the press, choose a font, set type and create a print of my own design.”
Most recently, students have attempted to revive the publishing operations at the Studio. They are working to form a club that would formally take over publishing operations. As of now, the club aims to eventually return to publishing books again.
Gottlieb encourages students to visit to the Studio if it would enhance their education or relate to a campus organization. The Studio is open to all students, and students are allowed to operate the machinery mostly independently after proper safety training and supervision.
Additionally, students can anticipate collaboration between the Studio and the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum’s Spring 2022 Exhibition,
Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR.