Amana Colony prints again
Today (May 25, 2005) letterpress printing was restored to the Amana Colonies as Larry Raid and Gary Frost revived the model 31 Linotype in the blacksmith shop in Homestead Iowa.
This project of the
Amana Heritage Society will recreate the historical printing operation that printed everything from hymnals to flour sacks.
The Amana Colonies offer a fascinating historical example of printing in Iowa. The community or sect had a printing tradition that stems back to its European origins in the 18th century. The community printed books, pamphlets and ephemera in its first American home in Ebenezer (near Buffalo) New York and later in Amana Iowa. Over one hundred different books were printed in Amana from 1865-1930! In addition the print shop printed notices and pamphlets for its church services as well as social organization and business ventures. Most of the material for community use was printed in German using a Fraktur type face. Many jobs were also printed in English. The type cases of the shop and the “job books” of the shop in which samples of the jobs are pasted still survive and are now in the museum of the Amanas Heritage Society. Examples of Colony publications also survive. The work of the Amana print shop is well documented and offers a rich example of the printing art and profession in Iowa.
planetarium of letters
This wonderful column of letterforms illuminates the summer evenings between the Library and Communications building on the campus of the University of Iowa.
The artist is
Jim Sanborn.
choosing book arts
Book arts are both timeless and modern. Many other attributes make the arts of the book strange and irresistible. First, the book arts teach that the hands prompt the mind. Second the field of book arts engages an expanse of technologies across history and into the future. Thirdly, the book arts challenge the creative person to share the aesthetic experience with a wider community of thoughtful people who are readers.
(more)