Letterpress printing became the fuel that fed the emergence of mass media during the Industrial Revolution. What may seem like an outdated piece of technology to many shaped the development of popular culture into what we know today. From being used to bypass censorship by Virginia Woolf with the Hogarth Press to wood type printing that created large scale advertisements, the significance of letterpress printing cannot be understated.
The “Hot off the Press: the Rise and Revival of American Wood Type” exhibit opens on Nov. 5 at the UT Administration Building, offering visitors a chance to learn about the compelling history of wood type letterpress printing.
Researched and executed by the iSchool class INF 368E: Planning and Understanding Exhibits, “Hot off the Press” pulls from the extensive Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection in the School of Design and Creative Technologies. Archiving nearly 150 letterpress typefaces from the 19th century, the collection seeks to bridge the old and the new — analog and digital — by connecting students with wood type.
Lili Peel, a master’s student in information studies and museum education team member, said the exhibit showcases a lost art which fell out of favor in the 1970s.
“I’m from Mexico City, and my initial reaction when I started reading about the letterpress and about the RRK collection was that these are all lost arts,” Peel said. “It made me think about many arts and crafts that in Mexico were done by hand and how these arts are getting lost. … That’s what I find the most fascinating (about) the RRK collection.”
In addition to showcasing the often overlooked art of wood type letterpressing, “Hot off the Press” will also be the first iSchool exhibit to be translated fully into Spanish. Anahisa Rodriguez, a master’s student in information studies, undertook the task of translation herself to make the exhibit accessible to a wider audience.
“We have several people in the building that we know speak Spanish as their first language, and we don’t know what audience we’re going to get,” said Lily Croix-Blust, a master’s student in information science and member of the “Hot off the Press” texts and labels team. “That’s a really great point of accessibility that we prioritize.”
The exhibit, which runs until Nov. 19., will feature videos, artifacts and local art. During a Nov. 12 reception at the UT Administration Building, guests will have the opportunity to create their own prints.
Luz Gonzalez, a master’s student in the school of information and member of the museum education team, emphasized the quality of the program which allowed their class to put together “Hot off the Press.”
“Our libraries and archives programs at the School of Information sometimes gets disregarded, neglected (and) downplayed,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve been seeing a lot of change with the program … and there’s a lot of emphasis on AI and technology, so I just wanted to say that it has been a really amazing program … and I hope that libraries and archives (education) continues to be valued.”
