This program will be held virtually on Zoom. Please register for free in advance here.
NOTE: You can also watch a live stream of the program on the Newberry Facebook page or YouTube channel.
In this special two-part program series, the Newberry’s Jill Gage will speak with Bill and Jim Moran, Directors of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, about the history of wood type and the evolution of the type styles manufactured by Hamilton Manufacturing, a Wisconsin type company founded in 1880. At one time one of the country’s largest makers of wood type and printing equipment, the company evolved into the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in 2000 and has since become a national center for print and type history.
Part 1
Focusing on the history of Hamilton Manufacturing, Part 1 of the program considers how through the process of acquiring competitors over a series of decades, the company succeeded in homogenizing and streamlining the hundreds of designs that had proliferated the U.S. during the nineteenth century. Broadcasting live from the museum, directors Bill and Jim Moran will showcase key type specimens illustrating the company’s history. Meanwhile, Jill Gage will share complementary objects from the Newberry’s collection.
Learn about Part 2 on Friday, March 26.
About the speakers:
Jim Moran is Director of the Hamilton Wood Type Museum. He has studied and contributed to the art and craft of print for more than 35 years. He leads letterpress workshops, archives the collection, and maintains the museum on a daily basis.
Bill Moran is Artistic Director of the Hamilton Wood Type Museum and a third-generation letterpress printer and graphic designer. Bill also teaches printing history at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Hamilton Wood Type, A History in Headlines.
This program is generously sponsored by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. It is part of the Newberry’s What Is the Midwest? project, funded by a major grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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