Angelus News | May 31, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 20

Wood type for a letterpress.
Printing Museum and Los Angeles
Printers Fair, which this year will take
place over the course of the weekend
of Oct. 19-20.)
But the heart of the museum consists
in its Ernest A. Lindler Collection,
touted as “one of the world’s largest
and finest collections of working
antique presses.”
I merged into a tour in progress, led
by Peter Small. We were just entering
the Industrial Revolution (before that,
presses were wooden), emblemized by
an 1810 Stanhope metal press, made
in England.
Snippets of info reeled by. The
Columbian Hand Press was the first
American-made metal press. The one
owned by the museum is a beautiful
object, topped by a painted cornucopia
of vines, flowers, and fruit.
One kind of ink, used in composition
rollers, was made by mixing
glue and molasses. The mixture was
temperamental, and as it turned out,
much beloved by rodents.
The Grasshopper Press was invented
circa 1878 by Enoch Prouty, a Baptist
preacher who wanted to broadcast the
evils of liquor. The Prouty Power Press
featured a pair of bars that jumped up
and down, a movement that uncannily
resembled that of the long-legged
garden insect.
In December 1881, the first edition
of the Los Angeles Times was printed
on one such press. Newspapers in
those days were at the most four pages.
Other models include a C. Foster &
Bro. Washington Hand Press (circa
1850), a LaTypote Stanhope Hand
Press (circa 1850), a La Magand
Card Press (circa 1900), from France,
featuring a cranked flywheel, and a
Model 1 Linotype Typesetting Machine
(circa 1890).
Then there was the California
Reliable Jobber Platen Press, which
was used for smaller tasks such as
handbills, posters, business cards, and
stationery; the Rogers Typograph (circa
1895), combining typewriter and
piano engineering; and the Howard
Iron Works Paper Cutter (circa 1870).
The linotype machine was invented
by Ottmar Merganthaler, a German-born
inventor also known as “the
second Gutenberg.” The museum
owns a Linotype 5 Meteor (circa
1961). By 1980, these were obsolete.
We viewed an ad for Dr. Miles’
Nervine, a medicinal remedy with a
very high alcohol content marketed to
women during the early 1900s. World
War II letterpress posters included
“Save a loaf a week, help win the
war.” “Order your coal now.” “Save
wheat, meat, fats, sugar, and serve the
cause of freedom.”
A nice lady made me an art deco
logo of City Hall card, done on a
Victorian parlor press, to take home.
On sale at the front desk were a Neato
Large Metal Harmonica, vintage postcards
for a buck each, a quilled ink set
($5), and craft ink pads.
As we settled in for the film, “Los
Ultimos” (“Endless Letterpress”), several
genial folks circulated with bowls
of free popcorn, candy, and snacks.
Many of the viewers had obviously
known one another for years.
The subject was the men who
operate the last remaining letterpress
in Buenos Aires. Printing is their vocation
and, lack of fame and fortune
notwithstanding, some had been at it
for 50 years.
One guy, nearing 70, laughingly
remarked about driving around town,
“If I get in an accident it’s because
I’m either looking at a woman or one
of my posters. I don’t know if anyone
cares as much as I do.”
Another, wearing a red shirt, solid
black with ink up to his armpits, observed,
“Young technicians don’t get
dirty. They don’t. We’re the last idiots
willing to get dirty.” A third printer,
now retired, remembered, “If you
hear the machine’s complaints, you’ll
know what’s wrong with it.” Like
monks, these men work in silence.
They don’t even listen to the radio.
“This was handicraft. In the old
days, one person could print a whole
anarchist newspaper.” “New technologies
are for the sake of speed. There’s
nothing human about them.” “Given
the current situation, we could say
[letterpress] no longer exists.”
Now machines do everything. And
hovering over the museum is the
unvoiced question: Are we really any
better for it?
A laminated card, prominently displayed
near the front of the museum,
says it best: “This is a Printing Office.
Crossroads of Civilization. Refuge
of all the Arts Against the Ravages
of Time. Armoury of Fearless Truth
Against Whispering Rumor. Incessant
Trumpet of Trade.”
MIKE BARBOUR/FLICKR VIA THE INTERNATIONAL PRINTING MUSEUM
Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.
May 31, 2019 • ANGELUS • 29