Printing at the Margins: A History of Women Printers

Course Information

Instructor: Kathleen Walkup
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Mode: In-person
Dates: July 24 – July 28, 2023
Tuition: $1200.00

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Description

Although often written out of printing history, women have been active in the printing craft and trade since 1476. This seminar will examine the intersection of women and printing in Europe and America from the incunabula period through the fine press and incipient book art movements in the 1970s and 1980s, with a peek at current practice. We will examine the work of the nuns at the convent of Ripoli (Florence, 1476), Charlotte Guillard (Paris, 16th century), Mary Katherine Goddard and her cohort (American Colonial era), the mostly anonymous women in the industrial trades of the nineteenth century, Virginia Woolf, Nancy Cunard, Anaïs Nin and Caresse Crosby (20th century Modernism), and Jane Grabhorn and the women of the Distaff Side, along with many other women who have labored in the field. Topics for exploration will include the disappearance of women printers in America’s transition from a colony to a republic, an examination of early- to mid-twentieth-century women printers through the feminist lens they often eschewed themselves, the challenges of naming Black women printers and queering the printing press in the 1970s. Our material study will include a hands-on session in the letterpress studio, where we will set type and print on the handpress. The class is suitable for all levels of knowledge of book history. There will be a reading list and a working bibliography of the growing number of source materials in the history of women and printing. 

Requirements

Offered

2017, 2023

Credit

Completion of this course helps to meet requirements for one of the following certificate requirements:

  • a History of the Book course for Certificate in Rare Books and Manuscripts, or
  • 1 of 3 elective credit courses for Certificate in Rare Books and Manuscripts, or
  • a History of the Book course for Certificate in Librarianship, Activism, and Justice
  • 1 of 2 elective credit courses for Certificate in Librarianship, Activism, and Justice