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Introduction - 1962
History
of Excelsior Press - 1962-1967
The Excelsior Press
Today - 1986-1997
How It was Done
- 1986-1996
The
PEOPLE of The Excelsior Press -
1975-1985
Smithsonian
Museum of American History Exhibit: Printing & Graphic Arts
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Letterpress Afficianados
goto Alan
Runfeldt's Website - 1995-2007
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|Menu| History
of Excelsior Press- 1962 - 1967
continuing from introduction..... Begin
at
Introduction
...
During the previous winter (1962), his father had brought
home a
gift
from a neighbor, William C. Soper who had heard that this
neighbor's
son wanted to be a printer. In his youth, the now retired Mr. Soper had
worked for the American Type Founders Company. ATF was the major
manufacturer
of printers high quality, hard-metal lead type. The gift he sent over
was a couple of peach
baskets
filled with pied type - little lead letters all jumbled up in a pile.
12 point ATF Goudy Oldstyle and Italic - cast on a 14 point body. Easy
to work with, even for a novice. That
winter, father and son worked together, sorting out the letters into
the
California Job Cases Mr. Soper had supplied.
§ Now he was ready
to
start
printing. §
As time went on, he learned about printing wherever he could
-
mostly
from old printers he met. § When
he was fourteen, he had the opportunity to buy a "real" full-sized
printing
press, a Chandler & Price 8x12 Platen Press. This press was
not built for a boy hobbiest, as was his Kelsey Excelsior, this press
was
built for a man to operate, full time and at full speed - about 30
impressions
per minute. It was built around the turn of the century, and was
operated
by a foot treadle, as well as an add-on electric motor. § Along
with this press came an older (1870's-90's) Gordon press built
in
New England by Damon & Peets. There were also about fifty
California
job cases full of old foundry type - including a complete selection of Theodore
Devinne's "New" Typeface from the 1890's, and a very
full case of "Typewriter Type" a mono-spaced font used to simultate
the style of a Typewriter - a modern machine during that era. § These presses and type were from a
printing shop owned and
operated
by Tony Rienzo who had used the shop to support his family
during
the Great Depression of the 30's, then closed the shop and left it in
storage
for thirty years until he decided it was time to part with the now
obsolete
equipment. None of the printing businesses of the '60's had any
interest
in this old letterpress equipment, so he offered to sell it all for
$400
to the boy who worked in the print shop downtown.
That boy was fourteen year-old Alan Runfeldt, who wanted
more than
anything
to have his own type cases and printing presses to begin his own
career.
He was frustrated that, because of his age, he could not get a "real"
job
in a printing shop, and was forced to do menial clean-up and manual
labor. § He wanted to "set
type
and run
a press" but there was no type to be set in the mostly offset shops in
the area, and the old printers in the nearby city - those who still
used
lead type - would not trust the work to a young boy.
So, at fourteen, Alan, encouraged and assisted by his
parents,
loaded
up the entire shop from the basement of an old building in Jersey City,
and unloaded it all into the new basement of their home in the wooded
Free
Acres section of Berkeley Heights. The Excelsior Press began to grow.
It
was no longer a young boy with a boy's toy printing press, but a real
print shop with real printing presses - somewhat
old-fashioned,
but at last, he could set his own type and print on his own printing
presses.
He couldn't get a job doing what he wanted to do, so he equipped his own
print shop and went to work.
Three years later, he met Mr. Wallach, who had
equipped a
basement
print shop for his son, Ken - a classmate of Alan's. Ken showed no
interest
in the printing press and type, so it was offered for sale to Alan. The
equipement consisted of a 10x15 Chandler & Price Platen Press
and 48 cases of foundry type, including a complete series of Goudy
OldStyle
and Italic, from 6 to 48 point. The cases were clean and enclosed
in
tight-fitting dust-free Hamilton Cabinets which shone when
polished
and oiled. The metal was fresh, hard ATF foundry metal - not merely
lead, but a unique alloy of lead, tin and
antimony - all mixed to exactly the right percentage to make a type
that felt
right in the typesetter's fingers.
to be continued.....
©1996-2007 Excelsior Press § TOP § Contact
webmaster
TOP The
Excelsior Press Today- 1986-1996
Today
(1996)
the Excelsior
Press is resting in a barn on a farm a few miles outside of Frenchtown,
New Jersey. Only a few miles from the Delaware River, the farm is a
tranquil
place for a collection of old printing presses and printers types. The
shop "is a mess" and everything needs to be cleaned and arranged. Some
presses have collected some rust, the paint is pealing off of the
Vandercook
Proof Press, and the typecases all need to be cleaned and the wood
oiled.
But this is being done, slowly, but surely. The shop will be fully
functional
and available to illustrate - hands-on - just how a small print shop
operated
during the period from 1900 to 1950. The 10x15 C&P and the
Heidelberg
Windmill are fully operational and are being used again.
In 1995, the Heidelberg was used to produce some beautifully embossed
cards
for The Knoll Group, and the Windmill continues to crank out carton
upon carton of numbered and perforated receipt forms every autumn, as
it has since 1976..
UPDATES
update 12/27/2001:
After four months away from home this summer, it finally dawned on me
that I was 52 years old and had been dreaming about resurrecting the
old Excelsior Press as a working shop for over 15 years... The result
was a resolve to walk away from this damned computer and the internet
for a few hours each day, and head into the barn to putter and print.
Well, I'm happy to say that I've been doing just that. The
result
can be seen in the photo links listed at the top of
this page.
The Vandercook Proof Press has been disassembled, cleaned,
lubricated, given a new set of soft rollers and is once again in
operation. It sure feels good.
* n.b. As of this writing, we are just completing the
2001/2002
"Dog License Season". We've been doing this one job since 1976...
twenty-five years. For twenty-five years, my Thanksgiving, Birthday and
Christmas has been overshadowed by the pressing need to get late orders
processed and printed above all else. No wonder I'm such a Scrooge. For
weeks before Christmas, my primary concern is to "print the dog
licenses" and Christmas always arrives as a surprise to me...
But, now the Heidelberg is placed in a shop in barn on a
farm -
with heat and insulation- and a fantastic view of hay fields, the
Delaware Valley, and The Hills of Pennsylvania off in the distance.
Sunsets are amazing here, too. So these days, as I run my Windmill and
print these boring, mundane black on white municipal forms, I gaze off
into the distance at blue skies and amazing sunsets.
It's fun to be a printer... and to be printing.
And now, once again, I'm begining to print things much more
interesting than dog licenses!
- Alan - 12/27/2001
update 3/3/2006:
Apologies for the lack of updates in the past five years... Life goes
on and is very busy. But here I am again, back at the keyboard,
cleaning up old errors and improving (hopefully) the look of the
website. Over the years since 2001, a lot has changed - improved - at
the Excelsior Press. It's really back in operation and things are being
printed now and then. There's still a lot
of cleaning and organizing to be done, and much of the equipment is
still dirty and grimy and in need of cleaning, but a lot of it is
working as well. At least I can go in there now and set type and print
cards and tickets and posters and such when I can find the time. But
it's a spring-summer-fall print shop. There is no heat or insulation,
so most actual printing is curtailed during the New Jersey winter -
when it's generally below 45 degrees.
But I have been able to print on the C&P using a new
propane heater to warm up the ink table and the old printer's trick of
"the ink candle" - a thick candle behind the ink table, keeping it warm
in a cold print shop... I learned that from Mr. Liberty in 1965. He
learned it in Romania in the 1890's....
The exciting news from 2004 was Wayne Miller's video of me
at work cutting card stock and printing some tickets and posters for
the local Film Festival. There's a link at the top of this page.
The big news for 2006 is the addition of a few more hand
presses and hot metal keyboard composition added to our mostly
foundry-type composing room. Barry Mueller has sold his building and is
bringing his Intertype and his Linotype - and dozens of fonts - down to
the Excelsior Press for semi-retirement. Barry's been running these
machines for 20-30 years and he's coming too - to teach me operation
and maintenance of these linecasters (something I've waited 40 years to
learn) and to do composition work for our projects.
We also picked up some type cabinets and some type from
Hobson Printing, in Easton, Pa. Hobson Printing was founded in 1896 and
did
mostly letterpress printing - books and such - almost until the end of
the last century. But the building was sold, and had to be emptied.
Some of their type and cabinets - and a really neat wrapping paper
dispenser have been added to our collection.
Next chore is to arrange
for some projects to do...
update - May 2006
This week's news contains two stories -
The first is about a new printer - Amy, a graphic designer
from Ohio, who wanted her own press and is intrigued about letterpress
printing. Amy and her husband Jason drove all the way out from Ohio to
spend a day at the shop, learning to print on her own 5x8 Kelsey
Excelsior Press. The best part of the day was when I saw that light go
on in her eyes and her sparkling smile of joy when she got the test
print to look good. Then she learned to set hand type and printed a
"Happy Mother's Day" card for her mother. By the end of the all-too
short day together. We got some nice photos, too. Watch for them on our
photos page soon.
And, during the week before Amy's visit, we cleaned up the
back room and washed, etched and painted the concrete floor - to hold
down the all-too present dust - and made room for Barry's equipment -
the Intertype, the Model 31 Linotype, his Model M Ludlow and his as-yet
unsold Heidelberg Windmill. They all arrived on Tuesday - finally,
after about two years' discussion, the job is nearly done. All that we
are waiting for is the new 220 volt line to get power to this
equipment. Soon I'll be learning to operate the Linotype and Intertype
and we'll be casting slugs for our Excelsior/Mercury Linotype Samples.
And, once everything is operational, we will be offering Linotype and
Ludlow Casting Services for other printers as well!
(Now, if I can just get my friend Paul to part with his
Elrod at a good price, we'll be casting leads, slugs and border
materials as well.)
- Alan 5/13/06
to be continued.....
©1996-2001 Excelsior Press § TOP § Contact
webmaster
TOP The
People of The Excelsior Press - 1975-1985
THEPEOPLE
of the Excelsior Press are an important part of its history. They are a
collection of some very unique individuals. There is something about a
printing shop which, throughout history - from Ben Franklin's shops in
the 17th century, to the Excelsior Press is the 1970's, which seems to
attracts interesting characters. Those who passed through the EP over
the
years seemed to be aware that they had participated in a special moment
in history. They all seem to have had a sense of "something special"
about
the EP and they all made a personal contribution to its character,
reputation
and history. The cast of characters involved and where they are now
would
be the subject of a small book. Perhaps we'll explore that in the
future,
after the Web Site fulfills its main purpose: §
Documenting
and Illustrating the Techniques of Printing Generally Employed in a
sole-proprietor-sized
printing office of the first half of the Twentieth Century
to be continued.....
Update December 27, 2001.
A few months ago, we had the sad news that one of our
Excelsior
Press alumni, Mike Ryan, suffered a heart attack and died at 46. Mike
first came to the Excelsior Press just out of high school, when his
father strongly suggested that he "get a job and learn a trade". Well,
Mike learned the trade of letterpress printer at the Excelsior Press.
Mike set type, designed printing jobs, and operated the Vandercook
Proof Press. He printed most of the pages of the engravings catalog of
the Excelsior Press.
After he left the Excelsior Press, Mike went on to become a
graphic designer and was most recently involved in designing and
creating websites on the internet - a far cry from hand-set type, but a
natural progression - and one which has been followed by many of us who
used to set all their type by hand from the California job case...
We had hoped that Mike would be able to visit the Museum
frequently, and continue his cataloging of the boxes and boxes and
trays and trays of engravings, wood type and various ornaments in our
collection. Alas, life was too short for that. Instead, we will
continue his project for him.
In what we feel is fitting tribute to Mike and his time at
the
Excelsior Press, our Vandercook, the 1946 Model 4 Proof Press currently
being restored, is being christened "The Michael Ryan Memorial Proof
Press".
It might seem odd to have a press named in someone's honor,
but
discussion with Mike's friends and other members of the Excelsior Press
Alumni have convinced us that Mike would have liked that, and his
mother was deeply touched when told of our plans. So. We are having a
brass plaque engraved with his name and will mount it on the press as a
part of the restoration. We'll also be collecting and scanning some
images of Mike to add to this website in the future.
- ar 12/27/2001
Update October 23, 2007
Last Saturday, we had a visit from one of the
Exceslior Press Alumni. Russ Letieq wanted to print some campaign
posters for his wife Sue who is running for town council in Glendon,
PA. We had a wonderful time playing with the wood type and the
Vandercook and made some nice posters for Sue. We have some photos
which we will hopefully post on page of their own some time soon...
©1996-2007 Excelsior Press § TOP § Contact
webmaster
TOP HOW
PRINTING WAS DONE -1900-1950
THIS SECTION was intended to offer links to
explanations of how printing was done in the small
letterpress
print shop of 1900-1950. These techniques are being practiced today in
museum exhibitions, as well as by hobby printers and private presses
throughout
the world.
However, over the years, it simply has not been done.
Meanwhile, many other printers have done a fine job dealing with this
subject. I'll add links here to their sites as we find them.
(Suggestions welcome)
| If you have a particular interest, and can't find
information here,
(this is a long-term project....) Please ASK
and I will be happy to answer your questions and turn
my
writing to your subject if I can. |
The Skills of
Letterpress Printing fall
into
three major
catagories;
- Typesetting and Composition
- Setting Lead Type
- Casting Ludlow
- Inserting "Cuts" (pictures)
- Press work (Printing)
- Lockup
- The Chase
- The Form
- Furniture
- Makeready
- Printing (Running the press)
- Bindery (All post-press work)
- Cutting
- Padding
- Stitching
- Packaging
§§ All of
the
above
subjects (and more!) must be mastered by the printer in order to take a
job from beginning to end. In the larger shopes, these skills became
specialized
and split up among different craftsmen - eventually, even different
unions. § But, for the "job"
shop of the early 20th century - and
even
back to Ben Franklin's - or even Gutenberg's times, A "Printer" was a
complete
master of his trade only if he could follow every step in the design,
production
and packaging of printed material. §§
to be continued.....
©1996-2006 Excelsior Press § TOP § Contact
webmaster 4/16/96
last edited March 3, 2006
September 29, October 25, 2007
