![[APHA logo]](../../../images/APHA_LOGO_COLOR-1x1.gif){kind=logo} The American Printing History Association APHA's Southern California Chapter |
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APHA's Southern California Chapter sponsors lectures, fields trips and other opportunities to meet fellow members on an informal basis. (Learn about other regional chapters.) Officers Upcoming Events See the APHA SoCal calendar for current and upcoming events. Welcome from the new APHA SoCal Board A welcome and invitation to join the revitalized APHA SoCal Chapter from the new APHA SoCal Board. A 2008 Annual Report is now online. The Summer 2008 Letter to members is now online --------------------------------------- Welcome and Invitation to Join APHA SoCal Dear American Printing History Association Members, Southern California Chapter and potential APHA members: We are pleased to announce that we have recently revived
the inactive APHA Southern California Chapter and are planning some very
special events for our members and for potential new members. The new officers
for the next two years are Kitty Maryatt, President; Steve MacLeod, Program
Chair; Richenda Brim, Secretary; Ryan Hildebrand, Treasurer. Contact
information is below. American Printing History Association Southern California chapter 2008 Annual report During the past year, our chapter has focused on the theme of the history of the book, organized around Frederick G. Kilgour’s The Evolution of the Book. We had our first Book Club meeting in March with subsequent meetings in June and August, with a final meeting planned for November but re-scheduled for early next year to complete the reading of the book. Our vision for the next year will build on this foundation of studying scripts and manuscripts from various parts of the world in order to grasp the significance of the beginning of printing in the West. Early printing in the East will be a fertile area to explore as a precursor to Gutenberg’s achievements. We organized collections visits around subjects in the book, including a visit to UCLA’s Fowler Museum in February to view African scripts, to USC in May to view cuneiform tablets and a visit to Los Angeles County Museum of Art in September to view their splendid Islamic collection. Docent Chris Jameson led us on a fascinating tour of LACMA’s Islamic collection in September. We had mentioned our interest in lettering and books and the fact that we were reading Kilgour. She actually took the time to find and read a copy of The Evolution of the Book in order to target artifacts that would be especially germaine to our studies. Sinuously beautiful calligraphy adorned every kind of surface in the gallery and ranged from very early fritware pottery to contemporary expressive calligraphy. One repaired binding on display, removed from its book block, showed its case construction with flap, exquisite leatherwork with intricate inlaid colored leathers and delicate gold tooling. Chris even brought paper samples of geometrical constructions for tiles and examples of five different ways an Islamic calligrapher could write the same phrase. This is the gold standard for a museum tour. Two movies rounded out our reflections on the long history of bookmaking, the famous Helvetica movie and the NOVA presentation on the decoding of the Mayan script. In the near future, we will show the new Gutenberg movie made by Wavelength Films for the BBC, The Machine That Made Us. Stan Nelson was in the film showing us how to shape a punch for hand-casting letters, Alan May built a press for the film, and Kitty Maryatt typeset a page of the Gutenberg Bible from B-42 type made by Dale Guild Typefoundry and sent it to England for use in the film. We held a reception in August at the California Rare Book School at UCLA for our members and prospective members of APHA and RBS participants. A panel of rare book dealers presented insights about the state of bookselling today followed by lively discussions. It was an excellent way to visit with RBS participants from various parts of the country. For our Annual General Meeting in December, we will visit the remarkable William Andrews Clark Library again to view incunables from their exemplary fine printing collection. APHA member Nina Schneider will present landmarks of early printing, including a Gutenberg leaf, which is always a fascinating experience, no matter how many times you’ve see one. For our immediate future, we have organized a papyrus-making workshop for members only at the Getty Villa in Malibu on January 31. Apparently the previous workshop planned for the public last summer sold out in a day, so we are quite fortunate that they have agreed to give a special workshop for our members. On February 28, E. M. Ginger will give a lecture about her exciting endeavors in digitizing rare and important works at her company 42-Line in Oakland, California. A recent project was to create a digital catalog for San Francisco rare book dealer John Windle, who apparently is at the leading edge of bookselling. He even carries around a Kindle to read books as he takes the Bart to work. One challenge for the new year is to encourage our members to renew their membership and to bring in new members. Our mandate is to serve all of Southern California, and we intend to try harder to hold events in other areas of our far-flung jurisdiction. We hope that the promise of intellectually stimulating subjects presented for members and a friendly atmosphere for socializing will continue to make our Southern California chapter a vital part of the national APHA organization. The current chapter membership is 67, down from the 2007 total of 76. We have created a chapter member contact list covering 2007 and 2008. Kitty Maryatt President, APHA Southern California Chapter Richenda Brim Secretary, APHA Southern California Chapter
Summer Newsletter 2008 The Southern California Chapter has been active this year with our long-term plan of holding a series of salons, book club events, collections visits, lectures, receptions, and performances. We met in January to view the Helvetica movie at the CenterPointe Club. A particularly lively discussion followed, so we will be planning further discussions on sans serif typefaces We took a tour of African scripts in February at UCLA’s Fowler Museum led by co-curator Polly Nooter Roberts. We also hosted a table at the Antiquarian Book Fair in February (with a lottery to give away three copies of the Helvetica movie as a promotion for APHA). Members were encouraged to attend the Frederic W. Goudy Lecture at Scripps College given by Don Glaister and Suzanne Moore In March we started our new Book Club by reading the first part of The Evolution of the Book by Frederic Kilgour, which concerns the beginnings of writing on clay, papyrus and other substrates. We’re tentatively planning a workshop on making papyrus in the next few months Members were encouraged to attend the Stephen Kanter Lecture on Fine Printing at the William Andrews Clark Library in April, given by Graham Macintosh, interviewed by Linda Benet We visited the cuneiform tablet collection at USC in May in connection with our discussion of Kilgour’s book. USC student Hannah Marcuson brought out a dozen three to four thousand-year-old examples along with ownership rolls In June we meet for our second Book Club, discussing the rise of parchment and the codex as outlined in Kilgour. We plan to visit UCLA’s fine collection of Coptic books to fill out this discussion Our first salon of the year will convene in July at the CenterPointe Club to further our ongoing discussion of sans serif typefaces In August, we will hold a reception for members and participants at the California Rare Book School at UCLA. We will also meet for our third Book Club event and discuss Kilgour’s chapter on Islamic books September will take us to Special Collections at UCLA to view some examples of early Coptic books and Islamic books. In early September, members will be encouraged to attend the Frederic W. Goudy Lecture given by Susan Share at Scripps College and opening of the exhibit Performing the Book at the Williamson Gallery. Susan Share will also give a performance with her books The national APHA Conference will be held in October, and we are encouraging our chapter members to attend. At the end of October, E. M. Ginger from Oakland will give a lecture about her fascinating work in digitizing rare and important works at her company 42-Line November will bring our yearly Annual General Meeting with a business meeting and special presentation, to be announced We may be able to squeeze in a party in early December Kitty Maryatt
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