Programs > Lieberman Lecture
The Lieberman Lecture
The annual Lieberman Lecture commemorates J. Ben Lieberman (1914–1984), founder and first president of the American Printing History Association. The lecture is a moveable feast, given at a different institution each year, by a figure distinguished in the history of printing or the book arts. Past speakers include Russell Maret, John Bidwell, Betsy Davids, Jack Stauffacher, Johanna Drucker, John Randle, Claire Van Vliet, and Paul Needham.
Saturday, July 20 at 2:00 pm
Lieberman Lecture:
Reproductive Arts in America: Lithography Challenges Letterpress, an illustrated talk with David Pankow
San Francisco Public Library
This talk will focus on the rivalry that developed during the 20th century between letterpress and offset lithography and how each process tried to capture the market for commercial color printing. Beginning with a comparative tour of two lavishly produced and illustrated promotional publications – Achievement in Photo-Engraving and Letter-press Printing (1927) and Litho-Media (1939), the talk will continue with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each process in “selling” an image to the viewer. In other words, what effects did detail, color gamut, tonality, paper, etc. have on an audience’s perception and/or preference for one process vs. the other? The talk will also include a review of the technical/economic factors that helped relief photoengraving to maintain its edge for so many years.
David Pankow has recently retired as curator of the Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. The Cary Collection is a comprehensive library of original resources on printing and bookmaking history, graphic arts processes, and typographic exemplars. It also includes extensive manuscript and artifact holdings, as well as the Graphic Design Archive, which preserves the work of significant 20th-century American graphic designers.
He continues to serve as director of the RIT Press, a university press dedicated to exploring new publishing models and technologies of dissemination. The Press deploys a broad array of publication technologies, including print editions for scholarly and mass-market audiences, print-on-demand editions with options for digital delivery of content, born-digital editions that offer media integration opportunities, and limited editions with unique aesthetic features for specialty audiences.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
2pm
Koret Auditorium
Lower Level, Main Library
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
Past Lieberman Lectures
Lectures in the series are listed with the hosting institution
after the speaker's name.
2012
Russel Maret
The Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
2011
John Bidwell
The Huntingtion Library, San Marino, CA
2010
Betsy Davids
The Book Club of California, San Francisco, CA
2009
John Kristensen
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
2008
[no lecture]
2007
Sue Allen
Grolier Club, New York, NY
delivered 2008
2006
Henry Morris
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
2005
Richard-Gabriel Rummonds
University of San Francisco, CA
2004
John Downer
Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
delivered in 2005
2003
Roderick Stinehour, with Jerry Kelly
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
2002
Jack Stauffacher, with Matthew Carter
Getty Center, Los Angeles
2001
Johanna Drucker
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
2000
John Randle
Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1999
Barry Moser
Iowa Center for the Book, Iowa City, IA
1998
Kenneth E. Carpenter
Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
1997
Robert H. Hirst
Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
1996
[no lecture]
1995
Claire Badaracco
University of Texas, Austin, TX
1994
G. Thomas Tanselle
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
1993
Robert Bringhurst
University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
1992
David Kaser
St. Louis Mercantile Library, St. Louis, MO
1991
Stephen O. Saxe
Book Club of Texas, Galveston, TX
1990
[no lecture]
1989
Clive Griffin
John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, RI
1988
James Gilreath
Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA
1987
Paul Needham
Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
1986
Claire Van Vliet
Mills College, Oakland, CA
David Pankow to deliver the 2013 Lieberman Lecture. Details.
The APHA board has agreed to move forward with a redesign of the APHA website. The front page will feature articles, news and a calendar, and will replace the pdf newsletter. While a Summer launch is expected, the editor is now seeking short articles of 200-400 words in length, plus images. Please write to website@printinghistory.org.
The 2013 Winter Newsletter, featuring a summary of the Annual Meeting in New York is now available. Download or read online.
Individual and Institutional Awards for distinguished achievement in printing history were presented at our Annual membership Saturday, January 26.
Details.
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