Programs > Oral History
The Oral History Project
APHA’s Oral History Project records the voices, knowledge, and insights of printers, illustrators, designers, and members of allied trades. We are interviewing senior members of these trades, so that their experiences and skills will not be lost. We will question and record well-known individuals as well as those less likely to write their own stories: including but not limited to job printers, dot etchers, typographers, linotype operators, and others whose skills became obsolete during the computer revolution.
In addition to collecting historical material, we would like to register current developments in the printing trade by documenting the careers of digital type designers, computer typesetters, contemporary graphic artists, managers, and owners of printing businesses. We also want our project to extend to members of all the book production professions.
We follow the guidelines and standards enumerated by the Oral History Association and the interview techniques outlined by the Indiana University Oral History Research Center. An interviewers' manual has been prepared and deposited with a number of individuals and institutions. We plan to have the interviews transcribed by Tapescribe, an oral history transcription service, based at the University of Connecticut.
All materials originating from our project will be deposited at the Columbia University Oral History Research Office where they are available to researchers according to the restrictions stipualated in APHA’s "Agreement with Interviewees."
Interviews to date
Roderick Stinehour (interviewed by Philip Cronenwett)
Kim Merker (interviewed by Michael Peich)
Thomas Todd (interviewed by Charles Rheault)
Raymond McLain (interviewed by Bradley Hutchinson)
For further information contact Alice Beckwith, the Project Chair oralhistory@printinghistory.org
The complete program, registration form and conference hotel information are now available for APHA’s 35th Annual Conference, “Learning To Print, Teaching to Print,” in Washington, DC, October 15th–16th, 2010, at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Download the program and hotel information. Download the registration form.
The Summer 2010 issue of the Newsletter is comprised of a story about the revival of UCLA's Horn Press; the program of the upcoming 2010 annual conference; a reminder of the 2010 Lieberman Lecture; chapter activities from across the country; a review of the 2010 Hofer Lecture; and the bicentennial of George Phineas Gordon. Download it in PDF form here.