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 stipulated 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
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.
Back issues of Printing History are now on sale at a deep discount at Rochester Institute of Technology Press
The complete listing of Printing History's contents have been put back online. See the contents (and a few select articles) from the Original Series, or a complete listing of the New Series. See something you like? Order Directly from RIT Press.