I am currently Librarian and Operations Manager for Rose Tech Ventures, a technology investment company. Prior to this I worked as a free-lance library and cataloging consultant for private clients while pursuing my research projects.
From 1990-2002 I worked for the Gilder Lehrman Collection, a large collection of American historical documents formerly on deposit at the Pierpont Morgan Library, now on deposit at the New-York Historical Society. I was on sabbatical leave from 2001-2002 and formally left in September 2002.
While at Gilder Lehrman, I helped write and maintain the Gilder Lehrman site, www.gilderlehrman.com (no longer online), from its inception in 1996 until 2001. The collection has been incorporated into Gilder Lehrman Institute, which also has contact information.
At present I am working on a personal project which I'm tentatively calling "Disciples of Baskerville," about the first few generations of English printers who imitated John Baskerville (bio at Myfonts). The first part of this project concerns the relatively unknown Millar Ritchie, who printed from about 1785 to about 1806 or 1807. I am starting by compiling a list of his printed books and examining them for the lessons he applied from Baskerville's fine printing in the mid-eighteenth century. Some of my research notes are online (linked from here).
I am also working on English language printers' manuals, particularly early twentieth century manuals in the competing International Typographical Union (ITU) and United Typothetae of America (UTA) versions. (The ITU ceased operation as a separate entity in 1986 when it was absorbed into the Communications Workers of America. The UTA was the employing masters' association, later incorporated into the Printing Industries of America and now part of the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation [PIA/GATF].) I'm concentrating how the ITU manuals, which were done as a correspondence school class, forced out competitors. At the moment I'm trying to delineate the various revisions to the ITU lessons.I had been working on American handwriting before 1830, primarily between 1740 and 1810--the late colonial and early Republican periods and hope to produce some articles and, one day I hope, a book. America's distinctive contribution to handwriting and "calligraphy" comes after 1850, particularly with the development of "Spencerian" and Palmer hands. There's no question about British cultural and educational influence, but how did those influences play-out inside (and outside) the schoolroom? The primary impetus for this research came while noticing similarities and differences of late eighteenth century handwriting ("English Round Hand"), particularly of some founders. The great challenge remains latter half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, with their many writing methods, affiliated to various commercial schools or textbooks. Given the complexity, there's no question why Ray Nash stopped his bibliography of American Writing Books at 1850.
I have been reading and writing about type designer Fred W. Goudy (1865-1947), based on a volunteer project, processing a collection at The Grolier Club assembled in the 1920s and 1930 by Melbert B. Cary, Jr. (owner of Continental Typefounders Association and proprietor of the private Press of the Woolly Whale), an interesting figure in his own right. (David Pankow's article in APHA journal Printing History no. 37, described Cary's unsuccessful attempt to challenge the ATF monopoly in the US.) Cary collected imprints of Goudy's private Village Press, as well as smoke proofs, some punches and patterns. I'm preparing a new collection inventory and expect to publish an article in the Gazette of the Grolier Club. The year 2003 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Village Press.
I'm also reading widely in historical literature on printing, twentieth century fine presses, editing (documentary and literary), calligraphy, and historical typography. Burgeoning digital type design, rather like the flowering of photo composition typefaces between 1960-1985, seems more interested in novelty than function or utility. A good deal of this interest is generated by advertising needs (grabbing attention, titillating), rather than pedagogical or aesthetic concerns. Technology seems to attract a lot of experimentation, whether the introduction of lithography and wood type in the early nineteenth century, or the onset of machine setting in the early twentieth and offset lithography in the post-war era. Awareness of the past shouldn't shackle us to older type and typographic styles, but it might make us more sensitive.
My non-scholarly research relates mostly to technical issues (web accessibility and standards), printing history and fine presses, letter press printing (with foundry or digital type) and collecting. Less intense has been reading and thinking about the work and roles of non-profits and foundations in society. My current collecting interest is stereocard architectural views of New York City, general views of the lower Hudson (focused on the Palisades of New Jersey and some town views of Westchester County), and Ithaca, N.Y. Links, intended mostly for myself or friends, on tech issues are gathered here, while my stereocard links are here.
I currently serve as President of the American Printing History Association (APHA, 2008- ), and manage(d) its website (1999-Dec 2008), www.printinghistory.org. From 2004-2007 I served as APHA's Vice-President for Programs. I was chair of its Programs and Internet Communications Committees and helped organize its New York conference in 2008, Delaware conference in 2004, oversaw the 2007 conference at UCLA and the 2005 conference in Oakland, CA, helped with local arrangements in its 2003 conference at the Grolier Club of New York, and arranged for the annual Lieberman Lectures by John Downer at the Newberry Library (2004, held in 2005), by Richard-Gabriel Rummonds at the University of San Francisco (2005), Henry Morris at Princeton University (2006) and Sue Allen at the Grolier Club (2007). From 2002-2004, I wasVice-President for Membership. The world wide web is both a challenge and opportunity to bookish organizations like APHA.
In other non-professional volunteer work, I organized a well-received symposium on fine printing at the Grolier Club in 2006 with John Randle (Whittington Press), Mark Dimunation (Library of Congress), Jerry Kelly (Kelly/Winterton Press) and Robert Fleck (Oak Knoll Books); the discussion was published in the Grolier Gazette in 2007. In May 2004 I organized a bibliophile tour of New York for the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), arranged tours for the Society of Typographic Aficionados in New York in July 2005 (and helped give the tours, as necessary), and sometimes volunteer at the Center for Book Arts. I am also active at New York's esteemed bibliophilic organization, the Grolier Club (Committees on Modern Fine Printing and Publications), and try to lend a hand to the Typophiles. With a hand in so many organizations, I've sometimes helped organize events which more than one will co-sponsor: it's one way to spread money around.
On an experimental basis, I've started group pages for APHA on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Since December 2002 I served as co-moderator for the PPletterpress (mostly Photopolymer printing, but any experimental letterpress techniques) and the now-defunct FinePressBook (affiliated with the Fine Press Book Association), both at Yahoo Groups. APHA's Board has a private Listserv for discussion between quarterly meetings, but I've wanted something for members. So, I have been working with Gerald Lange (Bieler Press) on a listserv dedicated to Printing History. The LETPRESS listserv (amateur letterpress printers) is too loose and undisciplined (and sometimes vituperative) for my taste, although I think it will remain an important resource for practical printers. I've created a short list of printing-related listservs of interest of APHAns online.
Web and internet experience (from Gilder Lehrman and APHA) proved useful, also, in advising related organizations like SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship Reading and Publishing), about domains and hosting.
I helped manage and/or edit a number of Gilder Lehrman Institute publications from 1997 to 2001. Many wre listed on the on this page (link via Internet Archive), under the imprint of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
In addition to the Gilder Lehrman Collection and American Printing History Association websites, mentioned above, I also worked directly or indirectly on the following online projects.
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