The Printing Historical Society or 'PHS' is a learned society devoted to the study of the history of

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

, in all its forms.

History

The Society was founded in London in 1964 by a group of teachers, scholars, students of design and bibliography, librarians, professional printers and amateur enthusiasts, notably

James Mosley James Mosley (born 1935) is a retired librarian and historian whose work has specialised in the history of printing and letter design. The main part of Mosley's career has been 42 years as Librarian of the St Bride Printing Library in London, wher ...

, James Moran,

John Dreyfus John G. Dreyfus (15 April 1918 – 29 December 2002) was a British book designer and historian of printing who worked for Cambridge University Press and the Monotype printing company. He was also president of the ATypI trade association. ''Into P ...

, Michael Turner,

Berthold Wolpe Berthold Ludwig Wolpe (29 October 1905 – 5 July 1989) was a German calligrapher, typographer, type designer, book designer and illustrator. He was born into a Jewish family at Offenbach near Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfu ...

, David Chambers and

Michael Twyman Michael Twyman (born 1934) is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. He joined the university staff in 1959. He established a BA (Hons) course in Typography & Graphic Communicati ...

. At the time, and to some degree ever since, the PHS had close connections with the

St Bride Library St Bride Library (formerly known as St Bride Printing Library and St Bride Typographical Library) is a library in London primarily devoted to printing, book arts, typography and graphic design. The library is housed in the St Bride Foundation I ...

(then called the St Bride Printing Library) and the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. The PHS was the first society to be instituted specifically for the study of printing history, and has been followed by several others, notably the

American Printing History Association American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Aims

The aims of the PHS are stated to be 'to foster an interest in the history of printing and encourage both the study and the preservation of printing machinery, records, and equipment of historical value'. In 2016 it subsumed the National Printing Heritage Trust, and added to its aims to raise funds to preserve printing equipment and archives, and to lobby for the creation of a national printing museum for the U.K.

Publications

Since its inception, the PHS has produced a series of scholarly publications which are available to members, and often also to the general public. An occasional monograph series has included reprints of works and specimens of historical significance, as well as original books on printing type,

printing presses A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

, lithographic printers and other aspects of the discipline. In 2015 the Society issued ''An epitome of the history of printing in sixteen leaves'' as a keepsake for its fiftieth anniversary (which included pages printed by all the main reproductive processes, from woodcut to digital) and a special number of the PHS ''Journal''.''Journal of the Printing Historical Society'' n.s. 21 (2014). The ''Journal'' was originally issued annually and latterly published twice a year, has a good reputation for learning, originality, accuracy and detail, and for the reproduction of specimens of historical printing processes and documents. The Society has also published a ''Bulletin'' and, after 2000, joined with the Friends of St Bride and the National Printing Heritage Trust in issuing the quarterly ''Printing history news'' (edited by Paul W. Nash 2005-2015 and Ken Burnley 2015 onwards). The ''Journal'' has had a series of distinguished editors and guest-editors, including Mosley, Twyman, Margaret M. Smith, Richard Lawrence and John Trevitt. It has been edited by Paul W. Nash since 2014.

References

External links

Printing Historical Society
{{Authority control 1964 establishments in the United Kingdom Historical societies of the United Kingdom Printing Organizations established in 1964 Industrial history of the United Kingdom

History

Aims

Publications

See also

References

External links