Printing History and Culture – serie

The provincial newspaper was read by peers, politicians and the proletariat alike. It is striking, however, how limited a range of newspapers and journals are offered for analysis in most historical studies of the political media in modern Britain. The predominance of the London political press and Punch in academic discourse appears to derive largely from the easy availability of these papers and journals to modern scholars rather than their actual distribution and popularity. Consequently, there has been hitherto a distinct lack of attention given to the British regional press by historians. This collection aims to correct this imbalance by investigating the development, maturation and persistence of the provincial political press in the British Isles in the modern era. Chapters covering aspects of the Irish, Yorkshire, Welsh, Scottish and Midlands political press are included to ensure a representative geographical spread of provincial Britain. These chapters cover previously neglected aspects of print culture, political literacy and reading practices across the regions of Britain in the late eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to offer an introduction to research in this burgeoning field of study.

The global history of text-based communication constitutes a particularly exciting facet of material culture, given the myriad ways in which its production, transmission, and consumption has been – and continues to be – accomplished across cultural and political boundaries. However, a critical engagement with script and print outside the western world has remained relatively limited to summaries and generalisations, despite a burgeoning interest in the interrelated areas of printing, publishing, design, and type histories. The time is long overdue for these narratives relating to the material production of text to expand, and address the rich variation and particularity of global practices. Covering a variety of scripts and linguistic contexts, this volume explores the plurality of historical and contemporary engagements with, and interpretations of the printed and written word in various artefacts, printing technologies, and writing systems. Part of the Printing History and Culture series by the Centre for Printing History and Culture, this book presents critical perspectives and fresh approaches toward the study of the visual and material aspects of print in diverse linguistic environments – whether handwritten, lithographed, typographically printed, or digitally manifested.

This edited volume provides an opportunity to take a fresh look at the printed material often regarded as disposable by its contemporaries and, until recently, as unworthy of serious academic research. From the fifteenth century to the twentieth century, this volume not only demonstrates the wide variety of ephemeral publications which have survived to the present day, but also shows how they can be used to interpret history and printing history and culture in particular. Some of the forms of printed ephemera discussed will be familiar to scholars such as chapbooks and commercially-printed posters whilst others, such as papal indulgences and bellman’s sheets are more unusual. The collection discusses the production, distribution and consumption of ephemera, including how it can be used demonstrate changes to print culture over time. This volume aims to demonstrate that printed ephemera, in its many and varied forms, is worthy of serious academic study.

Women in Print is a collection of essays in two related volumes which considers the diversity of roles occupied by women in the design, authorship, production, distribution and consumption of printed material from the fifteenth century onwards.　The contributions included in Women in Print 2 cover the whole of the «letterpress era» in Europe from the early fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. The essays address three themes: the role of women in the production of print; in its distribution; in addition to some neglected areas of women’s consumption of print.To a greater extent the participation of women in the production and distribution of print has been written by the men who dominated the trade. Women in Print 2 explores the often-overlooked contribution to the business aspects of the printing and publishing industries, particularly female involvement in roles that were customarily seen as male preserves. This collection of essays brings together insights from multiple perspectives, seeking to recover the unheard voices and hitherto unnoticed activities of the many women who participated in the production, distribution and consumption of the printed word and image.

Women in Print is a collection of essays in two related volumes which considers the diversity of roles occupied by women in the design, authorship, production, distribution and consumption of printed material from the thirteenth century onwards.　Women in Print I: Design and Identities demonstrates women’s multi-layered contribution to design, printing and publishing history through eleven case studies of women artists, compositors, editors, engravers, photographers, printers, publishers, scribes, stationers, typesetters, widows in business, and writers. It offers an examination of women as active participants and contributors in the many and varied aspects of design and print culture, including the production of illustrations, typefaces, periodical layouts, photographic prints and bound volumes.　Women have often participated in design and print culture throughout history, yet their impact has typically been neglected and undervalued, or deliberately obscured from historical accounts. This collection of essays covers, and recovers, the lives and work of women in print, emphasizing how their contributions brought positive change not only to the industries they contributed to, but also to the wider social and cultural settings of their time.

Letterpress Printing: Past, Present, Future brings together scholars, curators, collectors and printers to assess the current state of letterpress printing. It acknowledges the decline of letterpress as a commercial printing technique and considers the risks this poses for letterpress’s future. However, in describing the many uses to which letterpress is put and the diverse communities of printers who still work with it, the book celebrates the tenacity of letterpress as a process which continues to thrive despite such challenges. Letterpress Printing examines the continuing life of letterpress and applauds its revival through describing the circumstances in which it flourishes and the many ways it is now used. By setting this revival in the context of its ostensible decline, the book sets out the ways in which current practice draws upon and preserves the history of printing while taking it in new and unexpected directions.