The "Finding A Home For My Guillotine Papercutter" Story

Letterpress printing stands along North Queen Street.

It was an ordinary day.  Parked the car in the parking garage and headed to the 300 block of North Queen Street in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania to visit the 7th Annual Lancaster Printer's Fair.  The fair is meant to bring to life the art of letterpress printing which has a long and storied history in Lancaster.  Ben Franklin and his partner James Chattin founded the New Printing Office in Lancaster in 1751.  Franklin moved back to Philadelphia a short time after, but the office remained open and was the start in 1754 of a successful run under William Dunlap.  One of the main reasons I decided to go to the fair was to visit the .918 Club and the Heritage Press Museum which is in the 300 block of North Queen Street.  

Items needed to print on the letter press are:  metal frame
called a chase, hand-set type in the center of the chase,
wooden blocks called furniture around the type and held in
place with metal pieces called quoins.  Also can be seen are:
key (left center) to turn the quoins and a metal job stick with
hand-set metal type in it. (top center)

The Museum was founded in 2004 and attracts tourists from all over the world.  While there you can participate in a live printing operation and see how letterpress printing took place long ago.  I entered the Museum and instantly recognized the smell of printer's ink.  Some of you may recall that I have written many times about teaching high school graphic arts, or printing, for over 30 years.  When I first began teaching my shop had two full sized hand-operated platen presses and a few table-top platen presses.  My students would have to set type by hand, place the set type in a square metal frame called a chase and lock it in place using different sizes of wood called furniture by using metal locking devices called quoins.

Mike operates the letterpress.

That all was done of a metal "stone" call the composing stone.   The chase would then be placed in the inked press and paper would be hand-fed, one piece at a time.  The hands-on experience was a remarkable way to teach the art of typesetting and printing to high school students.  And...they loved it!  Eventually letterpress began to wain when offset printing became popular.  The two floor model letterpresses were eventually given to the museum after it opened in 2004.  Wasn't long before I found my way to the area where the presses and composing stone was located and I found Mike talking to a visitor of the museum.  After helping him print a few items, he turned his attention to me.  A big smile told me he remembered me from the past.  Mike taught Graphic Arts in York, Pennsylvania about the same time I was teaching at Manheim Township High School.  

The guillotine paper cutter I will
donate to the .918 club in the future.

We talked about the equipment they had and I then offered to donate my guillotine paper cutter when I no longer need it.  I still do the in-house printing for the school district and still need the cutter which sits in my garage.  Why it's in my garage is a story for another time.  Mike found Ken, another Graphic Arts teacher from Octorara High School and I told them about the cutter and they both agreed they would be glad to come and get it when I was ready to give it up.  I often thought about joining them someday and use my knowledge of letterpress printing once again to tell how "it used to be way back then."  When I returned home I looked at both of the guy's business cards they handed me and thought how neat it would be to be a "Master Printer & Printer in Residence."  Maybe sometime soon?  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS.  If you are wondering what .918 means, it is the height of a piece of type from the face of the letter to the bottom on the piece of type in inches.

Outside the Museum in Lancaster, PA

This year's program booklet for the Printer's Fair.