Yesterday, the Baylor University Libraries Book Arts and Letterpress Lab welcomed its newest addition to press family, a Washington style standing iron press from 1870 made by R. Hoe & Co. (New York/London). This press came to us by way of Steve Robinson of Letterpreservation in Indiana. According to documentation accompanying the press, it was used to publish the Spanish-language daily newspaper El Cronista del Valle (The Chronicler of the Valley) in Brownsville, Texas (which according to other sources, began publication in 1917 with extant issues possibly only from 1924, and 1927-30?). The same document – apparently from a publication at the University of Texas (for which I’m still trying to confirm a citation) – indicates that this press was purchased by Bishop’s Print Shop in Brownsville in 1915 “to use as a proof press in his commercial print shop.” It also notes that the press was used to produce El Cronista del Valle “for many years” prior to mentioning Bishop’s acquisition of the press creating some vagueness about the timeline. At first I took that to mean that the paper used it prior to Bishop but if indeed the paper began in 1917, would mean that it was used for that publication while in Bishop’s Print Shop unless there are issues with the reported timeline and chain of custody. Apparently the press was then acquired in 1944 by the University Library at the University of Texas at Austin. I’m not sure of it’s story from that point until 1979, when then Associate Professor Don Davis of the Graduate School of Library Science at UT wrote to the director of the UT Printing Division, Walter Neal, stating that “The library school presently has an early Hoe hand press and we are in the process of establishing a small laboratory press for student use.” He then went on to inquire if the Printing Division could loan the Graduate School of Library Science the necessary equipment and supplies for this lab. This letter provides a clear window into this press’s history as well as a personal connection for me as a graduate of that program.* Even more interesting to me is knowing that this press was connected to the library at UT and was being used to create a lab for students and now, 45 years later, the same press is starting a new, similar chapter at the Baylor Libraries. I’m still working on the press’s story between this letter in 1979 and its journey to Indiana before arriving back in the heart of Texas this week. Stay tuned!
* The University of Texas’s Graduate School of Library Science was founded in 1948. In 1980, the name was changed to Graduate School of Library and Information Science and then again, shortly after I graduated in 2000, to the School of Information.
