Fritz Klinke asks: Can you spot R.O. Vandercook? Oakland Auditorium, home to 57 Grateful Dead concerts, also showed printing stuff. Probably 1920s. (Courtesy of NA Graphics)
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Biographical sketches
Newly Discovered Vandercook Portraits
Recently, I acquired some Vandercook materials that had belonged to David Dodge Vandercook (1901–1975), who was Vice President of Engineering and Board Secretary for Vandercook & Sons. He was the second son of company founder Robert O. Vandercook (1866–1951). The company frequently used the portrait of R.O. Vandercook (above left) in promotional literature, but apparently, […]
MoreMore TagBasil Head, 1924 – 2019
Basil Charles Head 23 March 1924 – 25 April 2019 We are greatly saddened to learn of the death of our dear friend and colleague Basil Head, on 25 April 2019. Upon leaving school, Basil worked and trained at a machine tool company that was contracted to manufacture two hundred letterpress proof presses by an […]
MoreMore TagStauffacher at age 95
Jack Werner Stauffacher, a San Francisco typographer and printer, is still at his work at age 95. Pino Trogu, who is an Assistant Professor of Information Design at San Francisco State University, keeps me updated on Jack’s activities. Pino worked with Jack with a project yesterday on Jack’s SP-15 and the attached photo shows Jack […]
MoreMore TagFerdinand Wesel
Ferdinand Wesel (1846-1912) was the founder of the F. Wesel Manufacturing Company, which among other equipment, made some of the first flatbed cylinder proof presses. Born in Frankfurt A.M., he learned the printing-machinery trade, as The Inland Printer once put it, “in the thorough manner characteristic of his countrymen.” In 1866, he emigrated to New York and […]
MoreMore TagO.C. Geffken
Otto C. Geffken (1901–71) was an engineer at Vandercook & Sons and is named in at least one patent. The card, set in Kaufmann Bold and Stymie, is ca. 1938. Geffken appears in catalogs and model brochures of the era such as this one at right. (R.L. Pelland, another engineer, is believed to be second from the left).
MoreMore TagL.W. Claybourn
Leslie William “Lex” Claybourn (1883–1956) was a printing process pioneer who was issued over 200 U.S. patents. Like Horace Hacker and R.O. Vandercook, Claybourn worked to improve photoengraving and process plates and to reduce makeready. In 1921, he established Claybourn Process Corp. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which made, among other machines, a multicolor press that printed […]
MoreMore TagR.O.’s big bike ride
On her website historian Erin F.H. Hughes summarizes R.O. Vandercook’s 1892 bicycle ride through Yellowstone National Park in Vandercook’s High Wheeling Trip West.
MoreMore TagFAG proof press webpage / www.proofpress.ch
Dear Vandercook friends, After consultation with Paul Moxon I am happy to announce that the new FAG proof press platform www.proofpress.ch is online! I’ve been working closely with the archive at FAG Lausanne, Switzerland for more than one year (still in progress…) The webpage is meant to share information about all FAG letterpress cylinder proof […]
MoreMore TagThree Generations of Lee at Challenge Machinery
From its founding and through several decades, the Lee family ran the Challenge Machinery Company. Challenge, which began as the successor to Shniedewend & Lee, became one of the largest printing equipment manfacturers with a wide range of products. Among their many innovations were the first paper drilling machine, the first hydraulic paper cutter and […]
MoreMore TagA.F. Wanner
Andrew Franklin Wanner (1855–1935) was a typefounder and the proprietor of A.F. Wanner & Co. a printing supplier and press manufacturer in Chicago. Today the company is remembered as the original maker of Potter and Poco proof presses. It was also one of the earliest selling agents for Vandercook. In 1867, Wanner moved to Chicago […]
MoreMore TagHorace W. Hacker
Horace Wardner Hacker (1879–1968) was the founder of the Hacker Manufacturing Co. in Chicago, which made plate gauges, and test presses that featured reciprocating beds with stationary carriages. Hacker held 14 U.S. Patents for various gauges and press mechanisms (and four later patents unrelated to printing). Like R.O. Vandercook, he was a proponent of pressroom […]
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