Vandercook Yearly Highlights - vandercookpress.info

Vandercook History Time Line

Year	Event
1909	First proof press, the Rocker series.
1910	Composing Room series and Roller series.
1914	Serial numbers added. First custom offset proof press.
1918	Vandercook & Sons, incorporated in Chicago.
1925	No. 119 Proving Machine, first with power inking assembly.
1927	No. 219 Proving Machine, first with auto mask tower.
1928	Factory built at 904 N. Kilpatrick Avenue, Chicago.
1929	Nos. 01, 03, and 099 Office Presses.
1931	No. 325A, first power carriage press. No. 3 proof press.
1935	No. 4 Proving Machine. Handy Lockup Bar.
1936	No. 427, a four-color system comprising four presses.
1938	Hacker Manufacturing Co. purchased. Vandercook School of Proving established.
1943	Military parts made during World War II.
1947	No. 604 High-Speed Four-Color Proof Press.
1948	Nos. 32-28 and 42-28 for one and two-color work.
1949	Vandercook Research Inc. created. Pre-Press System Introduced. New Style 219, first with an adjustable bed.
1951	British firms licensed to manufacture presses. Military parts made during Korean War. R.O. Vandercook, 84, dies.
1953	1953 New manufacturing plant at 3601 W. Touhy Avenue, Chicago.
1955	1955 No. 15-21. Positive Lockup Bar. Minimum Makeready System.
1957	1957 No. 30-26 High-Speed Double Four-Color Test Press.
1958	1958 Universal series test presses.
1960	1960 SP series repro presses.
1968	1968 Illinois Tool Works (ITW) buys Vandercook & Sons. RO4-29 Four-Color Offset Test Press.
1972	1972 ITW sells the company. New owner renames it Vandersons.
1974	1974 Vandersons stops making presses, sells parts and supplies.
1994	1994 Vandersons sold to Hal Sterne of NA Graphics, Cincinnati.
1996	1996 NA Graphics sold to Fritz Klinke, Silverton, Colorado.
2003	Vandercook website launched, now vandercookpress.info.
2009	Centenary of Vandercook proof presses celebrated.
2011	Vandercook Presses: Maintenance History and Resources, 1st ed.
2014	Vandercook Presses: Maintenance History and Resources, 2nd ed.
2018	Printing Digital Type on the Hand-Operated Flatbed Cylinder Press by Gerald Lange, 5th ed. Vandercook Presses: Maintenance History and Resources, 3rd ed.
2023	Growth of an Idea, Selected Writings on the Modern Proof Press by R.O. Vandercook. Edited and with a Foreword by Paul Moxon.
2025	Vandercook Presses: Maintenance History and Resources, 4th ed.
2027	The Vandercook Handbook, facsimile of a circa 1949 employee manual.