The Baskerville typeface is familiar to billions of readers and users of standard computer software across the world. However, the story behind its creation by John Baskerville (1707-75) is much less widely known. This is despite the fact that he was England's foremost printer, and what he called his "small performances" in typeface design "went forth to astonish all librarians of Europe". From a broader perspective, printing is recognised as the invention of the millennium, and a democratiser of knowledge - and yet it remains ubiquitous but invisible, and how it happens is not generally known. This talk presents a new, interdisciplinary project which seeks to make a substantial contribution to the history of printing technology, while ensuring this is a living process that will continue. At its heart is the exceptional collection of typographic punches designed, cut, and used at Baskerville's workshop in Birmingham, which are now held at Cambridge University Library. Individually engraved in steel, punches were the first of three stages in the manufacturing of metal type - one that posed challenges in both materials and design - and therefore they preserve otherwise inaccessible information that can be unlocked through scientific study.
Caroline Archer-Parré is Professor of Typography, Co-director of the Centre for Printing History and Culture at Birmingham City University, and Chairman of the Baskerville Society. With an interest in typographic history from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, Caroline has published widely. She is the author of three books, including The Kynoch Press 1876-1981: the anatomy of a printing house (British Library, 2000), Tart Cards: London’s illicit advertising art (MBP, 2003) and Paris Underground (MBP, 2005). With Malcolm Dick she has co-edited John Baskerville: Art and Industry of the Enlightenment (Liverpool University Press, 2017) and James Watt, 1736-1819: Culture, Innovation and Enlightenment (Liverpool University Press, 2020). She contributes to numerous journals and writes regularly for the trade and academic press.
Ann-Marie Carey is Associate Professor in the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University. The duality of craftsmanship and technology is a constant thread in Ann-Marie’s research and brings a subject-specific perspective to the examination and interpretation of artefacts and their production. The combination of craft, technical and academic expertise has been particularly appropriate in the heritage sector. Ann-Marie has worked with Birmingham Museums Trust and the Museum of London (MoL) utilising craftsmanship expertise to deconstruct and recreate heritage artefacts led to a significant contribution to ‘The Cheapside Hoard: London’s Lost Jewels’ exhibition (2013-14): the most successful exhibition in MoL’s history.
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