Richard Aldorasi presses several sheets' of the wet
linen paper at his mobile demonstration unit.
On the steel letterpress, type is locked in by blocks.
Each letter was hand set using a printing stick.
The title page for “Mar
tyrs Mirror” at the demon
stration at the Ephrata
Cloister.
Lancaster F^wig
All photos by
Andy Andrews, editor
The linen fibers are
“beaten to a pulp” the
origin of the phrase to
make paper in Colonial
times.
Cloister Visitors Learn Early
Bookmaking Was Done By Hand
ANDY ANDREWS
Editor
EPHRATA (Lancaster Co.)
For years, if you wanted to read
the good words, putting out
books was an arduous and in
volved process.
But even before there were the
“good words,” the material to
make paper had to be literally
“beaten to a pulp.”
Often it was the linen material
that early colonists could dredge
up, rip to shreds, and beat up
into little fibers to make paper.
The books we take for granted
every time we shop at a Borders
or Barnes and Noble bookstore
today printing tasks that have
gone computerized and com
pletely automated were actual
ly all done by hand hundreds of
years ago.
And the most popular place to
do it, at least up until the Revolu
tionary War, was the Ephrata
Cloister.
Demonstrations of early book
arts at the Cloister recently fo
cused on one of the nation’s
earliest publishing centers. The
demonstrations, “Paper, Ink,
Quill, and Press,” brought a few
hundred visitors to the Cloister to
look at what book publishing was
like 250 years ago.
At that time, according to Toni
Collins, historic site administra
tor, “Ephrata’s members were in
the midst of producing the larg
est book published in the Ameri
can colonies, and everyone plays
some role in the work.” The
1,500-page book, “Martyrs Mir
ror,” tells the story of early Chris
tian and Anabaptist martyrs
from the time of Christ until
1660.
A complete book, with a layer
of protective acetate at the Eph
rata Cloister site, is bound with
handmade linen paper and sewn
together and wrapped with hand
made tanned leather. The text
was printed in 1748. At the Clois
ter display was a “common
press,” made of wood, with a
double-pull platen, used to pro
duce copies of the book.
Demonstrator Dave Martin, a
retired Garden Spot High School
industrial arts teacher, also show
ed an early all-iron press, a Ra
mage Press from Philadelphia
dating back to the 1830 s. He
printed up a replica copy of a let
ter written by a soldier in the
Revolutionary War. The letter
expressed the soldier’s apprecia
tion for medical care he received
at the Cloister Hospital in 1777.
The press also printed sale
bills, deed certificates, baptismal
documents, and other records.
Ephrata Cloister, founded in
1732, was a protestant monastic
community of celibate Brothers
and Sisters supported by a mar
ried congregation who lived near
by. Members, mostly German im
migrants, sought spiritual goals
rather than earthly rewards.
They chose Saturday as their
main day of worship.
Members were housed in Ger
man-style buildings. Their celi
bate life included strict discipline
and self-denial. They were
known around the world for their
self-composed music, Germanic
calligraphy called Frakturschrif
ten (meaning “broken letter”),
and printing.
Demonstrator David Martin
noted that during the years be
fore the Revolutionary War, “the
printing was done on a ‘need-to
be’ basis in the colonies,” he said.
Though the “Martyrs Mirror”
was printed, the pages were
stored and bound only when cop
ies were ordered.
It was probably “the largest
book printed in Colonial Ameri
ca,” said Martin. The edition was
translated from the Dutch to
Dave Martin assembles
type onto a printing stick.
German also at the Cloister.
After the ink dried, the papers
were bunched in “signatures”
and tied together with linen by
hand. The ties were wrapped
through a piece of wood covered
by tanned leather, all produced at
the Cloister.
Early traditions of printing
mass-produced text began with
the Gutenberg Bible, fashioned
using methods borrowed from
wine presses. The wine press led
to some of the (as then modern
day) use of letter press. Individu
al pieces of type, or lettering,
were put together by hand on a
“printing stick.”
The printing trade craftsman
during the period leading up to
and beyond the Revolutionary
War in the late 18th century
could set the type “pretty fast” by
Gabrielle Brunner, 9, with her father, Steve, tries her
own hand with a quill pen during the Ephrata Cloister
demonstration.
hand, noted Martin. They mem
orized the position of each indi
vidual letter in the case, “like
keys on a typewriter,” he said. “It
was a skill you learned like any
skill, such as typing.”
The letters were mounted by
wooden wedges and locked in a
case. Paper was placed on a plat
en and, by hand, pressed into the
case. Out came the printed page,
which was literally hung up to
dry.
“Two guys could do about 2-3
copies (of the page) a minute,”
said Martin. The oil-based ink,
made along with the paper at the
Cloister, could also be printed on
the back of the pages.
The paper was made up of
pulped, pressed, and dried linen
fiber. The ink was made up of
linseed oil and lamp black. Flax
seed was pressed to yield the oil.
The lamp black was the black
soot from lamps.
From the printing industry
emerged individuals who created
type down through the years,
borrowing styles. One such
“font” maker was William Cas
lon, whose font, Caslon, remains
a legitimate type from England.
The basic procedures used to
set type were handed down from
those years until a few decades
ago, when “computers changed
the printing industry,” noted
Martin. It’s the same product,
though this time it “just became
mechanized.”
These days, however, some
hand-setting of type continues.
All of the Queen of England’s
speeches are still set letterpress
by hand.
Early book art also examined
how paper was produced. Rich
ard Aldorasi, of Philadelphia
Handmade Paper Company,
Morton, provided a mobile,
hands-on living history of paper
making during Colonial times.
Aldorasi noted that paper was
made by cloth for hundreds of
years, from 105 until 1850. Set
tlers would collect rags, tear and
beat them to a pulp, and, using
water, remold the fibers into
paper sheets.
The paper was 100 percent
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