History Expo at the Old Mint: We WERE There!

Lisa and Gary at the APHA/Book Arts & Special Collections table

This year for the first time, Book Arts & Special Collections joined the SF History Center at the Old Mint to celebrate San Francisco history at the SF History Expo. We partnered with APHA NorCal (the American Printing History Association) and brought along our little Golding Official printing press.

Rose printing for the first time

All day long, on both Saturday and Sunday, people of all ages tried their hand at letterpress printing and everyone enjoyed the experience.  

Rosa and Eli printing for the very first time

We gathered names for our mailing list, collected ideas for how to capture the history of San Francisco's printing industry, and mostly just couldn't stop talking with all the history buffs. It was amazing how many people mentioned studying letterpress printing at their junior or high school: Presidio Middle School and John O' Connell grads were heavily represented.

Handcrafted steampunk camera

Our most curious visitor was a young "steampunk" enthusiast who loved our printing press. We loved his beautiful hand-crafted box camera (disguising an old Polaroid inside) which he used to snap a photo of us.

Sutro Baths bathing beauties

Of course the other big hit of the day was at our neighbor's table which was staffed by our colleagues in the San Francisco History Center. They offered a photo-opportunity to pose as a Sutro Baths bathing beauty. People couldn't wait to have their souvenir photo taken.

It was a great event and we're already looking forward to next year's History Expo.