Innovative Programming and Spaces
Book Arts & Letterpress Lab
Launched in March 2024, the Book Arts & Letterpress Lab gives students and faculty access to printmaking and letterpress equipment to support their creative and scholarly endeavors. Areas of support for the lab include:
- Annual printing supplies (inks and papers) $1,000
- Tools for book arts, book binding, and book making $1,000
(This gift allows us to acquire a wide range of tools needed for book making and binding such as awls, book sewing needles and thread, cutting mats, rulers, teardown bars, and sewing frames)
- Tools for letterpress printing $1,000
(This gift allows us to acquire a wide range of tools and equipment needed to support printing projects such as- ink rollers (these rollers continuously spread and smooth out the ink on the inking disk of platen presses)
- ink brayers (for hand rolling ink onto printing forms)
- chases (metal frames that hold the print forms together on presses
- composing sticks (tool for building lines of text of moveable type)
- stone (smooth and level surface for composing the print form)
- quoins and keys (devices for tightening print forms and holding them in place)
- rule cutter (tool for cutting metal strips that frame metal type and separate lines of text)
- tweezers (used for picking up tiny metal type)
- gauges (to check proper height of ink rollers)
- Wood type specimens $2,000 *
(Complete sets of letters/numbers for letterpress printing made of wood and usually much larger than metal type. Used for printing broadsides and posters, wood type is specially made of end-grain hard woods for endurance, strength, and rigidity and range in size from letters that are a couple inches to a foot tall!)
- Metal and wood furniture and cabinet $2,000 *
(Furniture consists of blocks in a wide variety of sizes necessary to secure the type in the printing process. The cabinet holds ordered and measured sized of furniture.)
- Tabletop presses and small proofing presses $3,000 *
(tabletop portable presses for smaller print projects and small proofing presses for press education activities and first drafts of printing projects)
- Type cabinets $5,000 *
(specialized cabinets with drawers for storing moveable wood and metal type organized by font and size)
- Historical platen jobber press $6,000 **
(historical press from the late 18th/ early 19th century demonstrating early automation practices and technology in printing history)
- Vandercook proofing press $15,000 **
(important style of press in 20th/21st century book arts and fine press creation)
- Historical iron hand press $15,000 **
(historically important press in printing history the late 18th/ early 19th century)
- Lab expansion project $50,000 **
(This gift will allow us to expand teaching and learning spaces to accommodate more and larger classes and workshops as well as provide space needed for all areas of creative practice in the book arts)
- 5-year start-up costs $100,000 **
(This gift would allow sustainable support for materials and equipment for the lab)
* Donor acknowledgement of project support (letterpress printed poster for donor and copy displayed in the lab)
** Private small-group lab experience for donor and friends along with donor acknowledgement (letterpress printed poster for donor and copy displayed in the lab)
Gifts to the Dean's Excellence Fund - designated to the Letterpress Lab - will directly support these projects and materially contribute to the operation and success of this exciting new area of Libraries scholarship!
Other Programming and Spaces Opportunities
The University Libraries lead with innovative programming and engaging spaces designed to enrich the scholarly pursuits of the Baylor University community. Your giving in these categories supports our efforts to bring engaging, impactful speakers and programs to campus, and to create innovative, research-focused spaces for the benefit of students, faculty, and researchers.
Some potential projects to fund in this category include:
- Converting existing classrooms spaces into active learning classrooms similar to Moody 104
- Building a digital scholarship hub in Moody Memorial Library as a physical (and philosophical) home for DS activities on campus