Links and research guides (plus thoughts on stereotype printing)

Follow up materials from our discussion of image-making processes:

Bibliography of information on print making and printmakers:  http://archive.clarkart.edu/library/bibliographies/LibraryGuideARTH506.htm
The most important reference guide here is The Artists of the World : Bio-bibliographical Index

Another list of useful resources for identifying prints and printmakers, from the V&A:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/study-guide-prints-and-printmakers/

On stereotype printing

Several of us had a discussion last week about how to tell if a nineteenth or early 20th century book was printed with movable type or with stereotype plates. After investigating several authorities, I tend to side with Philip Gaskell in A New Introduction to Bibliography: "Stereotype plates, normally mounted and imposed as separate pages, were printed exactly like ordinary typeset pages, and it is usually hard to tell whether a particular book has been printed from type of plates" (204). The take away here: it's hard to tell.

That said, as we were discussing, if an early 20th century book has two different printers, one named on the title page, and one named on the final leaf of the book, this may suggest that you are looking at either 1. a later "edition" of the book (meaning the type has been reset) or 2. a later "impression" of the book (the copy was printed at a different time than the original impression of the book, but the type was not reset). If the book you are analyzing does not say it is a second, third etc. edition, but does have two distinct printers, it *may* be made from stereotype plates. This, however, is speculation since there does not appear to be any scholarship on this question. I will distribute some material from Gaskell in class on Thursday that might help us with this issue, and will send you an article by Michael Winship "Printing with Plates in the Nineteenth Century United States" when I receive it from ILL.

Guide for conducting research in literary studies:

A useful compilation of research guides, organizer by literary period, with links to web resources:
http://libguides.du.edu/c.php?g=90360&p=583464
If you scroll down in any of the individual pages, you will find links to online search engines for archival materials and manuscripts, among other useful information.