Down in the Baker basement, there is a world where letters have lives.
Collectively, the Book Arts Studios " the Letter Press Studio, where printing is done and the Open Bindery, where books are made " are preserving the historical life of bookmaking.
"If you're going to understand the history of books, if you're going to really appreciate the beauty of fine books, you need to learn how to print books yourself," Phil Cronenwett, the Rauner Special Collections Librarian in charge of the Book Arts budget, said.
The Letter Press Studio is an icy blue room with a border of woodcuts stained blue, black, red or green, with the residue of continued inking lining the studio underneath high windows facing up into the tracery of winter branches.
There are miniature drawers of engravings and fonts with pigeon-holed compartments used for each specifc letter and mark of punctuation.
The oiled machinery blackly shines, waiting for the turn of a wheel or the shift of a lever to move into the exactitude necessary for printing.
The Book Arts Studios "give students a window into how printing used to be done," student user William Raynolds '04 said.
It is also a way to produce a frameable excerpt of poetry or prose.
"It's a very holistic approach to creative writing," Cronenwatt said.
Printing "gives you this entrance to the poem when you take these words one by one," Hamlin said.
The Letter Press and its sister studio, the Open Bindery, are the Book Arts facilities at Dartmouth College.
The Letter Press Studio was founded by Dartmouth professor Ray Nash in 1935, but it was abandoned after his retirement in 1970.
It was reinstated in 1989 with the help of concerned community members Edward Lathem '51, Mark Landsbery and Roderick "Rocky" Stinehour, 20 years later, in the studio's original room.
Unfortunately, printing classes are no longer offered at Dartmouth because the craft of printing "doesn't fall within one department," Louise Hamlin, the advisor to the Letter Press Studio, said.
William Raynolds '04 used the Letter Press Studio for a first-year summer research project on the Koran and moveable type. Due to Raynolds' investigation, Dartmouth now owns printed copies of the Koran as well as a set of Arabic moveable type.
"I certainly encourage all those Arabic students out there now to use it, Raynolds said."
Also using the printshop are Sheridan Fox '03 and Jessica Tam '03, who are jointly writing and illustrating a children's book.
Printmaking student Emily Brown '03 is using the studio to print a selection of psalms, something she has always wanted to do, according to Hamlin.
These students are following in the footsteps of Amanda Peters '94, who wrote a Master of Liberal Studies paper on "Letterpress and The Byte: The Making of Memory--A Trope."
The Letter Press Studio, where the printing takes place, is open Monday and Tuesday, from 6 to 9 p.m.
