Feeling nostalgic for 2nd century B.C.? Wondering on what material the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights were written? Look no further than Baker Library’s Book Arts Workshop, where Jesse Meyer, founder of parchment making business Pergamena, will lead a hands-on parchment making event, “Skins to Draw On,” tomorrow.
Many people confuse parchment — writing material derived from animal skin, often from a calf, sheep or goat — with paper, which is made from wood pulp, Meyer said.
But parchment is actually stretched animal skin, Meyer said, adding that he enjoys leading hands-on, intimate demonstrations for that reason.
“To be able to see the transformation from a really putrid, stretchy, squishy, very disgusting, smelly animal skin to a nice, finished, refined, luminescent piece of parchment, to show people exactly how it gets to this finished point is invaluable,” Meyer said.
Meyer created Pergamena in 1999 as an offshoot of his family’s tannery business, Richard E. Meyer & Sons. Meyer’s ancestors began tanning in 1550 in Eisenberg, Germany. The business moved to the U.S. around 1830 and ultimately settled in the Hudson River Valley in New York, the company’s current home.
Meyer, who worked for the family tannery during his spare time through high school and college, became interested in parchment after he graduated from college.
“At a certain point, I saw that there were a few artists that have used animal skins in one capacity or the other, and I thought that I could do the same thing,” Meyer said.
He learned that although parchment as a material had been around for a long time and has many uses, few American artists worked with it.
“It was a lost art, if you want to call it art,” Meyer said. “I had the materials and the facility at my disposal. I was learning as I went that there wasn’t anyone else doing it, so you put all that together and I decided, ‘Okay, I would make a sideline business doing this as a complement with whatever work I was doing at the tannery.’”
The word “pergamena” means parchment in Italian, and was named after the city-state of Pergamon in present-day Turkey, where animal skins became the preferred writing material, surpassing papyrus in popularity.
History professor Richard Kremer, who teaches courses on the history of science, medicine and technology, said that paper ultimately surpassed parchment in usage due to the fact that it was cheaper.
“You can only get so many pieces of parchment out of one animal,” Kremer said. “If you use paper you can make your books cheaper, but they won’t look as nice. So the real fancy books are often times done on parchment.”
Kremer said he looks forward to attending the workshop and learning more about parchment making. Parchment making, like printing, cooking and other activities, must be learned by doing, not by reading, he said.
“There’s a whole set of skills using your hands, which is called tacit knowledge,” Kremer said. “[It] is knowledge that is not written down anywhere but you have to know.”
Meyer’s event is the first Book Arts Workshop class of the term and will take place in Baker Library room 21 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The workshop will hold orientation sessions throughout the term to teach participants how to work the letterpress, in addition to classes on printing, design, bookbinding, illustration and paper-making. Book Arts Workshop instructor Sarah Smith said that there will also be workshops on pamphlet, journal and calendar making.
An October 7 event co-hosted by Rauner Special Collections Library will showcase some of the library’s journals and sketchbooks.
“One thing I’m trying to do this year is have all the workshops revolve around the idea of journals and sketchbooks — not just the blank books, but also what you can do with them inside,” Smith said.
