I can only be there on the opening day, Friday 13 June. I will be not only there for my own benefit, fellowship and education, but also to Represent the Florida Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts.
The following is a link to download the itinerary for AAPA Tampa 2008:
http://www.gjohanson.com/Homesite/other/AAPA.pdf
A few other items concerning the studio at my home, which is the adjunct printing operation for the Settlement, "G. Johanson, Settlement Printer". Finding myself somewhat short of wider 60, 50, 40 & 30 pica furniture, I decided to rip my own from a well seasoned board of Red Oak. Generally, the table saw did a pretty good job. I may need to do some sanding, but basically I have all the furniture I need, now. Next thing is to build a cabinet to hold it all.
I also picked up some more speed quoins and some of the old wedge types, with proper Key. Located my old ornament and Monogram fonts which I ordered from Quaker City back in 1991, plus my monotype floral cap fonts.
I have, still tied up and unsorted, 10 pt Caslon OS, with Italics and archaic letter and ligature sorts. All awaiting the addition of a nice Type cabinet with maybe ten drawers. I may have to make the cabinet myself since discretionary spending is locked in an iron lung these days. These O.S. Caslon fonts were ordered about five years ago from M&H, which also supplied fonts for Colonial Williamsburg, from what I understand. In my mind, the golden age of Book Arts peaked sometime in the late 1700's, before the introduction of wood pulp, lignin and tannic acids to the paper making process, so I had to have at least one 18th Century bookfont!
I hope to reproduce pages from Dr. Samuel Stearn's "American Herbal" using this font. I have an original copy of this book, it is the very first Materia Medica ever published in the brand new United States of America. There is considered to be less than ten exemplary copies of this book in existence according to ABS, the folks at the Travelling Road show indicate only three, mine being one. So it is not only a very rare volume, but also a very historic one as well.
The presence of this book is little known, and even less is known about the Author, Dr. Samuel Stearns, who also produced America's first nautical almanac from British Occupied New York during the American Revolutionary War. I have been researching the good Dr, with the help of the Brattleboro Historical Society, for about ten years now. A very interesting, albeit tragic story. I would like to research the printer of this book, too, a Mr. David Carlisle of Wapole, Vermont.
My reproductions would not be identical, but will include woodcuts, unlike the original. There would be only one item per page, and I would select only the items fairly well known by 21st Century readers, like the Coffee Plant or Hemp (Cannibis, "worthy of further study") or the Cure for Cancer, in which Dr. Stearns describes what appears to be a white radish applied as a poultice "which affected a complete cure" of breast cancer. In 1801!
That's it for now. I'll try not to take so long between entries, but so few folks are reading this that I am probably not particularly noticed.
Gary Johanson
Settlement Printer
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