When All Else Fails:
Make It Work

by William Roger Muller
October 11 - November 1, 2013

When All Else Fails: Make It Work is an exhibition of artifacts and prints created in the letterpress studio of William Muller, founder of Big Wheel Press and The Hebrew Press.  Each work in the show was inspired by an item in the collection of Historic Northampton.  These historic artifacts include a 1930s pillbox hat, a still life painting by Charles C. Burleigh, Jr. (1848-1882), the Walter E. Corbin plot map of the Bridge Street Cemetery, an educational chart created by lecturer Anne Laura Clarke (1788-1861), a children’s chapbook printed in Northampton by J. H. Butler and a photograph of the Forbes Library taken by Edgar T. Scott (1858-1940) in 1900.  Muller’s work will show the range of possibilities afforded an artist working in the relief-printing medium of letterpress.  Among his works on view will be a pressman’s hat and a Chuppah created out of letterpress Konnyaku papers, letterpress broadsides featuring quotations by Ernest Hemingway and Benjamin Franklin and a Forbes Library broadside with an alphabet print. Muller will also exhibit three letterpress broadsides he created in memoriam to historian Stanley Elkins (1925-2013) inspired by the book The Age of Federalism.  The title of the exhibition is the motto of Big Wheel Press as inscribed on a three-pound sledgehammer that hangs in the pressroom.

Wooden type, metal type cast in the studio, photo-polymer plates and antique engravings were used to create this collection.  The presses used range from 1890 platen presses to 1960s cylinder presses.  In addition, some works demonstrate the Japanese technique of applying Konnyaku paste to rice paper to strengthen and waterproof it.  This paste, which is derived from the Devil’s Tongue root, gives paper a durability similar to fabric.  Muller has used letter pressed Konnyaku papers to create a variety of objects on view, including a twist on the traditional pressman’s hat, a paper covering worn by press operators to protect hair from ink.  His inspiration was a 1930s pillbox hat in the museum’s collection that sports a unique origami ribbon pattern on its crown.  Pressman hats have been in use by printers in America since the mid-18th century.

Hot metal type composition is an important component of this exhibition.  Type was commonly cast from molten lead through the late 1970s.  The New York Times front page heralding the first moon landing was cast in lead.  Two broadsides on display feature type cast entirely from lead in Muller’s studio.  The first, which presents lines from Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, was inspired by a still life painting by Charles C. Burleigh, Jr. (1848-1882).  The second, a quotation by Benjamin Franklin, was inspired by a map of the Bridge Street Cemetery. During the research for this exhibition Muller discovered the graves of many of his ancestors in this cemetery.

Muller’s most recent project, The Hebrew Press, is the only operating letterpress studio in North America with the ability to cast Hebrew type from hot lead on a Ludlow type caster and an Intertype line caster using rescued Hebrew matrices (molds).  Connecting the museum’s collection to this pursuit of preserving Jewish heritage, Muller spotlights a work by Anne Laura Clarke (1788-1861) of Northampton.  An educator and public lecturer, Clarke traveled about the East Coast speaking on subjects of historical and geographical interest.  Her innovative hand-lettered educational chart depicting the reigns of the Kings of Israel and Judah will be displayed under a Chuppah, the traditional Jewish wedding tent, constructed out of letter pressed Konnyaku rice paper with a handmade mahogany base constructed by Muller.

Muller’s Big Wheel Press finds and restores its presses and antique engravings.  Muller recently found and restored a 1931 engraving of the famous 1831 map of Northampton by surveyor John Groves Hales.  The 1931 engraving is a half scale reproduction of the original in the museum’s collection.

On display will be some of the composed “chases” used in the printing process by Muller to create printed pieces in this exhibition.  Chases are the iron frames into which engraved images or columns of type are locked for printing.  Shown with the chases will be a rare engraving in the museum’s collection, created for the Official Memorial Souvenir Book for the 1939 dedication of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Bridge.

In memoriam to historian Stanley Elkins (1925-2013), president of the board of Historic Northampton from 1996-2004, Muller created three letterpress broadsides for the exhibition.  Elkins was awarded the Bancroft Prize in American History for his book with Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800.  The broadsides feature quotations from James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton with images from engravings collected by Muller featuring a snake based on Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 image, a nineteenth-century calligraphic bird and an American eagle.

Rounding out the show will be Muller’s letterpress broadsides inspired by a children’s chapbook printed in Northampton in the early 19th century and an alphabet print inspired by an engraving of the Forbes Library.

William Roger Muller is founder and master printer of The Hebrew Press and Big Wheel Press.  He is owner and manager of Guild Art Supply and Pierce's Frameshop in Northampton. He owned and directed the Hart Gallery in Northampton from 1989-2009 and founded and directed the Guild Studio School in Northampton from 1988-2000.  He curated Realists of the Pioneer Valley at the Danforth Museum, featuring the artwork of Scott Prior, Greg Gillespie, Randy Diehl, Jane Lund and Francis Gillespie.  He was an art consultant for the motion picture In Dreams, a 1999 horror thriller movie filmed in Northampton.

The Hebrew Press was established to preserve the techniques of printing Hebrew literature and printed ephemera using traditional hot lead type composition. Hot lead slugs are produced on a Ludlow type caster and an Intertype line caster. The Press is also the home for the largest collection of Hebrew hot-lead matrices (molds) for the creation of type from the Ludlow and Linotype casting machines in North America and the only operating hot lead Hebrew letterpress studio other than in Israel.

Big Wheel Press is a traditional letterpress printing and composition studio. Work is printed on a variety of cylinder, platen and hand presses dating from 1886-1964. Broadsides, wedding invitations, artist prints, business cards and other ephemera are produced using antique wood and lead type and carved and engraved illustrations as well as with modern photo-polymer plates.