Professor of Literature Jeff Groves has a strong interest in books. Like most academics, he’s read a lot of them. His interest, however, goes well beyond their content.

Groves is a student of the history of the printed word, especially its development over the course of the 19th century. He has always written extensively about this subject, but in spring 2007 he actually got to print on a 19th-century press.

Thanks to a Mellon Foundation Odyssey grant, Groves was able to dedicate the semester to refurbishing and printing on a Columbian iron hand press built around 1850. The press is on loan to The Claremont Colleges from Ed Petko, a collector of printing presses.

In his proposal for the grant, Groves cited his childhood interest in art that had faded over the years: “When I was younger, I spent long hours engaged in artistic activities: making pencil sketches, tooling leather, taking photographs, and—my most rewarding activity of all—writing poetry. As I proceeded toward adulthood and through my education, such artistic interests began to occupy less and less of my time.”

HMC students Glennis Rayermann ’09, a chemistry major, and Alex Hagen ’10, a physics major, assisted Groves throughout the semester. Rayermann researched the qualities of cast iron that give this press (pictured at left) its strength and its precision. Hagen used his knowledge of physics to calculate the weight of the press.

“Assuming the parts were forged at the same time and with the same density, we disassembled and weighed one part, then calculated the rest based on the measurements. It was one scary-looking problem,” says Hagen.

The trio presented the results of their work to the Southern California chapter of the American Printing History Association (APHA) in May, and had a paper proposal accepted for the APHA meeting at UCLA in October.

Groves is working to stimulate appreciation for a lost art.

With the mechanization of printing, followed more recently by the pervasiveness of personal computers, the art and science of type design has dwindled, he says. Today’s PC users have hundreds of fonts available for their use, and the subtleties of typography are often lost as a result.

“Like black and white photography in the era of digital cameras, hand press printing may seem like a dead technology,” Groves explains. “But that isn’t the case. Today, hundreds of artists are discovering the aesthetic qualities of hand-printed books, and so presses like the Columbian are making something of a comeback.”

Adopted from a Harvey Mudd College Bulletin story by Don Davidson.