3. Printing and Typographical Journals
Although printing and type design as fields of endeavor are distinct
from bibliography, bibliographers are frequently concerned with the printing
of books and the analysis of type faces; thus any printing or typographical
journal—particularly if it contains historical material—may be
relevant
to the bibliographer's concerns. The number of journals
in this area is extremely large (as a glance at Ulrich and Küp will
show), ranging from trade journals and house organs to scholarly annuals.
Indeed, the field of typography has been fortunate in the number and quality
of scholarly periodicals devoted to it. The most distinguished is Simon and
Morison's
Fleuron (1923-30), but other journals containing
important historical research are Gerard Meynell's
Imprint
(1913), Goudy and McMurtrie's
Ars Typographica (1918-34),
Simon's
Signature (1935-54), Harling's
Typography
(1936-39) and
Alphabet and Image (1946-48), Nash's
Printing and Graphic Arts (1953-65), Spencer's
Typographica (1958-62), Moran's
Black Art
(1962-65), and Wrolstad's
Journal of Typographic Research
[now
Visible Language] (1967- ). At present the only
journal
devoted exclusively to historical work in this area is James Mosley's
Journal of the Printing Historical Society (1965- ).
Of all these journals, only a few have received partial coverage in the
standard indexes: part (1926-30) of the
Fleuron in
IBZ, one year (1926) of
Ars Typographica in
IBBB, and part (1947-48) of
Alphabet and
Image in
the
Subject Index constitute the total amount of such indexing
in the pre-
SB years, though after that time the
Subject
Index (
British Humanities Index) did include
Signature (for 1949-53),
Typographica (for
1949-51), and
Black Art (for 1962-65).
If these journals are probably the most important in this field for
bibliographers, several others contain much useful historical material:
graphic arts publications, such as Printing Art (1903-41),
PM [later AD] (1934-42), Print
(1940-
), Book Design and Production (1958- ), and, above all,
the
great Penrose Annual (1895- ); house journals, of which
the
outstanding example is Monotype Recorder (1901- ); and
trade journals of the printing industry, such as Inland Printer
(1883- ), American Printer (1885-1958), British
Printer (1888- ), and Printing Review (1931-59).
The
only journals of this group which have received any coverage to speak of
are Printing Art, most (1907-39) of which is indexed in the
Annual Magazine Subject Index, and Penrose
Annual, included in IBBB for 1926-38 and in the
Subject Index for 1949-61, although the Inland
Printer
(in IBBB for 1927-37), American Printer (in
IBZ for 1911-20), British Printer (in
IBZ for 1911-20 and the Subject Index for
1947-61),
and Print (in Annual Magazine Subject Index
for
1941-49) have each received brief treatment. Many other printing-trade
journals have existed, of course, ranging from the nineteenth-century
Typographic Messenger to the twentieth-century
Typothetae Bulletin and regional magazines like New
England Printer, Pacific Printer and Publisher,
Western Printer and Lithographer, and
Southern
Printer. Although they are principally concerned with current news,
the fact that they occasionally contain material of bibliographical interest
makes it worthwhile to check the few available guides to this class of
material. The
Graphic Arts Index, for example, published by
the United Typothetae of America in its
Service Bulletins
from
1932 through 1934 and in the midmonthly numbers of the
Typothetae
Bulletin from 1935 through 1940, provides coverage, for the period
1927-40, of the large collection of trade journals (English as well as
American) received by the Typothetae library.
[21] A later similar guide is
Printing
Abstracts (1946- ), based on the trade journals in the Leatherhead,
Surrey, library of PATRA (Printing, Packaging and Allied Trades Research
Association)—now called PIRA (Research Association for the Paper
and
Board, Printing and Packaging
Industries.)
[22] These guides to trade
journals are naturally of limited usefulness to bibliographers, though they
do include sections of historical articles; but their existence serves to
emphasize the fact that, in a field like printing with an enormous periodical
literature, the need is especially urgent for an index drawing together the
bibliographical material scattered through these hundreds of journals, both
the scholarly and the trade journals.
