Exploring Printing Heritage in theory and in practice

NEW CALL FOR PAPERS
Association of European Printing Museums
Exploring Printing Heritage in theory and in practice
3-5 September 2025 | Winterbourne House & Garden, University of Birmingham, UK

CPHC and Winterbourne House are happy to host the Association of European Printing Museums annual conference and invites proposals which will investigate the relationship between printing history and the heritage sites that are custodians of the material evidence of print. 

 Over the past few years, digital humanities and craft revival have prompted a resurgence of interest in analogue forms of communication and the technologies that enabled them. Once dominant printing processes such as letterpress and off-set lithography are now commercially obsolete. The numbers of people trained in historical printing techniques are declining and heritage organisations often struggle to find the space, resources, or know-how to curate their printing collections. Usable equipment and material are becoming increasingly scarce, and those with the knowledge to repair and restore it are a dying breed. Preservation requires documentation, interpretation, and practice but also imaginative approaches to their adaptation and use in the present. Heritage sites provide the raw material—artefacts, machinery, documents, and archives—and experiential environments by which historians can understand the situations and locations of printing. On the other hand, printing historians produce the necessary context—information, data, interpretation, and scholarly assessment—necessary for the heritage sites to effectively exploit their collections and interpret printing history for a wide audience. 

This event will consider the role of printing heritage in the twenty-first century and discuss the interdependent relationship between heritage sites and printing historians — how it works, how it could it work, the benefits, problems, and possible new models for working.

How to Apply  Proposals for papers of twenty minutes and for themed panels of three or more speakers are invited. Abstracts of 300 words should be accompanied by brief biographies and sent to Caroline Archer-Parré by 31 March 2025. More information here.