History of Text Technologies: Printing Text With the Book Beetle

What many and varied ways have humans used to write over the years? Through a series of workshops on the History of Text Technologies, scheduled over the 2026-2027 academic year, we will investigate this question. We'll look at books from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts, and we'll make some of our own. 

In Europe, the printing press was introduced in the mid-15th century. Common Press at Penn has been a center for historical printing at Penn since 2006, and with their support we now have a small press of our own! The Book Beetle is a tabletop version of the original hand press used in the four centuries lasting from Johannes Gutenberg through Benjamin Franklin. On Monday, November 16, SIMS Curator for Digital Humanities Dot Porter and Associate Director of Digital Research in the Humanities Emily Brooks will lead a workshop where we will set text, and then print it on the Book Beetle. We'll look at some early printed books from Penn's collections for inspiration. Image is a photo of Program Coordinator of Technology and Play Christine Kemp using the Book Beetle in the Common Press.

History of Text Technologies is sponsored by the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies and will be held in the Vitale II Lab for Digital Humanities & Book History (Van Pelt Library 623).