Michael Twyman No. 11: Lithography in The Age of the Hand Press 15-19 July 1996

1. How useful were the pre-course readings? 1: Excellent. 2: Those I had time to read were helpful and the bibliography will be of permanent valuealso useful for filling in lacunae in our collection. 3: Impossible to get time to read. I must have registered too late. 4: Very helpful.5: Although I did not do all of the reading, I was glad to have the list in advanceand read some as I could find it. I will read the rest now that I have an introduction; my reading will be more critical and useful with my class notes in hand. 6:Extremely useful, though I could have completed more of the readings if the listhad been sent two months in advance. (Interlibrary loan can take two to fourweeks.) 7: Very useful. The readings provided good background and very helpfulpegs upon which to build new knowledge. They were a good balance of history,technical and artistic information.

2. Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful (or will they be so in the future, after you return home)? 1: Very. 2: Yes. 3: Could have used handouts of drawings and illustrations of theprocessespecially the transfer process. I can always obtain these later, but theywould have been helpful during the course. 4-5: Yes. 6: Yes, both. 7: Yeseachsegment could have been a separate course of study. When we return home we canperuse the portions that interested us the most. Personally I particularly benefitedfrom the discussion of techniques, the marvelous examples of presses, stonesshown on slides and displayed.

3. Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate? 1-2: Yes. 3: Perfect. 4-5: Yes. 6: Yesa good balance of intellectual with thetechnical. 7: Yes. To my mind the level was of the highest and yet clear. Theinstructor allowed us to question anything.

4. If your course had field trips, were they effective? 1: Yes. The opportunity to see a stone being ground, prepped, and put awayaswell as being printedwas invaluable. 2: Yesthe trip to the printmaking studioin the Art Department was most worthwhile. The only improvement might havebeen for the artist to work on the stone instead of using a pre-worked stone. Still,it was a helpful exercise, I think, for most of us. 3: I would have preferred a videoof MT at home in England with his supplies and possible access to presses fordemonstrationwith examples carried to class for first-hand viewing. 4: Yes. Wewent to see an artist who printed a lithograph. That was very helpful. 5: Extremelyhelpful. 6: Yesextremely useful. I hope the effort will be repeated for futureclasses. Perhaps MT himself could demonstrate the printmaking process usingtechniques that were discussed in class, ie c19 techniques as opposed to currentpractices. 7: NA. We had all the materials at handhundreds of slides, RBRbooks, and BAP ephemera.

5. Did the actual course content correspond to its RBS brochure description andExpanded Course Description (ECD)? Did the course in general meet yourexpectations? 1: Yes. 2: Exceeded far beyond any expectations I had, since I had not attendedRBS before and was not sure what it would be like. 3: Yes. I need more onAmerican lithographyPart 2? I need more on conversion to offset printingPart2? and identificationPart 2? I need more on the turn of the century. 4: More sothan I thought it would. This course dealt with other aspects of lithography, forexample, the mining of the stones, general statistics, how many lithographers invarious cities, etc. 5: Yes. Yes. 6: Yesthe course went beyond my expectations.7: The course corresponded with the description. My expectations were highbecause I had heard so much about the courseand yet my expectations were met.

6. What did you like best about the course? 1: The instructor's generosity in answering questions and his willingness toelaborate for the better understanding of the class. 2: The vast knowledge andamiable personality of the instructor. 3: Visuals. First-hand viewing. Examples.History. Instructor's personal experiences and stories. 4: As always, the hands-onprocess. Studying various types of lithographs and hearing everyone's comments.This makes the class more interesting. 5: 1. The slides and the small class'sanalytical discussion, Q and A, and attempts at building knowledge one day foruse in the next. 2. Its orderly progression through the time period to be covered,with plenty of time in asides to mechanical/historical/economic developments thathelped explain the changes in process at hand. 3. The well-chosen examinationitems. From the instructor's store and from the UVa and BAP collections.6: MT.He is an excellent teacher and researcher. I was amazed at how well he has photodocumented the development of lithography in England, France, and Germany.His slides were extremely useful in helping me understand the processes anddevelopment of lithographic printing. 7: I liked the way MT has spent his liferesearching, collecting examples of and writing about the subject of lithography.He has found, studied, and written about so much. Absolutely amazing! Hislectures were well organized and clear.

7. How could the course have been improved? 2: I can't think of any way except to make it a two-week course. 3: Video demonstration of the process, recreating the era hypothetically. Some processes (transfer,gummed out) are still fuzzy. I may be proved wrong tomorrow, but details onmusic may not be as useful as other portions. 4: Fewer slides and more prints;more time devoted to colored lithography or chromolithography. 5: The additionof a litho press to RBS's collection of presses in the pressroom (or somewhereelse). 6: Extend the course to two weeks, or offer Lithography, Part II. 7: My onesuggestion would be perhaps to have slides to show the technique of lithographyat the beginning and then an actual display to reinforce later.

8.Please comment at will on the quality/enjoyableness of the various RBSactivities in which you took part outside of class, eg Sunday afternoon tour,Sunday night dinner and videos, Bookseller Night, tour of the Etext Centeror Electronic Classroom, printing demonstrations, evening lectures, &c. 1: Good, though not enlightening. 2: Extremely enjoyable and informativenewinformation in one case. 3: Excellentexcept everyone usually does not like toknow that the speaker is reading. 5: I liked them all, for their different tones andlevels and intentions. I look forward to seeing K. Rendell's cleaned up version ofhis remarks. TB's contained a "charge to the listener" (I always enjoyed sermons,too) and a bit of hope for the role we may be able to play in saving civilizationfrom itself. 6: ? 7: T. Tanselle's lecture was interestingespecially for us inCharlottesville. He's very clear, but his delivery is not lively. KR was lively andquite informative, a broad overview.

9. Any final thoughts? 1: Take it! It's a very personal opportunity to look at materials closely and findout about them from someone who really knows the field. The instructor's yearsof experience, generously shared, cannot be matched in other kinds of study andprovide a sound basis for continuing study. 2: I wish I'd had time for morepreparatory reading. I will do follow-up reading. This was one of the best programs I have ever attended as a librarian or art history student. The opportunityto learn from someone of the caliber of MT is extraordinary. 3: I will be a majorpromoter of RBS on the basis of this, my first experience. I feel honored to havehad MT as an instructorto have heard him impart his knowledge first hand. Ithas been a great privilege. He is an excellent instructor and modest and sensitiveperson. Good salesperson. 5: Take it, whether or not you have had the broadercourse in identification, if you have interest in the c19 period or in any graphicsarea. 7: Keep it all up!

Number of respondents: 7

PERCENTAGES Leave Tuition Housing Travel Institution gave me leave Institution paid tuition Institution paid housing Institution paid travel 57% 71% 43% 29% I took vac- tion time I paid tui- tion myself I paid for my own housing I paid my own travel 14% 29% 43% 57% N/A: self- employed, re- tired, or had summers off N/A: self employed, retired, or exchange N/A: stayed with friends or lived at home N/A: lived nearby 29% 0% 14% 14%

There were seven students, an antiquarian bookseller, an archivist/manuscriptslibrarian, an art librarian with some rare book duties, a collector/independentresearcher, a conservator/binder/preservation librarian, a general librarian withno rare book duties, and a rare book librarian (14% each).