Silver Buckle Press
Active in Madison 1973–2015
Specimen Book of Wood Type: From the Collection of the Silver Buckle Press, 1999
Designed and printed by Rachel D. Davis under the direction of Tracy Lea Honn with assistance from Amy Newell, Ashley Towne, and Sara Weigel
Letterpress and case binding
Silver Buckle Press, Madison, Wisconsin
Edition of 200
Shown here is the published catalog of wood type in the Silver Buckle Press collection. Wood type was used primarily for printing newspaper headlines and posters, which requires large letterforms. At larger sizes, wood type was both lighter and easier to produce than metal type. Some of the types and ornaments shown in this specimen book were made by the original Hamilton Manufacturing Company in Two Rivers, Wisconsin at the turn of the 19th to 20th century.
Walter Hamady was responsible for bringing the Silver Buckle Press from Michigan to Wisconsin. The private collection of printing presses and historic types was purchased by UW-Madison Libraries in 1973, and established on campus as a printing history museum devoted to the principle of preservation through use. Silver Buckle Press programming at UW-Madison included publications, exhibitions, symposia, teaching and tours. In 2016 the collection was moved to Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and is now maintained under the auspices of Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum.
