The Amalgamated Printers Association (APA) was founded in 1958 by cousins Michael J. O’Connor and Roger V. Ralphe in Hastings, Minnesota. Originally founded as an organization for amateur journalists, it quickly became a membership organization for letterpress printing hobbyists, comprising both amateur and professional printers.
The APA has a limited membership of 150 members, with prospective members on a waiting list until a current member leaves the organization. At induction, the new member is given an APA member of a departing APA member. The main activity of the organization is the exchange of print samples between the group’s members. Participation in the mailing is compulsory; each member must participate at least four times a year. Every month each member sends 160 copies of a piece of work to a coordinator or "mailer", who then creates a bundle for each member that features one copy of each submission. The mailer might use the position as an opportunity to create a decorative envelope to hold the monthly bundle. The organization also sponsors printers’ contests, a newsletter, and an annual meeting called a “Wayzgoose.”
APA Member Dan Wood, the donor of the Amalgamated Printers Association Ephemera Collection, is a professional printer and founder of DWRI Letterpress, a letterpress print shop in Providence, Rhode Island. He became a member of the APA in August 2001.
There are no restrictions on access. This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Providence Public Library Special Collections department.
Researchers are requested to cite the collection name and the Providence Public Library in all bibliographic references.
Amalgamated Printers Association Ephemera Collection, MSS 020, Providence Public Library.
The Amalgamated Printers Association Ephemera Collection includes ephemera printed by members of the APA for inclusion in the monthly APA bundles collected by APA member Dan Wood spanning select months from when he first became a member of the organization in August 2001 through October 2009. Not all months from each year are in the collection, and each month’s bundle may be incomplete. The collection materials include handwritten communications from APA mailers to Dan Wood, examples of the work of DWRI press, and some APA reports.
Material in the collection includes envelopes, samples of a printers’ work at the time, mock-up documents, certificates, proprietor’s cards, announcements of contests, publications (not related to the APA), advertisements, event announcements, type specimens, artifacts featuring printed elements (such as fans and matchbooks), posters, fliers, bookmarks, art prints, calendars, greeting cards, postcards, napkins, and notebooks.
Content varies widely, due to the hired work of the printers, but includes some political commentary and reflections on national events, poems, recipes, some handwritten notes.
The collection is organized into two series:
Donated to Providence Public Library by Dan Wood, 2014 March 12.
Ephemera referencing the work of Conant Brodribb (small press and print shop scholar)
Materials sent to Dan Wood upon his becoming a member of the APA