DICKENS AND VICTORIAN PRINTING

Jillian SparksSpecial Collections LibrarianJillian.sparks@queensu.ca@jordan_library

HAND PRESS PERIOD 1450-18001450 Gutenberg invents moveable type1450-1500 Incunabula Period—the birth of printingPrinting stays the same for roughly 300 yearsProvides the terminology we still use to talk about booksEVERYTHING is done by hand Casting type Setting type Printing Paper Binding Ink

MACHINE PRESS PERIOD 1800-1950Cheap publicationsMulti-part booksStereotype printingSteel engravings, lithography, photographic illustrationsMachines or presses to fit publication needsMachine made paper Stanhope Full Iron Printing Press

(1804)

TYPEMachinery allows for faster casting of pieces of type and introduction new typefaces Need for a way to preserve individual pieces of type and a way to store popular books for reprintingStereotype Make a plaster or paper mould of type set page Cast it in metal forming plates or cylinders (for

rotary presses) Increased print production Kept standard texts in print Stimulus for the rise in periodicals

Electrotype Wax moulds dipped in an electrolyte bath to

create copper Used with illustration and music

PAPERMost expensive product with the most demandPaper before 1800 made by hand from rags and using a paper mould1803 Donkin's Fourdrinier cylindrical paper-making machineBy 1820 machine-made paper exceeds hand-made paperUse chlorine to make it whiteWood-pulp is introduced in the second half of the 19th century. Commonly used in Europe after 1871

BINDINGSBooks are still gathered, folded, sewn, cut, rounded, backed, and cased by hand Introduced cloth for covering books Cheaper Can produce edition bindings

Blind or gilt embossed decorations on cloth coversPaper wrappers for serial parts These are still sewn by hand. Staples are

invented in the 1870sBinding machinery not invented until the end of the 19th Century

ILLUSTRATIONWood engravings are still the predominant form of illustration In the second half of the century photographs

of the drawings were directly adhered to the block to aid the engraver

Carved in reliefCopper or steel etchings Cruikshank used steel engravings

Colour illustration done by hand or with a tinted plateLithography illustrations are built up on lithostone Chromolithography required printing an image

multiple times layering the tints to produced desired colour

DICKENS AND VICTORIAN

PUBLISHINGSerial publication and cheap editions

SERIALSThree-decker novel as standard publishing formatPickwick Papers 1836 Dickens is commissioned to write a text to go

along with artist Robert Seymour’s illustrationsSo successful that it spurs new publishing trend People are buying instead of borrowing novels Cheap production with a high profit

20-24 monthly parts, 2 gatherings (32 pages) to a pamphlet, and one or two illustrations Stereo plates are reprinted and sold in

volumes when final issue released Or take your parts to a binder to be bound

together

DICKENS AS EDITORHousehold Words (1850-59) and All the Year Round (1859-93)Hard Times (HW 1854)A Tale of Two Cities (AYR 1859) and Great Expectations (AYR 1860-61)

Wilkie CollinsElizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth GaskellAnthony Trollope

FIRST LOOKWhat do you know?What do you want to know? What have you learned?

What surprises you?What do you notice about the material?

QUESTIONS?

RESEARCHING IN SPECIAL

COLLECTIONSWhere to begin and how to find us!

LIBRARY WEBSITE http://library.queensu.ca/

Some tips and tricks to get you going and coming back!

QUESTIONS?

YOUR ASSIGNMENTYou will come to W.D. Jordan Rare Books & Special Collections, 2nd floor (6th level) of Douglas LibraryYou will have clean hands!You will put your things in a lockerYou can have your phone, pencil and paper, and your laptop with you in the reading room

Tell the person at the front desk that you are in Dr. Cameron’s ENGL 356 classIf you come on Thursday the 17th, the books will be on display 9:30-4:30The fragile items I brought today will be on display, but you cannot touch them

If you come any other day of the week, you will receive a cart of materialYou will take books on and off the cart, but the fragile material will be unavailable

THANK YOU!