The Special Collections and University Archives at Towson University partnered with students and faculty in the Center for the Arts during spring 2020 to re-print a collection of over 70 legacy letterpress printing blocks held in the archives’ collections. The outcomes of this project were to inventory and photograph the blocks, clean and evaluate the usability of the items, create contemporary reproductions, locate instance of original use in historic context, and allow students to use the blocks in their own artwork. The larger goal was to educate student on institutional history by allowing them to reframe the images in their own work.

A small selection of these blocks were reprinted before the school began remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This session will discusses how the project responded to the change in learning, how it positively and negatively affected the project’s focus, and how online resources were developed to reach students and researchers remotely.

This session was presented live and recorded at TCAL 2020 on August 12, 2020.
Click here to access the recorded session.

Allison Fischbach – Research and Archives Associate, Towson University
Allison Fischbach is a Research & Archives Associate in the Albert S. Cook Library at Towson University. She formerly worked as Preservation Technician in the Decker Library at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her focus is special collections, digital curation, and print media.

In addition to archival work, Allison is an accomplished printmaker and bookbinder. She has shown pieces throughout Baltimore and Washington D.C., and taught workshops at both Towson University and the Maryland Institute College of Art. She currently pursuing an MLIS in Archives & Digital Curation at the University of Maryland, College Park.