Festival of Printmaking features 19th century working letterpress

The University of Stirling will host the second annual Festival of Printmaking this weekend, and its own 19th century letterpress will make a guest appearance. 

The 200-year-old Columbian press, a working museum object, is located in the Pathfoot Building on the University campus, also home to The Pathfoot Press, a centre for letterpress printing, teaching and research. 

The Festival, which takes place from Friday, 15 August to Sunday, 17 August, is also a chance for people to meet the University’s first printer in residence, Dawn Hollis. The Press will be open from 11am to 3pm on the Saturday and Sunday. 

Limited edition

Dawn, who runs The Crail Press studio, is involved in teaching and training students in letterpress printing, as well as looking after The Pathfoot Press equipment and overseeing limited edition print runs. Her residency runs until 2027. 

The Pathfoot Press was established in 2016 and is a cross-divisional, cross-institutional collaboration between the University of Stirling Art Collection, the University of Stirling Division of Literature and Languages, and the University of St Andrews. 

The 200-year-old press at the University of Stirling.

The Festival of Printmaking, organised by Printmakers of Scotland, will feature printmaking demonstrations, workshops and an exhibition. 

Sarah Bromage, co-founder of The Pathfoot Press and Head of Collections at the University of Stirling, said: “It is great to welcome back the Festival of Printmaking after such a successful inaugural event last year and the fact that our first printer in residence is in attendance makes it all the more of a draw. We hope visitors and participants will get a taste for how important printmaking is as an art form, and that printmakers enjoy the chance to meet up and connect.” 

Working press room

Dawn said: “Just the very existence of The Pathfoot Press is pretty special, and the fact that the Columbian Press has been kept in operation is extraordinary. There are a lot of iron handpresses sitting around in museum basements around the country, but there are far fewer that are still in use.  

“The University of Stirling is so lucky to have a working press room, for students to have the chance to handle this equipment and experience the way printed material was produced for so many centuries, from the Gutenberg Bible until well into the 1900s.” 

For more information on The Pathfoot Press and commissions, contact pathfootpress@stir.ac.uk 

More on the Festival of Printmaking at Printmakers of Scotland 

Dawn Hollis runs The Crail Press.