Exhibitions: King Library Press and Polyglot Press

Broadsides From The King Library Press and Polyglot Press
March 28 - May 17, 2025
193 N Limestone

Displayed here are examples of the fine printing tradition in Lexington, Kentucky, with letterpressed broadsides from two local presses: the King Library Press and Polyglot Press.

A broadside is a sheet of paper, usually rather large and printed on one side only. Originally developed as a cheap, portable method of conveying information, the broadside was meant to be produced quickly and distributed en masse. From the 1500s-1800s, broadsides were likely the most common printed objects, produced on thin, easily accessible paper. Featuring advertisements, proclamations, popular songs, and news both local and from afar, they were a common sight plastered to walls or sold on streetcorners.

With the advent of newspapers, and the general cheapening of the printed word as industrial printing technology advanced, broadsides fell out of favor. Printers began to abandon traditional methods like the use of handset type on letterpress machines, the method used to create the works displayed here. Offset printing, a more flexible, automated method, became widely available in the late 1800s. At the same time, the Arts and Crafts movement arose in England in opposition to the industrial world’s abandonment of such traditional forms of handcraft as the letterpress printing technique.

While mass production of print media continued, dissident printmakers also began to place higher value on the slow, attentive, and thoughtful methods of old. These printers reinvigorated the broadside form, not as a method of mass distribution, but rather as a way to communicate the importance of the printed word. Broadsides became a way to attract attention to a particular text, to honor a writer or translator, to commemorate special occasions, to express the printer’s artistry, or simply to share a love for the wonders of language.

Here in Lexington, the earliest evidence of this style of printmaking is likely the work of Carolyn Reading and her fellow bookmakers at Bur Press in the 1940s. In 1956, Reading helped found the King Library Press, joining forces with the Austrian-born Victor Hammer, a direct descendent of the European Arts and Crafts movement. Together, their mentorship, vision, and community spirit helped produce a remarkable density of fine printers in the region. Broadsides from throughout the more recent history of the King Library Press are displayed here, touched by the hands of master printers, visiting artists, and student apprentices from 1985 through the present day. On the other wall, we see several examples of the work of Arthur Graham and his Polyglot Press imprint, a notable example of the many other presses active in Lexington. An aficionado of languages and translation, Graham was unique for printing in Danish, French, German, Hebrew, Latin, Neapolitan, Spanish, and Yiddish in addition to English.

Institute 193 is grateful to the King Library Press, and in particular to Paul Evans Holbrook, the press’s current director, for assistance in organizing this exhibition. Presented in conjunction with 250LEX’s Literary Lexington programming, the exhibition was further supported by the 250LEX commission.