Interactive workshop brings the history of printing the Bible to life for students – St. Olaf College

Two strains of individuals stretch down the corridor outdoors the Trollhaugen Room in St. Olaf School’s Buntrock Commons. Dialog rings out as college students, college, and visitors mingle amongst each other. Folks flit between the strains to get extra cider or one other cookie from the snack bar. There’s a sense of pleasure and curiosity within the air.

“It’s not on a regular basis that you’ve a possibility to do that,” says Vania Liang ‘24.

The strains step by step advance. An increasing number of folks seem holding small playing cards or posters at their aspect, shaking them dry whereas being cautious to not contact the moist ink. The sound of dialog within the corridor is punctuated periodically with the squeak of iron, the urgent of a lever, or the delicate rolling of ink over typeface. It’s the night of December 6, 2023, and a crowd has gathered to print prefer it’s 1500. Or 1910. 

The chance comes as a part of “Printing the Bible: An Interactive Letterpress Workshop.” On the entrance of the strains, everybody can print their very own vacation card or poster utilizing a scale duplicate of a picket screw press from early trendy Europe, or an genuine Nineteenth-century iron “clamshell” press that was used at St. Olaf between the Nineties and Nineteen Thirties. Within the adjoining room, artifacts of printing historical past from St. Olaf School are on show alongside historical Bibles in quite a lot of languages, with all the things coming from the St. Olaf School Archives and the Rølvaag Library Particular Collections. 

“There hasn’t been an occasion like this earlier than on campus,” says Paige Ewert ’26. “It’s actually distinctive, and I’m actually glad we did this.”

The chance was not solely distinctive, however academic as nicely, says  Isaac Hillesland ’27. “I realized extra in regards to the historical past of the method and the way it truly works,” he says.

The occasion was organized and coordinated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Faith Noam Sienna and Distinctive Collections Engagement Librarian Jillian Sparks. “The concept was a collaborative course of,” Sienna says. “Each Jillian and I are concerned in printing and letterpress as students and artists, so this can be a nice solution to mix our passions and pursuits with an academic alternative for college students.”

The imaginative and prescient for the December 6 occasion developed step by step. “We bought the BookBeetle screw press a 12 months or two in the past to create a hands-on expertise for college students coming to check e book historical past in order that they will be taught not simply by supplies, however by way of making them too,” Sparks says.

“We bought the BookBeetle screw press a 12 months or two in the past to create a hands-on expertise for college students coming to check e book historical past in order that they will be taught not simply by supplies, however by way of making them too.”

Distinctive Collections Engagement Librarian Jillian Sparks

Sienna noticed a possibility to convey the fabric he’s instructing at school to life for college students.

“I assumed that may be an effective way to interact college students in excited about the historical past of printing and translating the Bible, from Gutenberg and Luther to the current day. Then we found that the Library additionally had one other printing press and instances of metallic kind that had as soon as been utilized in a print store on campus a few hundred years in the past,” Sienna says. “So then we dove into recovering and restoring that assortment to usability, and we’re tremendous excited to print with it!”

“I assumed that may be an effective way to interact college students in excited about the historical past of printing and translating the Bible, from Gutenberg and Luther to the current day.”

Faith College Member Noam Sienna

The 2 presses are totally different, however that’s a part of the attract. “It’s a pleasant alternative to have a picket fashion press after which we get that post-Industrial Revolution, iron press to distinction with it,” Sparks says. 

Simply as essential because the printing methodology is the printed content material. College students printed vacation playing cards utilizing the iron press, and a poster with the picket press. “We’re printing a poster with a biblical verse in six languages: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, English, and Dakota. Every of those languages represents an essential a part of biblical historical past and scholarship,” Sienna says.

The occasion started with a brief presentation by Sienna and Sparks in regards to the historical past of letterpress printing. Afterwards, the massive crowd in attendance was free to line up for printing, wait and mingle, or stroll by way of the uncommon and historic Bibles on show from Particular Collections.

“As a result of we’re at St. Olaf, we have now these good early editions of Luther’s translation of the Bible to share,” Sparks says, “and that’s a pleasant connection to the historical past of the school.”

The big scholar crowd in attendance was passionate about each aspect of the night, from the uncommon Bibles to the beginning presentation.

“It’s been actually cool,” says Emily Klein ‘24. “I cherished seeing all the traditional books and the artistry in them. Studying in regards to the work it takes to create a font and all of the typefaces was so fascinating, and studying the place all of the labor goes for all of the transferring elements concerned in that is actually cool.”

“I cherished seeing all the traditional books and the artistry in them. Studying in regards to the work it takes to create a font and all of the typefaces was so fascinating, and studying the place all of the labor goes for all of the transferring elements concerned in that is actually cool.”

Emily Klein ’24

“I realized in regards to the evolution of printing, the elements of the method, and the way printing modified written communication,” says Charles Cole ‘25.

“I feel it’s actually enjoyable. Ebook printing could be seen as one thing that solely folks with presses are capable of do, so it’s good to have the ability to do it casually,” says Em Haas ‘25. 

Spark says it was enjoyable to see how profitable the occasion was. “We wished to offer  the neighborhood an opportunity to see what supplies they’ve entry to and the way they will interact with historical past,” she says.