By David Yamaguchi The North American Post
An old NAP printing press was delivered to the Seattle NAP office on Oct. 21. First described in these pages in Dec. 2020, the press had been donated to a small letterpress printing museum in Anacortes. The museum needed its space, so kindly offered the press back to the NAP without cost.
In use until the early 1990s, the one-ton press is a 10-inch x 15-inch Chandler and Press model. It is the smaller of two presses operated by the NAP. Its serial number shows it to be a 1902 model, according to Jeronimo Squires of the museum. It thus dates to the start of this newspaper! This particular press had been used to print small items like church bulletins. The larger press had been used to print the newspaper, but Squires had not accepted it as a donation, for such large machines had outlived their time. The small press, by contrast, would continue to be of interest to artists for high-end printmaking.
The main values of the reacquired press reside in its historical value to the Seattle Japanese community, and its complete sets of English and pre-war Japanese lead type.
The NAP anticipates making the press available to artists in 2022.
