Printing Industries Press Overview

Edward H. Wadewitz Library

Overview of Holdings—A Wealth of Knowledge

The E.H. Wadewitz Memorial Library currently houses what is thought to be the largest intact collection of technical information and literature for the field of graphic communications and printing processes in North America. The library is a valuable resource for both printers and suppliers. It is also a unique tool for researchers, chemists, physicists, educators, scholars, and students. 

The Library holdings currently include:

• More than 180 currently published magazines and periodicals
• 100 inactive or no-longer-published magazines dating back to the first issues of the National Lithographer published in 1894
• 15,000+ books, texts, and reports describing every aspect of the graphic communications and print processes
• GATF/LTF-published materials, past and present
• Printing Industries of America (PIA) publications, reports, and affiliate information
• Information on related trade associations
• A variety of directories and other reference material

The Library has a number of collections that are of historical interest and value. The larger collections are as follows.

• The Frank Preucil Collection was dedicated April 22, 1999, and contains 1,400 books.  Mr. Preucil was considered by many to be the “Father of Densitometry” by his pioneering and promoting of the use of color reflection densitometry to control and evaluate process color printing in lithography. This extensive collection on the subject of color reproduction is thought to be one of the most complete historical libraries on the graphic arts process. He also collected rare books on printing. The Collection also has one of the few complete collections of the Penrose Annual.

• The Dr. Fred W. Billmeyer Collection was received May 1999. Dr. Billmeyer, Jr. was a world-renowned color scientist, and his collection includes a complete collection of materials from the International Commission on Illumination. He also authored many books on color and polymers. The collection includes over 200 books on color and related subjects, several complete collections of periodicals relating to color, and bound transcripts and reports. 

• The R.S. Fisch-Robert L. Leslie Graphic Arts Collection was received in October 2003. This large collection includes books and journals on photography and photographic processes. The two-hundred-plus books in the collection were published between 1855 and 1999 and include several very rare editions. Notable books are Photographic Chemistry by Hardwich, published in 1864, and Photographic Mosaics by Lea and Wilson published in 1866. Fisch was employed for thirty-five years as a corporate scientist in the Printing and Publishing Systems Division of 3M Company and holds thirty-seven U.S. Patents on color photography, photo resist imaging, non-silver imaging, color proofing, silver recovery, and substrate addendum.

• The Lee Augustine Collection has over 500 rare volumes on the history of printing, including The Printers Manual dated 1817, believed to be the first printing manual published in the United States. The group of books in this donation was carefully selected from the thousands of volumes Lee Augustine collected. 

• The William Stevens Collection, named after a former GATF research committee chair contains over fifty graphic arts books, clippings, and advertisements dating from the early 1900s. 

• The Printing Industries of America Collection of early PIA books, reports, and early board meeting minutes was received in March 1999.

• The Al Matarazzi Collection includes early Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, and its predecessor the Lithographic Technical Foundation, Research Department Reports. Dr. Materazzi was deeply involved in environmental issues and compliance work, and was involved in preparing data and documentation related to lithographic platemaking. This collection was received in 2001.

• The Seybold Collection includes all published Seybold Reports, along with reports and books, and was donated in the spring of 2004.                                                                

Note: The Wadewitz Library encourages individuals and corporations to donate to the Library.  Once a collection is received, an appraiser will come in and review the collection and provide appraisal documentation you can use for tax deductions. Gifts are deductible to the extent allowed by law. Book plates would be placed in each item indicating the item that was donated and from whom.

Information Seekers Welcome

Information seekers are welcome to visit the library to perform searches or submit requests for information retrieval. Depending on the extent of the research required, fees for inquiries will be determined. Contact Dee Gentile, information officer, at dgentile@printing.org to discuss your information needs and requests.