Beaver Press
Print Shop

About the Beaver Press Print Shop

January 2024

IAP PRINTING WORKSHOPS AT THE THE BEAVER PRESS!

See the Sign up to Print page for details.

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The Beaver Press Print Shop was founded at MIT in Spring 2016. It features a Gutenberg-facsimile wooden letterpress designed by former MIT Hobby Shop Director and alumnus Ken Stone '72, and built by MIT students in the Spring 2016 term. Mr. Stone has made the plans for building the press freely available here. The Print Shop is located on the MIT campus in Room 10-810, on the eighth floor of Barker Library. It has over 25 cases of metal type, ink, paper, and other equipment necessary to set and print texts and images. The Press publishes its own imprints, which are written, designed, and printed by MIT students taking 21H.343/CC.120 "Making Books in the Renaissance and Today."

MIT Instructors are welcome to integrate a printing exercise in the shop into their MIT graduate and undergraduate subjects. Contact one of our two Print Shop Co-Director, Professor Anne McCants or Dr. Erica Zimmer, to learn more.

At various times during the year, the shop is open to all members of the MIT community, depending on our staffing capabilities and the Barker Library schedule. Visit our Sign Up to Print page to learn about dates and times for open printing. Trained student shop assistants help novice printers to design, set, and print their short texts.

Anne McCants, Professor of History and Director of Concourse; and Dr. Erica Zimmer, an instructor in the Concourse First-Year Program, are Co-Directors of the Press. Dr. Zimmer teaches 21H.343/CC.120, and also leads other printing exercises during the academic year. Ken Stone, MIT Class of 1972 and former Director of the MIT Hobby Shop, is our Technical Director. The Press has received generous support from the Concourse First-Year Program, the History Faculty, and the MIT Libraries.