The Print Shop

Gustave Baumann

The Print Shop was originally published by the artist in 1910 for his portfolio of twelve color woodcuts, In the Hills o’ Brown. This image is also known with the titles Brown County Democrat; County Print Shop; Press Day; and Printing the “Democrat.”

In his manuscript, Of a County Called Brown, Baumann described printing the portfolio on the press of the local newspaper: “It is a mighty uncomfortable feeling this doing a block print, with the good eye sight required one is really working in the dark and with your head muddled, it complicates matters no end but you have to do something to pay your way in this busy world. What with interviewing the Brown County Democrat boys there was some delay since they were just putting their single sheet of news ‘to bed’ as printers call it. There is no buzz in a hand press, it just goes ‘thump’ ‘thump’ as the lever is pulled back and forth…Dismantling the routine to make space for another left us to rearrange it. Blocks were locked in the frame. Color that had been mixed was applied to the blocks and some nice special paper laid over them, with the whole thing pushed into the press and pulled out again, there was one color…Paper piled up sheet by sheet and finally there it was—a print of the Brown County Democrat Establishment with everybody concerned in it. With twelve prints this had to be done twelve times. A good time was had by all. Then they were put in a Portfolio.”