Houghton Library welcomes Katherine M. Ruffin, who will give the Spring 2025 Philip and Frances Hofer Lecture on “Power, Creative Activity & Craft: Letterpress Printing Today.”

This lecture will draw on Ruffin’s two books published by The Legacy Press, A Printer with My Hands: The Life and Work of Carl P. Rollins, 2025, and Imprint: Impractical Essays about Letterpress Printing, forthcoming in 2026. Through immersive study of Rollins’ publication and archive and of his teaching at the Bibliographical Press founded at Yale University in 1927, Ruffin documented the history of letterpress printing in the academy, offering a fresh perspective into printing history and new insight into the origins of the bibliographical-press movement. She then turned to her own teaching and studio practice and wrote essays—organized according to traditional steps in letterpress printing—that explore the lessons letterpress can offer us today. By mapping the territory between the literatures of printing history and contemporary craft and outlining pedagogical practice for book labs, she posits the pedagogical value of letterpress, and advocates for the continued relevance of letterpress in today’s culture.

Bio: Katherine M. Ruffin holds an AB in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College, an MFA in Book Arts from the University of Alabama, and a PhD in Library and Information Science from Simmons University. Since 1994, she has published limited-edition books and broadsides under the imprint of Shinola Press, and her work is in numerous public and private collections. She is Director of the Book Studies Program and a Senior Lecturer in Art at Wellesley College and also teaches at Simmons University and Rare Book School.