Shop & equipment
Location
Expedition Press is located on Duwamish land in south Seattle, WA. We're at the Cloverdale Business Park in the South Park neighborhood. The library, the river, many murals, and fabulous tacos are all blocks away. We're stoked to be here in the city after many years in the small town of Kingston.
Equipment
Expedition Press is a production shop, with teaching activities and events squeezed in on the side. We primarily design and print from handset type on antique presses. We occupy a 600 square foot space with an office and press room that's full to the brim with metal type, printing presses, paper, and ink.
Our three main presses are a 1961 Heidelberg Windmill, a 1950 Vandercook No. 4, and a 1901 Golding Jobber. We also have two tabletop presses: a Nolan proof press and a nipping press. In the paper cutting department, we have a 26in Chandler & Price guillotine. We also have a 1-inch button maker and a 1930s Remington Rand typewriter. Mechanically, our machines run the gamut from handfed treadle-operated (the Golding) to auto-fed motorized (the Heidelberg).
Type-wise, well — we have lots of type. Mostly metal. Of five type cabinets and two galley racks, only four cases hold wood type. We're into poetry, so of course book-sized metal type suits our work well. Perpetua is our house serif and Standard Medium is our house sans. We also have a decent run of Caslon and a lot of display faces.
Provenance
The heart of our collection came from Stern & Faye, Printers: imposing stone, furniture rack, the Golding, and most of the type. The Heidelberg came from Oak Harbor by way of Jami and Terry of Sherwood Press and the Vandercook came from Viktor and Diane of Watermark Bindery on Marrowstone Island. The Nolan came from Michael Hepher of Clawhammer Press and the nipping press was a gift from Dave Myhre of Duckabush Bindery. It was spray-painted silver; several hours of careful lacquer thinner application revealed the original black finish and gold pin striping! You never know what's going to show up.
We have huge gratitude for what's come our way and we care for it all with great love. We consider ourselves stewards first, owners second. Our equipment has lived a few lives longer than us and we want it to live many lives more. Case in point, when we moved our shop from Kingston to Seattle in 2023, we gifted type, cabinets, our first press, and many small tools to former interns starting their own shops! An honor to pass it on.
Image by Jovelle Tamayo, copyright 2020, all rights reserved.