Will Hand Papermaking Survive? A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THIS LONG-LIVED TRADITION
by Michael Durgin

Outside the Dieu Donné Papermill in New York, N.Y.

Despite the many new technologies and sophisticated processes that have given us the volume of paper we have today, there are some American mills where paper is still made much as it was 2,000 years ago in China -- one sheet at a time, by experienced craftspeople. Following a slow and laborious process, they are preserving the old ways. And their efforts have found a place in the market, as the public has also experienced a renewed interest in the craft.

Paper originated in China and gradually spread both eastward to Japan, where it became highly refined, and westward to the Middle East and North Africa. It reached Europe in the Middle Ages, where production grew considerably after Gutenberg's invention of moveable type. Papermaking came to the American colonies in 1690, when the German-born and Dutch-trained papermaker, William Rittenhouse, built and began operating a mill near Philadelphia.

Traditional Western-style papermaking, which gradually evolved from the Chinese method, requires many sequential steps. First cotton, linen or hemp rags are selected, sorted and beaten. The beaten fiber is diluted with water and added to a vat, from which a papermaker forms the mixture onto a screen, and then transfers it to a felt. A sandwich of alternating felts and wet sheets of fiber is built, and then pressed and dried.

While handmade paper has always been used in this country for items for which we use machine-made paper today -- books, newspapers, stationery, and as a surface for artwork -- it has never been inexpensive. Equipment was often elaborate, labor costs for skilled workers were high, and marketing and transportation were complicated to arrange. The buyer, whether wholesaler or consumer, eventually had to pay for these production costs.

As with many traditional crafts, papermaking underwent a major change in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Three events significantly altered the industry: the development of the Hollander beater, which more efficiently pounded the rags used to make the paper; the adaptation of wood pulp as a replacement for cloth rags; and the invention of the Fourdrinier papermaking machine, which produced a long, continuous roll of paper instead of relatively small, individual sheets. By the middle of the 19th century, the huge volumes of paper made possible by these advances transformed the paper and printing industries and, in doing so, led to the demise of many hand papermills.

By the early 20th century, hand papermaking had virtually died out in the United States.

Although it lived on in pockets worldwide, especially in Europe and Asia, by the early 20th century, hand papermaking had virtually died out in the United States. A valiant attempt by paper historian and book artist Dard Hunter to reintroduce hand papermaking to the United States in the late 1920s failed -- not for lack of interest among publishers and the public, but rather for lack of business acumen.

Hunter almost single-handedly documented the traditional craft of papermaking, both in America and worldwide. His books on the subject and his collection of artifacts (which now form the core of the American Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, Ga.) helped revitalize interest in the craft in this country.

Only a few production hand papermills now operate in the United States. Kathryn and Howard Clark established the first of these, Twinrocker, in the early 1970s and operate it to this day. This mill proved to be an important training ground for many who went on to found other production mills and facilities. Academic sites have also played a role in renewed interest in the craft, especially Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where Laurence Barker taught in the 1960s, and the University of Iowa, Iowa City, where Timothy Barrett has taught and conducted research on papermaking since the 1980s.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Columbia College, Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts 218 South Wabash, 7th Flr. Chicago, IL 60604-2316 (312) 431-8612 Dieu Donné Papermill 433 Broome St. New York, NY 10013 (212) 226-0573 Friends of Dard Hunter Peggy Skycraft, Vice President, Membership 26395 S. Morgan Rd. Estacada, OR 97023 (503) 630-7173 Hand Papermaking Box 77027 Washington, DC 20013-7027 (301) 699-3143 The Robert C. Williams American Museum of Papermaking 500 10th St., N.W. Atlanta, GA 30318 http://www.ipst.edu/amp/ Twinrocker Box 413 Brookston, IN 47923 (765) 563-3119 http://www.twinrocker.com University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies Box 870252 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0252 (205) 348-4610 http://www.slis.ua.edu/book.html University of Iowa Timothy Barrett School of Art and Art History Iowa City, IO 52242 (319) 335-1765 University of the Arts Mary Phelan, MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking 320 S. Broad St. Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 875-1119

The uses for handmade paper are now more specialized. American mills still provide some handmade paper for books, but these tend to be limited-edition works, usually printed with lead type and bound by hand. Stationery is still made from handmade paper, too, but now it is for the high end of that market and includes special invitations and announcements. And artists still use handmade paper as a substrate for calligraphy, watercolor and printmaking. One relatively new but small market for American handmade papers lies in book and paper conservation; some papermakers now specialize in reproducing papers made before the machine era, for use in repairing and preserving rare and historic books and documents.

In the middle of this century, Douglass Morse Howell began exploring artistic uses of paper and paper pulp. Over the last 40 years, artists have developed paper as a new medium, largely through his influence and example.

They have extended it beyond its more typical uses as a surface for other media (whether printers' ink or artists' paint) to the primary medium for sculpture, two-dimensional works and unique artists' books. This adaptation of papermaking, while based on the traditional craft, is quite different. Although many call themselves "papermakers," most artists working creatively with this new medium are far removed from the production manufacture of sheets of paper.

Nonetheless, the few production hand papermills in America have led and benefitted from this new direction in paper making. Some of them -- Twinrocker and Dieu Donné Papermill, in particular -- augment their traditional practice of the craft by working in collaboration with artists. Together they create innovative works which combine the skill of the craftsperson with the creative vision of the artist.

Recent activity in hand papermaking has led to a renewed interest in the history of the craft. This, in turn, has spurred some Americans to seek out papermakers in other parts of the world, and to try to preserve and sustain those traditions. Other efforts have imposed modern Western papermaking techniques on communities abroad, especially in Asia and South America: Typically these efforts are entrepreneurial or aim to provide economic sustenance for the workers, rather than focus on preserving local papermaking techniques.

But hand papermaking is being taught at a few universities around the country, usually as a part of programs which encompass the larger field known as the book arts. Four institutions now offer particularly strong programs: University of Iowa, University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), University of the Arts (Philadelphia) and Columbia College (Chicago). While students from these programs may not go on to set up their own production mills, at least a new generation is learning the history of the craft.

The cheap labor costs in today's global economy and the increasing number of inexpensive, imported handmade papers make life difficult for those running America's mills. As was true for earlier papermakers, equipment costs are still high, the work is labor-intensive, and gaining access to consumer markets remains a challenge. The survival of the traditional craft on a production scale in this country is uncertain, but collaborations with artists and institutional support provide much hope.