Used in commercial printing from the 19th century through the mid-20th century, the 20,000 photoengraving blocks in the J. Willard Marriott Library collection would have been used in the production of a variety of printed materials, including books, pamphlets, newspapers, announcements, invitations, greeting cards, and advertisements. Under the direction of Book Arts Program faculty, book arts program volunteers and student assistants have been responsible for most of the cataloging efforts to date.
At first, the collection was organized by grouping, like subject matter (such as birds, images of people, or ships) together on galley trays. This organizational strategy, however, required moving and reorganizing all of the galley trays as blocks were put away. As the number of cataloged blocks grew, this practice was, pun intended, shelved. Now blocks are filed away and given a cabinet address based on their original galley tray. This means that carefully labeled “birds” will be scattered through the galley tray cabinets. Cabinet address and inventory numbers are noted on the original print proofs as a backup inventory control measure.
With the rare exceptions of zinc cuts that exceed an 8.5 x 11” footprint, scans appear in the physical catalog at true size. Large zinc cuts appear at a reduced size, with appropriate notation. Zinc cuts that are damaged are proofed and scanned, with damage notes added to the catalog. Moving to a digital catalog will require physically measuring each zinc cut with digital calipers since size will no longer be obvious to the potential end user; notations about damage or other issues will also transfer to the digital catalog.
Zinc cuts can be fiddly to print, requiring some amount of make-ready temporarily attached to sections of the wood block underneath the metal plate. Nails are sometimes visible in the printed image; usually this can be fixed using a nail set and light tapping with a small hammer, being careful not to strike any other part of the plate with the nail set or the hammer. In cases where the nails are not possible to hide, damage notations are made in the catalog. A galley tray usually contains between ten and fifteen blocks, carefully arranged to maximize use of the space (sometimes fitting them back presents a Tetris-like challenge). The blocks are square or rectangular but are occasionally irregularly so (like Utah’s state boundaries compared to those of Wyoming or Colorado). A proof printing session can proceed most efficiently if the blocks from one tray are printed from largest to smallest (and the next tray from smallest to largest, and so forth); this greatly reduces setup changes.
In addition to the multi-step, manual process of printing the photoengravings and preparing them for digitization and search engine optimization, one of the serious challenges of cataloging the images in the collection has been the sheer volume of subject matter present. Only about a fifth of the collection has been cataloged, so many more gems sit waiting to be found. Some images provide interesting insight into long-ago mechanical or logistical processes in factories, below deck on ships, or in the loading of ships from dockside. There are dramatic scenes that are quiet; dramatic scenes that are full of action; and other dramatic scenes that seriously beg the question of what was going on in the accompanying text.
As electronic platforms have advanced in functionality, some early versions of key wording in the studio were lost in computer and software upgrades, a long pandemic hiatus, and other incompatibilities. Moving the existing data as well as updating and standardizing descriptive material under the umbrella of the Marriott Library’s Digital Collections team should ensure data integrity, continuity, preservation, and backup going forward. Additionally, this move will create a road map for future staffing needs and standardize information about the project to ensure smooth knowledge transfer and strategic planning.
The accompanying illustrations offer the very briefest introduction to the wonderful variety and not-yet fully explored creative potential of the J. Willard Marriott Library Photoengraving and Zinc Cut Collection housed in the Book Arts Studio at the University of Utah. We look forward to being able to share this resource more broadly with book artists near and far in the coming years.
mahala kephart, flutist by training and retired university development administrator, is a long‑time volunteer and student in the University of Utah’s Book Arts Studio. Work on printing and cataloging the photoengraving and zinc cut collection has proven to be a surprising marriage of the analog and digital worlds.
