When Kristin Parker started working at the Boston Public Library, she made a discovery.
“I noticed that these presses were in this space, in a gallery that had been disused for a long time, and they had big padlocks on them,” she said. Parker is the lead curator and manager of the arts at the BPL.
She had found an ancient printing press, covered in dust, that had once been in the library’s Wiggin Gallery. As a printmaker herself, she was familiar with old presses, so she restored it. During that process, she learned more about its legacy at the library in the mid-20th century.
“At noontime every day, they would do printmaking demonstrations,” Parker said. “I thought that was incredible …I wanted to bring them back to life.”
This press and others are now being used in workshops at the library. Over the last year, visitors have gathered to learn the art of printmaking and make their own signs. It’s part of the BPL’s effort to mark the road to the American Revolution. Printmaking is a huge part of that history. But it’s also a big part of the present.
“You don’t need to have a lot of skill to create text posters and have your voice heard loudly,” said local printmaker Crystalle Lacouture, who led workshops this spring.
Printing presses were crucial in fomenting colonial discontent with British rule. Words and images alike spread messages and questioned authority. Paul Revere engraved and printed one such message. It’s called in part, “The bloody massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston.” Originally printed in black and white, it shows a snowy night in March. On the left are colonists. On the right, with guns drawn, are the British.
“ I think you just have to look at it. You can see that there are red coats in the streets of Boston shooting their muskets and killing people,” said Gary Gregory, an expert on the history of printmaking in the region. “It was wildly impactful.”
For nearly two decades, Gregory recreated Revolutionary-era prints at his shop The Printing Office of Edes & Gill — named for the two famous printmakers who operated before and during the Revolution. Revere’s image was widely distributed in the colonies. It became a piece of propaganda for the Patriot cause, said Gregory.
“How do you motivate a population to go to war?” Gregory asked. “You don’t do it from them hanging out at a tavern talking. Of course, that’s going to happen, but they’re going to be talking as a result of something that was printed.”
There are countless examples of this impact throughout the last 250 years. For Kristin Parker, this history is reflected today.
“We are in this movement of these mass protests and social uprisings,” Parker said. “I think people are really craving the opportunity to make things, to hold things, to touch things, to explore and be creative.”
On a recent Thursday, dozens of people gathered to learn the basics. Among them was Ekua Holmes.
“ Artists have a crucial role to play in keeping important issues in front of the public,” Holmes said.
The Boston-based artist was carving her version of an American flag — on it, the stars tumble out of the blue box.
“They’re breaking out of the box of maybe the restrictions of what some of us think America should be,” she said.
She thinks all of us — in this moment — are like those stars.
“ We’re expressing ourselves and we are coming out of the box,” Holmes said.
She sat beside friend, fellow artist and former head of the Boston Art Commission Karin Goodfellow, who carved what looks like Rosie the Riveter’s fist. Goodfellow thinks this moment is a time for protest.
“There is just so much going on in our neighborhoods where folks are being persecuted and are in need and their friends, their families and strangers up the street sticking up for them,” Goodfellow said.
On the other end of the table, Liz Anusauskas got ready to make her print. She carved “joy together is the power” surrounded by leaves — she said this is a time to come together.
“There’s a lot of fear and frustration and anger and deep sadness and grief in this moment,” Anusauskas, who works with immigrants, said. “But I think it’s really powerful when folks are able to come together in spaces like this and just create art that’s more fun and free.”
Participants printed by hand or used the press, which was donated to the library by local printmaker Bob Tomolillo. It belonged to legendary artist Hyman Bloom, who was widely influential in the city. Crystalle Lacouture stood near it, ready to help anyone who wanted to use it. She said messages made in this art form have a legacy.
“It’s language that transgresses a specific sort of protest against an issue and brings it more into universal ideas for the moment,” she said. “And that could be about something that happened in the 1960s or in the Revolution or in the future. And I think it just unites us all.”
After each workshop, the library collected copies of the prints to display in an upcoming exhibit, slated to open this fall.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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