Printing History: Flongs — a show and tell of paper molds used in 18th C/19th C printing
Channel: Glenn Fleishman
Date: 2021-10-16

Journalist and printing-history researcher Glenn Fleishman hosts a live “flong show-and-tell” in which early-book researchers and experts display historic printing molds, called “flongs” from their collections or their institutions. Flongs were used to produce full-page metal plates, often for newspaper printing, from the 1800s through the 1980s. While largely forgotten, some who study the history of printing have found or purchased examples of flongs used for cartoon syndication, advertising production, full-page newspaper printing, tickets, and many other purposes. Read more about flongs at https://glennf.medium.com/flong-time-no-see-2b54438027dd

Participants in this first flong show-and-tell:

• Glenn Fleishman, journalist, printer, designer, and creator of the Tiny Type Museum & Time Capsule https://tinytypemuseum.com (Twitter @glennf)

• Elizabeth Savage, flong aficionado and Senior Lecturer in Book History and Communications, Institute of English Studies, author of “Early Colour Printing: German Renaissance Woodcuts at the British Museum” (Twitter @leusavage)

• Dennis Duncan, lecturer in English Literature at UCL in London, author of “Index, a History of the” (Twitter @djbduncan)

• Paul W. Nash, bibliographer, librarian and printing historian, amateur printer, and current editor of the Journal of the Printing Historical Society (Twitter @PrOGPaul)

• Sarah Werner, book historian, Shakespearean, and digital media scholar, and author of “Studying Early Printed Books 1450-1800: A Practical Guide” (Twitter @wynkenhimself)