Fifty-nine visitors pulled the handle of a tabletop printing press at Haverford College during Alumni Weekend in spring 2026, each walking away with a hand-printed drink coaster.

The sessions took place in the Conservation Lab inside Lutnick Library, where Library Conservator Bruce Bumbarger and Conservation Technician Erin Moore offer letterpress printing to the campus community. Bumbarger described the workshops in a post on the college's website. The lab has housed printing presses for more than 50 years, he wrote, and for much of that time the college's job press printed the honorary degrees handed out at Commencement.

Most of that equipment is gone. Shifting interests and a need for space led to the auctioning of the larger presses, with the last one leaving before the new library opened in 2019. Two smaller tabletop presses, personally owned by Bumbarger, now anchor the operation.

The workhorse is a 6-by-10-inch Kelsey "Excelsior," a platen press of the kind once found in middle- and high-school shop classes. The lab no longer sets lead type by hand. A computer layout program generates a digital file that is output as a polymer printing plate, mounted on a metal base and locked into the press.

The first workshop in 2026 came in early February, when several members of the Haverford College Alumni Executive Committee visited the lab. Participants printed a keepsake pamphlet featuring a poem, "Lester Tells of Wanda and the Big Snow" by Paul Zimmer, and a photograph reproduction, "Galena" by Art Sinsabaugh. That photograph is part of a larger body of work donated by alumnus Tom Garver, housed in Quaker & Special Collections.

The bigger draw came during Alumni Weekend, when 59 visitors cycled through the lab over a full morning and afternoon. Each learned the basics of operating a handpress and left with printed coasters. A lucky few also picked up extra copies of the pamphlet from the February session.

"Those stopping by ran the gamut, from the 10-month-old child of a former Conservation Lab student staff member (with parent in tow) to two alumni who shared fond memories of having spent time as teens in a small commercial print shop on Wall Street in the early '70s," Bumbarger wrote.

The next open session is Oct. 24 from 10 a.m. to noon during Family and Friends Weekend at Lutnick 107 on the Haverford College campus.