Vandercook No. 05 Model

Completed in 2001, Historic Sugartown’s Book Bindery houses a world-class collection of book binding tools and equipment originally belonging to the late master bookbinder, Fred Shihadeh. This collection has been regarded by Steve Beare as one of the largest in the country in terms of signed 19th century Philadelphia tools. 

Aside from your typical book binding tools, the Bindery also houses equipment used for printing. What we now think of as quick and easy- simply clicking “Print” from a computer or having a digital copy right at our fingertips- was not always so. For centuries, the primary method of printing and dispersing text and images relied on the printing press.

One such printing press, formerly tucked away under the Bindery stairwell, is a Vandercook No. 05 Hand Galley Proof Press. A proof press, or test press, is a specialized form of a printing press intended to create test prints, or “proofs” of a printed product that can be checked for mistakes and quality before the final product is mass printed and dispersed. A proof press typically will use the same ink, paper, plates, and type- letters, symbols, and characters assembled to create text- as the final prints to ensure the highest accuracy. 

This particular proof press, manufactured from 1949 to 1958, weighs a whopping 800+ pounds! A shout out to Scott, Ramon, Jose, and Elaine for moving it out of its stairwell hiding place! Unlike many other Vandercook Press models, the No. 05 does not have a typical crank handle to move the impression cylinder, but instead requires the printer to push or pull in order to create prints. 

Something fun to note: Vandercook publishes a census of Vandercook presses still in existence across the world! According to the table, there are 2,650 (known and registered) Vandercook presses worldwide at the time of this writing, only 12 of which- now 13!- are the No. 05 models. 

Vandercook printing company was founded by Robert Oatman Vandercook (1866-1951), whose interest in printing began at the age of ten years old. Vandercook attended Northwestern University where he established the university’s first press, printing textbooks. The Vandercook printing company also had a hand in manufacturing wartime machine tools during both WWII and again in the Korean War. 

For more details on the Vandercook Press timeline, click here.

For the Vandercook Press census, click here.

Vandercook No. 05 at HSI