After more than 40 years at UW-Madison, Silver Buckle Press and the letterpress printing collections housed there will move to the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, according to Silver Buckle Director Tracy Honn.
The working museum, currently located at Memorial Library, will move due to budget cuts after Honn retires in 2016 and is home to many letter art tools, including a printing press. The collections originally aggregated in Michigan and were brought to Madison by Walter Hamady, a former professor in the art department.
Honn said she got “hooked” on Silver Buckle when she interned as a graduate student. The museum has since operated with an educational mission in mind, offering similar opportunities to today’s students, who Honn said get extensive training in working on a rare, pristine collection.
Although the new location, a roughly two-hour drive from campus, will make it more difficult for UW-Madison students to see the collection, Honn said campus libraries are working to facilitate trips to the Hamilton museum, which she said would love to have more student visitors.
Honn praised the way university libraries have created a home for Silver Buckle.
“It’s been on campus and has had a life,” Honn said. “And as part of the library, a much bigger institution, it has carved out this little space that’s meaningful to a group of people.”
The Wisconsin Idea is at the heart of this new step for Silver Buckle, Honn explained, because of its unique intellectual property. Parts of the collection are now being digitized, which she said will be an endeavor still hosted through UW-Madison.
This letterpress digitization comes at the forefront of renewed interest in the practice, something Honn said brings together both old-school collectors and newer ones, like graphic design students.
Honn said Silver Buckle has been successful at UW-Madison, and the Hamilton placement, while not the “perfect world” arrangement for the collection, will provide it with the best support.
“I’m really trying to focus on what we have to celebrate, and knowing that I had the opportunity, because the libraries allowed me to, to help preserve something that’s good in the world,” Honn said. “And I don’t have to walk away thinking it’s just over.”
