Feller Family Collections Arrive!

Richard Mathews & Sean Donnelly unpack some original Donohue Co. art.

There was a buzz of excitement this week as the Feller Family Collections arrived by truck from Illinois and we began to unload the three large pallets that include antique patent models of presses, books and manuals about printing and typography, examples of early letterpress newspapers and printed pages, framed posters and artifacts, and original artwork and printing blocks from Donohue Company children's books at the turn of the twentieth century.

The three shipping pallets fill the TBAS composing room space.

Letterpress Coordinator Carl Mario Nudi and donor Les Feller had done a professional packing job at the Feller home in Niles, Illinois. The whole shipment arrived in great shape. Their custom-made boxes and ample foam “peanuts” even protected the fragile glass case around the working patent model of a gravure rotary press, which arrived without a scratch or crack.

Richard Mathews, Mikey Rumore, and Sean Donnelly begin unpacking.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be unpacking all the boxes, identifying the items, and finding appropriate spots for all the new resources in the Tampa Book Arts Studio.  We'll be posting news and features about some of the highlights of the Feller Family Collections as we explore and learn about them in the weeks and months to come.

Special thanks again to Les and Elaine Feller for their generosity.

Carl Nudi unpacks an antique mimeograph machine.

Carl checks out the condition of the fragile glass display case.

The gravure press and display case arrived in perfect shape.