Scholars blend approaches through center for history of print culture

From books lining a professor’s shelves to free newspapers a student picks up in a hallway to the best seller a program assistant reads while on break, printed material is everywhere.

While each of the three may not realize that their chosen printed materials convey meaning, print culture scholars study precisely that. Books on a shelf, they say, may signify the level of one’s education, reading a particular newspaper can suggest political affiliation, and hiding one’s nose in a book may give a non-verbal signal not to disturb.

Like printed material itself, print culture scholars can be found all over campus, with representatives from disciplines such as history, journalism and mass communication, library science, human ecology and health sciences, says James P. Danky, director of the campus Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America. “I don’t think you can be any broader than that,” he notes.

This multidisciplinary approach gives the 18-year-old scholarly field much of its strength, Danky says.

The approach has parlayed the center into an institution with an international reputation, Danky says. The Wisconsin Historical Society and UW–Madison sponsor the center, which is in its 11th year. The School of Library and Information Studies is the center’s administrative home.

“Its broad interdisciplinary emphasis, the involvement of nationally recognized UW–Madison scholars and its historical society-university partnership make the Wisconsin center unique,” says John Y. Cole, founding director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. “As a result, it has become one of our country’s leading print culture centers.”

Rima D. Apple, professor in the School of Human Ecology and the Women’s Studies Program, finds that print culture history enhances her study of motherhood. An examination of magazines, infant-care and home-medical manuals, and advertisements “give us a sense both of what mothers were reacting to and how they were shaping their experiences,” she says.

“Analysis of print culture illustrates complexities and interrelationships. For example, if one studies advice about infant care in the 1920s and the 1930s, one reads that it was most important to carefully regulate and schedule the infant,” says Apple, who is chair of the print culture center’s advisory board. “Many women did this, but unless we go deeper into the print culture, we do not realize that mothers’ close scheduling of their infants was only partially informed by the printed advice they received. Mothers books and mothers essays, the pivotal content of print culture, tell us they had many other reasons for doing what today is counter-intuitive, i.e. scheduling the baby.

“This may give us insight into how our parents act and how we act,” Apple adds.

Advertisements, newspapers, books and how-to manuals are all fair game in print culture studies. “One of the distinguishing features of print culture history,” Danky says, “is that one text is not privileged over another.” Free newspapers are as worthy of study as are the books on a professor’s shelf, and as important as the context in which people read and use print.

The center sponsors at least three colloquia a semester. The last for fall semester will be Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 3:30 p.m. in 4207 Helen C. White Hall. Co-sponsored by SLIS, it will feature Adam Laats of the Department of History speaking on “Quiet Crusade: The Moody Bible Institute’s Mission to Public Schools, 1921-1951.”

The center, which helped establish a Ph.D. minor in print culture studies in 1998, has hosted four national conferences, though one on women and print was canceled in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Each conference has produced a book and set the groundwork for a series published by UW Press, with the proceeds coming back to the center. The next conference, “Religion and the Culture of Print in America,” will be held in September.

The multidisciplinary nature of print culture studies strengthens the UW Press book series, says Steve Salemson, associate director of UW Press. The wide-ranging series features three volumes, with a fourth on women in print due in fall 2004.

“Print culture is a critical component and record of America’s history and culture,” Salemson says. “We’re delighted to be in this partnership with the center.”

Danky believes books and other printed materials will be around for a long time. Despite the pervasive nature of electronic communication, print and print culture are still with us, he says. “Print has lost little of its power.”