Counterclockwise from top left: The press room as it would have been in the mining days of Terlingua.
Tools of the trade – typographer Lauren Stedman’s typefaces wait to go to work.
Menagerie Press:
Hot Type in the Terlingua Desert
by Nora Seymour
T
he fresh, yeasty scent of new ink
fills the air inside a small adobe
building perched at the top of
Terlingua’s Ghost Town. At a waist-
high red desk in the corner, Menagerie
Press owner, designer, typographer,
and printer Lauren Stedman carefully
fits individual lead blocks into a wooden
frame, or “chase,” aligning them with
22
breath-taking precision and attention to
detail. The letters are locked in with
“quoins,” small wedges that hold the
type in place.
Soon, Stedman will use a painter’s
palette knife to spread a small amount
of green ink onto the flat, circular plat-
en of a letter-press dating from the
1920s. The spinning motion of the plat-
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2013
en will spread the pigment evenly in a
thin layer.
Amid the whir of the flywheel driv-
ing the press, Stedman mounts the type
block and sets the process in motion.
The press begins to thump rhythmical-
ly, a large yet elegant beast awakened
from slumber.
With only seconds between impres-
sions, Stedman feeds sheet after sheet of
heavy paper stock into the press. As
press meets type, type meets ink and ink
meets paper, something completely
new is born. The resulting printed piece
is so sharp it looks embossed. The letters
are precise, razor-sharp; a harmonious
marriage of age-old technology and
modern design esthetic.