On this summer day in 1903 in a Park Ridge, Illinois barn there was struck the first proof to come from the Village Press under the watchful eyes of its enthusiastic proprietors, Frederic W. Goudy, Bertha Goudy, and Will Ransom Whereas most private presses consider type to be but one of the appurtenances of a [...]

“The wildly enthusiastic youngster from Snohomish, Washington,” who helped Fred Goudy start the Village Press and then went on to a long and distinguished career in typography, died this day in 1955. Will Ransom’s interest in printing came about when as a boy he wrote out by hand his favorite stories, decorating them in the [...]

The journal of Will Ransom contained an entry for April 4, 1903: “Saturday. Before I went to work this morning I went up to see Goudy and he made me a proposition to work with him during the summer. I might make enough to live on, but probably not, and then he may go East [...]