B4
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2022
Salem master printer restores history
By TOM HENDERSON
For The Oregonian
Many people have read
the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, but Lee Schrunk,
an 89-year-old suppos-
edly retired printer, knows
it consists of almost 7,000
individual pieces of type.
He held each one between
his thumb and forefi nger as
he gently rebuilt the docu-
ment — one letter at a time.
Add in the tiny strips of
lead, copper and brass used
to separate the words and
the lines, and Schrunk said
America’s
revolutionary
manifesto weighs approxi-
mately 65 pounds.
Schrunk then hand-made
sheets of paper to make
faithful reproductions of
the document.
“I wanted to make sure
the paper was as close as
possible to the parchment
used in 1776,” Shrunk
said. “That authenticity is
important to me.”
He printed it exactly the
way rebellious colonists
did in 1776, by physically
pressing ink to paper by
swinging a metal arm.
“When they talked about
‘freedom of the press’
back then, they weren’t
just talking about the press
the way we do today as it
relates to journalists who
report the news,” Schrunk
said. “The press was a very
real, very hands-on, sort of
thing. I want to respect that
tradition.”
Schrunk lives in west
Salem near Oregon 99W,
and the stairs to his base-
ment lead directly to a
world before computers or
even copy machines. He
allows visitors to join him
there by appointment.
There’s little in the pri-
vate print shop to remind
those visitors they remain
in the 21st century. A time
clock from early in the last
century still holds a punch
card and waits for printers’
devils — apprentices —
and their mentors to begin
and end their shifts.
A candlestick phone
looks like it may ring any
moment with orders from
the editor to tear down the
front page. Wooden cabi-
nets contain more pieces
of metal type than even
Schrunk can count, and vin-
tage posters fi ll whatever
wall space is not yet con-
cealed by stacks of books
and printing material.
“I’ve never been quite
comfortable with the 21st
century,” Schrunk said.
“My wife Joanne handles
the computer, email and all
the modern stuff . I like to
stay down here and out of
the way of those things.”
Mostly, the space con-
tains printing presses.
“I’m a printer at heart,”
said Schrunk. “A lot of peo-
ple who are into letterpress
printing these days think of
themselves as artists. I’m
not an artist. I’m a trades-
man. Printing is a trade for
me, a job, and a job I hap-
pen to love.”
Schrunk worked in the
state’s printing services
department from 1956 to
1992 — the last fi ve of
those years directing the
department as Oregon’s
offi cial state printer. Since
retiring, he has collected
some 150 table-top presses
in addition to his seven
larger fl oor presses.
The largest is a Wash-
ington-brand hand press
dating to the 1860s. Wash-
ington presses, invented by
Samuel Rust of New York,
were the most popular iron
hand presses in the United
States from the 1820s
through most of the 19th
century. Schrunk’s weighs
between 3,000 and 4,000
pounds, and he had to use
a car hoist to bring it, piece
by piece, into the house for
reassembly.
Schrunk
became
obsessed with printing
when he attended Salem
High School (now North
Salem) in the late ‘40s and
early ‘50s. He already mas-
tered metal and wood shop
in junior high when he
heard the school had a print
shop.
“So I knocked on the
Photos by Tom Henderson/For The Oregonian
Lee Schrunk’s west Salem basement is a journey through the history of printing with dozens of presses large and small.
However, he plans one
specifi c bequest — his
almost 70 years of accumu-
lated printing expertise.
For 20 years, students
from Chemeketa Com-
munity College came to
his house to learn at the
press treadle of the master.
Instructor Christine Linder
wanted
her
advanced
students to have more
hands-on experience.
Times change, Linder
retired, and now Cheme-
keta students no longer
visit. However, Schrunk
may lead a master class at
the Independence Heritage
Museum in Polk County
for aspiring printers’ dev-
ils who want to learn how
to restore old presses.
Natascha Adams, the
director of the heritage
museum, noted a summer
master class could come
on the heels of the revital-
ized museum celebrating
its grand reopening in late
April.
“Museums are a place
for discovery and learning,”
Adams said. “The idea of
having Lee Schrunk teach
master classes on printing
press restoration at the heri-
tage museum is thrilling. At
the heritage museum, we
believe in telling the stories
of our community that have
gone untold. What better
Schrunk examines a copy of the Declaration of Independence created on his 1860s Washington
hand press. He made sure even the paper he used was authentic to what would have been used
in 1776.
door,” he said. “That was
my introduction to the trade
I love.”
Meanwhile, in 1950,
North Korea sent its troops
across the 38th Parallel,
igniting the Korean War.
Schrunk was drafted and
trained as paratrooper, but
just as he was completing
his training in 1953, North
Korean and United Nations
forces signed a ceasefi re.
‘OUT OF
SORTS’ IS AN
EXPRESSION
THAT COMES
DIRECTLY
FROM THE
PRINT SHOP.
IT ORIGINALLY
MEANT A
PRINTER WHO
HAD RUN OUT
OF TYPE.
“That saved a lot of
lives, including mine,” he
said.
However, civilian life in
Oregon proved diffi cult in
the ‘50s. The state economy
slumped into a depression,
and many of Schrunk’s
friends turned toward Boe-
ing’s aircraft factory in
Washington state for jobs.
With the help of a lino-
type operator at the Salem
newspaper, Schrunk even-
tually found work at the
state print shop.
“There were 150 trades-
men working on everything
from typesetting to book
binding to presswork — all
that good ol’ technology,
you might say,” he recalled.
“They printed everything
from forms to law books.
I was in hog heaven. That
was the start of something
I thoroughly enjoyed. I
couldn’t get enough of it.”
Even now, as he
approaches his 90th year, he
remains restless. Schrunk
continues to search for the
next printing project. The
American Revolution pro-
vides an endless source of
inspiration. After his repro-
duction of the Declaration
of Independence, he turned
his eyes toward the individ-
ual signers.
About 10 years ago,
Schrunk visited an antique
store in Salem and discov-
ered the equivalent of bur-
ied treasure for a printer
fascinated by the declara-
tion — six volumes from
a nine-volume set provid-
ing detailed biographies
of the men who signed the
document.
The books were pub-
lished in 1820, four years
before Thomas Jeff erson
and John Adams both died
on the 50th anniversary of
the signing.
“I set about to see if I
could fi nd the other vol-
umes,” Schrunk said. “Even
the ones I found had two or
three missing pages here
and there.”
Then he struck gold. He
discovered a set of unbound
original pages from the
books.
He spent several years
restoring not only the words
and illustrations but also
binding the pages in leather
and re-creating the gold-
leaf titles and images. The
nine volumes — amounting
to 3,300 pages — are now
fully restored.
Schrunk said he feels an
obligation to history.
“Old history books nor-
mally get thrown out,” he
said. “I don’t want to say
this is the only set. You
never want to say ‘only,’
but these books ought to be
preserved somewhere.”
Although the books
are preserved, he said he
doesn’t know what will ulti-
mately become of them or
any of the things he has so
carefully created, collected
and curated over the years.
He has no will or other plan
for his estate.
“When I die, I just trust
that all these things will
eventually fi nd their way
into the hands of people
who will appreciate them
as I did,” said Schrunk.
“That’s how most of these
things found their way to
me.”
way to tell that story than
to restore a machine which
was specifi cally built to dis-
seminate information?”
Brian Hodge, execu-
tive director of The Print-
ing Museum in Hous-
ton, Texas, said preserving
letterpress is important
because it’s becoming a
lost art. “There’s an amaz-
ing amount of ritual and
practice involved in doing
it,” he said.
In fact, Hodge said,
that’s why printing experts
like Schrunk are increas-
ingly important. Printing is
traditionally a trade passed
along from master to
apprentice. It wasn’t widely
taught in schools for fear of
trade secrets being exposed
and threatening printers’
livelihoods.
“It’s diffi cult for gen-
erations today to pick up
an in-depth knowledge
of printing,” said Hodge.
“There’s very little informa-
tion written down on how
to use these presses or even
troubleshoot problems.”
The decline and possi-
ble demise of letterpress
should concern everyone,
he said, not just a few print-
ing enthusiasts with a seem-
ingly arcane hobby.
“We lose a process of an
art created by hand,” Hodge
said. “There’s something
to be said for doing some-
thing by hand. If we lose
letterpress to technological
advances and time, we lose
one more artform, one more
practice, where people can
actually touch something.”
Schrunk feels a bit out of
sorts at the moment.
“Out of sorts” is an
expression that comes
directly from the print shop.
It originally meant a printer
who had run out of type.
In Schrunk’s case, he’s
run out of projects. His most
recent, an 1850 Colum-
bian platen press restored
to working order over the
course of eight months,
wrapped up in January.
Another one will inevi-
tably come along. Whether
it’s bringing a printing
press or historical docu-
ment back to life, he’ll be
tinkering again and build-
ing words out of metal.
“When I fi nished work-
ing on that last press, after
my assignment was up but
my adrenaline was still
going, I knew I was going
to have to fi nd something
new,” he said. “I always
have to fi nd something new,
especially if it’s something
old.”
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