The Scarlet Letterpress
The Scarlet Letterpress is the book-arts makerspace for the Rutgers Initiative for the Book. We are dedicated to critical and creative exploration of the material word, where the literary arts meet the handicrafts of printing and bookmaking.
Located on the third floor of Murray Hall, we are open to students, faculty, staff and New Jersey residents. No experience is required.
The Letterpress offers hands-on experience with moveable type and hand-operated printing presses. We also make available typewriters, equipment for making paper and ink, and more analogue technologies of print making and bookhistory. Our collection of materials and technologies is ever-growing, so please stop by to see what’s new!
Get in touch if you would like to visit our workspace or talk about our resources.
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How to Use the Press
Drop in during our OPEN HOURS:
- Wednesday 1-5pm
- Thursday 1-5pm
- Friday: 10a-12n & 1-5pm
Murray Hall Room 309, on the Rutgers-New Brunswick College Ave Campus.
No experience is necessary!
Roll on in, or ROLL US OUT
If you’re Rutgers faculty, we’d love to visit your class. We can introduce your students to letterpress printing, papermaking, bookbinding, inkmaking, relief-block printing, and more.
So much of our students’ lives are virtual– but reading shouldn’t be. If you think the Letterpress can bring something to your class, please fill out our REQUEST FORM.
We can find a time to bring your class into the Scarlet Letterpress… or arrange for one of the Rutgers Book Initiative fellows to visit with equipment for a hands-on session.
Interested in co-hosting an event or putting together a workshop for your club? Reach out! We’d be happy to work with you.
Recent events include workshops with RAHSA, The Anthologist, the Rutgers Poetry Club, the Aro and Ace Alliance, Sigma Tau Delta (the English Honors society), and others.
Some events we have hosted in the past include workshops on block printing, poster-making, writing letters in quill and ink, printing poems and prose, making paper, or printing holiday cards.
GET IN TOUCH if you’d like to learn more!
Announcements
Open Hours: New and Improved!
Announcing our new, expanded open hours!
❦ Wednesday: 1-5pm
❦ Thursday: 1-5pm
❦ Friday: 10-12pm & 1-5pm
Come by! All are welcome, and training will be provided.
Classroom Visits: the SL Goes Mobile!
Want your class to visit the Scarlet Letterpress?
Rutgers faculty interested in a classroom visit or workshop can find out more here.
Fill out our Contact Form to arrange a class visit to the Scarlet Letterpress– or have one of our fellows visit you.
BEGINNINGS
On Election Day, 2023, 120 people crowded into Rutgers’s new humanities makerspace, the Scarlet Letterpress, to learn to print on a vintage press, bind their own notebook, make typewriter art, or examine old books for clues to the people who owned them. Students, faculty, and community members each walked away with their own handmade copy of a poem by Evie Shockley, Distinguished Professor of English and a finalist for the National Book Award.
HOW IT’S GOING
The Scarlet Letterpress continues to host events and offer a space of creation and learning for its community. Below are photos from various events that have allowed students, faculty, employees, and visitors from beyond Rutgers University to enjoy using our materials and resource to make and learn about print making and book history.
Email us to subscribe to our newsletter: book@cca.rutgers.edu.
Follow us on Instagram, @RUScarletLetterpress
Want to sign up to use the makerspace? Fill out a VISIT REQUEST.
The Scarlet Letterpress operates under the Rutgers IT policy for fair and reasonable use of our equipment.