The Williamsburg Imprints Program exists in an unusual environment. Its Project Coordinator, Brett Charbeneau, is a Journeyman Printer, having completed a six-year apprenticeship program at the Printing Office in Colonial Williamsburg.
he tradition of the close physical examination of printing goes back at
least to the early 19th century. The result of such study often takes the
form of a detailed list of imprints organized by place of origin, printer,
date, and/or genre. Such lists, at least in their most complete forms, are
called descriptive bibliographies.
Though there have been many excellent enumerative lists of the output of the American printing trades, there have been surprisingly few that have concerned themselves with the details of paper and type that would enable precise dating, identification of printer, or place of production.
The goal of the Williamsburg Imprints Program (WIP) is to carefully examine every single surviving product of Williamsburg's 18th-century presses in order to provide such information. In practise, the project examines imprints and collects data on up to 200 physical characteristics which are then entered into a relational database.
As of October 1995, the program has examined several hundred Williamsburg imprints. While there are still a large number of imprints yet to be evaluated, this start provides a base from which to continue to work.
