Roland Hoover
Pembroke Press
Pembroke Press was established in 1957 and is located in Bethesda, Maryland.
For the past fifty years, the Pembroke Press has printed by letterpress for the persons, institutions, and causes that engage the sympathy of its proprietor, who long ago discovered “the quintessential joy, the irreplaceable fascination, of handiwork in a warm and windowed room” as Carl Rollins expressed it. The enterprise has also been known from time to time as the firm of Rowley, Powley, Gammon & Spinach (a title taken from Mother Goose), as the Letterbug, and as the Plumbum Press. Under any name it is devoted to the craft of letterpress printing, rather than to any particular artistic or economic purpose.
The shop is equipped with 360 cases and 200 storage galleys of hand type and five presses. Workhorse faces include Bulmer, Palatino, Centaur, Poliphilus, Emerson, and Garamond, supplemented by dozens of display fonts and a lot of wood type.
The Liberty of the Press, broadside by Roland Hoover of the Pembroke Press, handset in Bell and Brimmer, printed on Curtis Rag paper in two inks, edition of 50, 7” x 19”, 1987.
It helps, now and then, prayer keepsake by Roland Hoover of the Pembroke Press, handset in Centaur and Arrighi and printed on Wookey Hole handmade cover stock in one color, 12” x 17.5”, 2007.
Montgomery County Agricultural Fair Series, keepsake ephemera by Roland Hoover of the Pembroke Press, handset and printed in black ink with illustrations (cabbage linocut by Chris Manson) on various papers, 5” x 7”, 2002, 2004.
There are those at Yale, broadside by Roland A. Hoover of The Pembroke Press, handset and printed in one ink, with wood engraving by John DePol, 10” x 18”, 1988.
Our Musical Past, concert program for the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress by Roland Hoover of the Pembroke Press, handset in Bulmer and various display types, printed on duplex stock in black ink, 6.5” x 10”, 1974.
Gresham’s Law: Knowledge or Information?, broadside by Roland Hoover of the Pembroke Press, handset in Centaur and Arrighi, printed on Rives Heavyweight mould-made paper in two inks, edition of 100, 15” x 20.5”, 1979.
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