Well, here she be. (Or should I say, Thar she blows?)
At long last, Thea is here, barnacles and all. Jessica and I unveiled her at our Pressing Matters talk at the Tacoma Art Museum this morning. I have to say, I was nervous that with the weekday morning time slot, we’d be hoist on our own petard for the big debut. Since 10:30 on a Tuesday is generally only available to senior citizens and the unemployed, we were afraid we’d be lecturing a bunch of empty chairs. Boy were we wrong. Many thanks to all of you who skipped out on work, took a long (and very early) lunch, or otherwise carved out an hour of your day to spend with us—we raise our pirate flags to you. And to Allison Baer, TAM’s very own renaissance woman who made it all happen, you get the biggest Jolly Roger of them all. Thank you.
This week I’m going to post some of the things we talked about today at TAM, about the making of Tugboat Thea and the Feminist Broadside series (no, I haven’t forgotten about those photos I teased you with earlier; those posts are coming soon, I promise). But for now, let’s just get down to brass tacks about the print. Here’s the blurb we’re sending round to our mailing list:
“There are so many things left to do.”
—Thea Foss
Hot off the press! Our newest addition to the letterpress Feminist Broadside series, Tugboat Thea, is printed from hand-lettered original typography and hand-drawn illustrations and patterns (in fact, everything was done by hand, the hard way!). This piece is a collaboration between Chandler O’Leary of Anagram Press and Jessica Spring of Springtide Press, in honor of enterprising women everywhere.
The illustration is inspired by Thea Foss, business pioneer and entrepreneur, who founded the Foss Tugboat company in Tacoma, WA—at a time in history when it was not only courageous, but nearly unheard of for a woman to do so. Here Thea is portrayed as the figurehead of her own tugboat, surrounded by crashing waves and sea life native to her home waters of Puget Sound.
The poster was printed on an antique Vandercook Universal One press. Each piece was printed at Springtide Press—not far from the water—in Tacoma, on archival, 100% rag, recycled paper, and is signed by both artists.
Edition size: 89
Paper size: 10 x 18 inches
Colophon reads:
Norwegian immigrant Thea Christiansen Foss (1857 – 1927) arrived by train to Tacoma in 1889 as Washington achieved statehood. While her husband Andrew was at work she spent five dollars on a rowboat, launching a marine transport business that would grow into Foss Maritime, operating the west coast’s largest fleet of tugboats. Thea inspired the character “Tugboat Annie” featured in a Saturday Evening Post series, motion pictures and a television show. Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway is an inlet connected to Puget Sound named in her honor.
As our self-induced period of secrecy is finally over, the prints are now officially available for sale. I’ve got to warn you, though—they’re going fast. If you live on far shores, you can get your copy (and see more detailed photos) on the Anagram Press Etsy shop for $35. If you’re local, just send me a message in a bottle (though email might reach me sooner) if you want to arrange pick-up and avoid Etsy’s shipping fees.
One last thing: we’re finally offering subscriptions to the whole series. In exchange for committing to purchase at least one print of each edition for the length of the series (we reckon there’ll be a new print every three or four months), the subscriber price is $30. If you’re interested, just drop me a fishing line at chandler [at] anagram-press [dot] com.
