Ralph Maxwell describes the history of The Oglethorpe Echo Wednesday, March 22, 2023; Doors at 6:30 pm
Ralph Maxwell, Jr., talks about the History of The Oglethorpe Echo
Ralph took over editorship (and lots more) of the Echo from his father some 40 years ago. He recently gave up the business but the paper remains strong. Come hear him talk about those years and learn interesting history including stuff (we hope) not suitable for print.
The event is free and there will be snacks as well!
Some Articles about Ralph and the Transition of the Echo:
Dink NeSmith (2021) The Echo is planning new era with new ownership. Blog, dinknesmith.com, September 29, 2021.
Bob Sillick (2021) This is one Echo that won't fade: Inspiration and ingenuity save a community newspaper while creating an opportunity for journalism students. Editor & Publisher, December 10, 2021.
Ralph Maxwell, Wednesday, March 22 2023 Doors at 6:30 and presentation at 7:00 pm
Ralph gave a very interesting talk about the history of letterpress and offset printing, in particular at the Echo and neighboring weeklies. We learned that Greater Georgia Printers in Crawford was started by a coallition of local papers to house their first offset presses under the supervision of the Echo editor.
Not enough time for much detail of high and low points of the paper or of its editors, but perhaps those can be covered at another time, perhaps by others. In short, not enough gossip, according to Mary!
On a personal note, to help support a large family in the Depression, rather than try for college, my father started as a journeyman on letterpresses at the Banta Publishing Company in Menasha WI, which printed mostly high-end books with fine papers from the local paper mills. They were still in use as I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's so I saw first hand the linotypes, the composition tables, the transfer turtles and the small letterpresses that Ralph described as in use at the Echo between 1917 and the 1960's. My father transitioned to offset printing (just barely and without much satisfaction) as a supervisor, having some role in running huge web offset presses that had rolls of paper on one end and sealed boxes of freshly-printed books on the other end, the books untouched by human hands.
But I believe that Dad found mixing inks for the letterpresses more satisfying and I shared with him the almost erotic sensation of feeling the imprint of lead type on the 100% rag paper in the best books then made anywhere. Ralph did a good job giving his audience a flavor of the challenges and rewards of those technologies at our local papers.
