The Proprietor

My name is Chuck Peters. I am a botanist, a tropical ecologist, and a fledgling letterpress printer. I am emeritus curator of botany at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), where I worked for 35 years as a member of the science staff. I have directed conservation and sustainable resource-use projects in nineteen countries throughout the tropics (see Managing the Wild). On retiring from NYBG in 2018, I started working as an intern at The Center for Book Arts (CBA) in New York. During my time there, I catalogued the CBA type collection and, together with Matt Collins, produced a specimen book of the 691 metal typefaces in the CBA print shop (see Showing Our Faces). In September of 2020, I moved to Austin, Texas and started volunteering at the Austin Book Arts Center. I was hit by a pick-up truck while riding my motorcycle (Harley Sportster, Iron 883) in June 2021, had my left leg amputated (below the knee), got a prosthetic leg in October, and I am re-learning how to walk. Unapologetically disabled. Amputee strong.

Contact: editionsdharmapine@gmail.com

The Shop

I set up a print shop in the garage at my house in Austin. I have three type cabinets and 52 cases of metal and wood type. I have a good assortment of metal and wooden furniture, a full cabinet of wooden reglets, a bunch of quoins and keys, several composing sticks of different size, and a lovely rack of leading and slugs. The binding workbench has an 18 inch guillotine paper trimmer, a book press, and several cutting mats. The shop is blessed with a beautiful Thai Buddha and several cacti. I can make a lot of cool stuff in this space.

The Press

I print on a fixed-bed Vandercook Universal I proof press (Serial No. 21819). The press was made in 1961 for the Von Boeckmann-Jones printing company in Austin and has apparently been in central Texas its entire life. I purchased the press from Jace Graf of Cloverleaf Studios – who took good care of it.