Just the right type

Steve Alt's passion for print keeps presses rolling in West Liberty

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Call Liberty Press a letterpress print shop, an educational treasure, a history on printing, an art showcase or a unique antique printing experience, but don’t ever use the “M” word around Steve Alt. The owner of Liberty Press says his vintage equipment print/art shop is NOT a museum.

“I take it personal,” says Alt.

The downtown West Liberty business, created just six years ago as a part-time venture/hobby by lifelong area residents Alt and his wife Sandra, may be one of the most unique businesses of its kind not only in the state of Iowa, but the entire Midwest. In particular, that’s because it’s not only a working print shop, but the business has one of the largest collection of motorless printing presses and hand-set type.

Although raised on a farm, Alt’s love for printer’s ink and design began long before 2017, when the couple bought the 3,200-square-foot building at 107 West Third Street, across from the Brick Street Gallery, and started a long remodeling process that included eliminating several walls, refinishing the floor and lots of painting.

“It’s a hobby that’s got out of hand,” Alt said. “It’s gotten crazy. I can’t say it’s out of control, because it’s not.”

Having a long-time acquaintance with Printers’ Hall, a working “hot-type, cold-type” printing operation in Mount Pleasant that showcases vintage printing equipment that is part of the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, Alt has fallen in love with the art of letterpress printing.

The shop produces no more than about 100 unique printing jobs a year from his operation that is secondary income to his electronics position at Rockwell Collins Aerospace in Iowa City, where the 58-year-old wants to retire in a few years after a career of more than three decades.

He said he first fell in love with graphic design at West Liberty High School in the art classes of Carol Cline, then fooled around in the farm world with steam-powered engines as he got older, taking a role as leader of the Heritage Building on the Muscatine County Fairgrounds in West Liberty, finding unique and antique farming pieces that he would sometimes have to rebuild into working models.

He obtained his first press — a Gordan hand-feed model — when a lady north of West Branch asked him if he was interested in buying a printing press in the fall of 1999. “The interest was already there,” Alt said. “That pushed me into the letterpress printing world.”

But while Alt said he thought, “This was cool,” he didn’t have any idea how the press operated and how he was even going to print something on it. So, he bought a couple of type cases and later realized, “I’m in a world limited to two type styles and sizes.”

He bought more, and today, has more than 1,000 type styles along with hundreds of “cuts” of logos, materials, pictures and just about anything he could acquire from shops all around the Midwest.

“I’d say now I’ve gone a little too far,” says Alt, who knows exactly where every different type font, along with accessories, is located in his shop.

Today, Liberty Press likely has one of the largest collections of wood and lead type in the Midwest and the country, with countless Hamilton and other type cabinets taking up most of the shop, a hot-lead Linotype he would love to be operational, and about a dozen vintage printing presses, most dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, even before the electric motor was invented. Many are pedal- or hand-powered, and at least a half dozen are on display. Alt knows the history behind every machine.

He finds the units in places like Model Printers in Moline, where he bought a number of presses, type and cabinets a couple years ago. He had to find an innovative way of moving many of the heavy iron pieces out of the building through a second-story window.

In just the past year, he’s found a Babcock Standard 17-by-22-inch newspaper letterpress printing machine in Troy Mills, Iowa, that he is restoring. Alt seems to be 100-percent sure it will someday print again, even after sitting for 40 years.

“The cylinder did turn, so that was a great sign,” he said of the newsprint hand-fed machine he plans to repaint and get into working order by the end of the year – his largest press yet.

He says any press he’s bought will eventually get to the working stage, but he’s likely done buying equipment for his business, although he does have a goal of finding one more press he truly desires.

That 1800s vintage press goes with the name of his business – Liberty Press – a very rare machine that he says is also quite expensive because of its rarity and the fact many were shipped overseas. Although knowing where two are located, he says the price tag is about $10,000, but it would be the last press he buys and a showpiece for the business.

Alt said the press may be the namesake of the business, but the couple chose Liberty Press not only because of the obvious West Liberty name and the product of the business, but the fact “liberty” meant “freedom of the press” in his mind.

'I'm a big sucker for local'

He said the business isn’t lucrative, but he’s in it more for the love of printing than the financial end. “I want to preserve the trade and the craftsmanship of the shop,” he said. ”Years ago, we decided we’re a print shop, not a copy shop.”

Alt prints many jobs at cost for local groups like the National Honor Society at West Liberty High School, the West Liberty Area Art Society, Rotary of West Liberty, the West Liberty Lions, and even the Muscatine County Fair. “I’m a big sucker for local,” he says. “Most of these groups just don’t have big budgets.”

Most jobs aren’t easy, setting all the type by hand and printing just one color through a press at a time, but Alt says he has had orders in the thousands – something he’ll put on his Heidelberg Windmill Press that automatically feeds paper into the machine. Jobs range from posters to shopping bags to die-cut doorknob hangers.

He’s now even making his own paper from corn husks, soybeans or shredded recycled paper – the process sometimes taking hours – with hopes of eventually using the material for things like special wedding or anniversary invitations, a “new look” that seems to be catching momentum in the printing industry.

Alt says the COVID-19 pandemic changed the printing industry, noting there are a lot more businesses doing things electronically rather than printing newsletters or other notices.

Alt loves to show off his place, teaching printing history as he goes. He’s proud of his shop and the restoration process behind just about every piece in the plant.

He says there are people who will wander into the shop and find it fascinating, sometimes spending hours visiting and learning. He says tours are always welcome, and he has invited school art classes, but the pandemic hasn’t helped.

“When people visit, I just want them to walk away remembering something they learned here,” Alt said.

He adds the business has basically transformed into an art shop, where he has dozens of posters printed by the letterpress method hanging on the walls, including some of the things he’s produced, but also items other printers have created.

Alt says he is working with the West Liberty Area Arts Council to eventually set up a special class on making paper and said some printing history could also be incorporated into the class.

“Everything with letterpress is precise and amazing,” he says, noting that the sound and smell of ink squishing onto paper is one of the best things he knows.

He’s not certain of the future of the shop, pointing out his daughter, Angela Alt of West Liberty, will someday inherit the business. “Times change,” he said, happy in a world replaced by computer design software and high-tech digital printers. “What was a model in the 1980s doesn’t work anymore,” he said.

Alt said he’d love to have an apprentice learn the business to keep it alive, something he never really thought much about until some of his peers starting dying. “I thought I’d live forever,” he said, noting the work isn’t always easy, and he knows someday he won’t be able to do what he does now.

Alt said he and his wife were fortunate to find the business a home in a building that has had a lot of history, including one time serving the community as Polder’s Hat & Shoe Store in the 1880s.

Alt says he can’t wait for the days when he will be able to come into Liberty Press and “do what I want to do and not have corporate America tell me what to do.”

The shop doesn’t have regular hours, although Alt says you can find him most weekday mornings at Liberty Press, and maybe early in the afternoon or on weekends.

“If the lights are on, we’re here,” he said.

Liberty Press, Steve Alt, Sandra Alt, West Liberty High School, Carol Cline, Muscatine County Fairgrounds, West Liberty Area Arts Council, Angela Alt

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