There is an interwoven thread of printing as a chosen occupation which leads back to the Lutheranism of my forebears in relation to the Bible, which in of itself was chosen to be the first written work to be typeset and printed. The Lutheran difficulties in Germany caused some in our family to break away, as so many other nationalities have and are, in search of freedom and opportunity in this experiment of America. The passenger lists coming out of Bremen are a fascinating set of documents that demonstrate (when connected to the U.S census, or other historical records) that they leapfrogged their way here. In other words, one group would arrive and let their brethren in Germany know it was their turn, as now there was a foothold. Now without going too far off the subject, consider what trans-Atlantic travel was like in the 1850's, and consider that unknowingly, they were arriving to find peace and prosperity just a little more than a decade before the great American Civil War. So much for the peace portion of prosperity. Below is a contemporary print of German Immigrants arriving as if to suggest their arrival was a matter of chaos.
My father was a Production Manager in the printing industry as well as my grandfather, who sold lithographic presses. As we move to a perhaps dim future without books via it's replacement by electronic media, this portion of the family history has more of a historical context than perhaps a couple of decades ago. As a self made individual in terms of his entrepreneurial career, my grandfather Oscar was a staunch Republican who also believed in the power of positive thinking, as well as being a self taught "toastmaster" or public speaker as evidenced from his library on these subjects. Here is one of what he sold, a Cook Lithographic Press. This was a second career after his P.R firm had run it's course, which I think is a rather remarkable self created transition. However, this choice of printing always made me wonder, why this and not that? I know that he had an encyclopedic series of connections to other Duensing's and seemed to know more than by happenstance of what was occurring in Germany as well as elsewhere in the U.S, according to my many conversations with him. Was another Duensing influential in this decision? I don't know. I do that beyond my father and grandfather there were other family members carrying on the tradition of Gutenberg.
Interestingly, there was another Duensing, this one in Michigan by the name of Paul Hayden Duensing who ran a small, but very influential printing shop. To say he was well known is without a doubt. Here we see a video of a printing school facility honoring him very close to me in Asheville, Carolina. Paul Hayden Duensing, however, cared deeply about the “look of letters.”
Duensing sold his type and also developed a private printing press. He called his avocation “The Private Press and Typefoundry of Paul Hayden Duensing.” Through his press, he printed many volumes dedicated to the art of type and printing. Duensing wrote many of these himself and translated some others from significant European documents. In Type II: A Leisurely Showing of Typefaces and Ornaments Available in Limited Castings, he noted that he “actively and enthusiastically supports the thesis that there exists a need for certain scholarly, historical and esoteric typefaces beyond those whose widespread commercial use and traditional acceptance make them economically viable.”His particular specialty was typesetting and in particular, the development of type. These two Duensing's my grandfather and Paul, whether there was any direct connection between them is unknown. However, I do know my grandfather had a passion for limited edition books, so who is to say, in terms of how Paul came into this field? Did Paul's career'e parallel that of my father's inasmuch there may have been a family connection? These connections are a work in progress...
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