About
Designer scholar, Anne Dutlinger Kahn
Asst. Professor of Art/Graphic Design, retired

Pen to Press was founded to provide high quality, well-researched products that feature medieval images of bookish activities, and all other subjects of interest to the eye, heart and mind. I research, design, and produce Bookish Goods. I make everyday things, and special occasion things, from images in Medieval manuscripts and early printed books. I started producing these things because I couldn’t find anything like them. Or not very much. I might find something I thought was great online, but when it would arrive, the images weren’t attributed. (Made me mad.) I’m a stickler for giving credit. And, as an amateur, I need to learn about the images. I collect images of writers, readers, and scribes.

My image repertoire include writers, readers, libraries & alphabets. Text-as-image, maps, marginalia, memory & diagrams. Women, food, animals, seasons, holidays and sport. All these. And whatever is in front of me. Almost any image that is beautiful, curious, or strange. Or gives me the shivers. All images used by Pen to Press LLC are with permission, legal, and fully attributed. I usually depend on the text provided by the institutions that own and care for the manuscript, although I do sometimes embellish.

I started Pen to Press by selling at Medieval Studies conferences. I was happy to discover an enthusiastic audience, full of ideas.
I have made wonderful things from suggestions by my scholarly customers. (Lynley Herbert, Curator of Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum, suggested the Dragon Onesies. They are now one of my best sellers.)

A few things about me
My first word was book. (My mother wrote it down.)

I was an English major, mad about literature, art, and translating Anglo-Saxon. A big influence on me was my grandmother, a Latin teacher who started a Shakespeare Club in her small Pennsylvania town.My first job out of college was at Brown University Bookstore in Providence, RI, where I discovered old maps from reproductions in heavy shiny books. Then I learned that I could see the originals, only two blocks away. Next I was learning bookbinding, then studying book conservation, and working on old books. Not medieval. But American Old.

Books and printing history bracket my early career as a rare book conservator. My career in conservation, and later, in graphic design, included research, curation, and design of exhibitions about book history and printing. Just for fun.

I veered into graphic design at Yale University, and entered into their graduate program in Graphic Design in 1982. (MFA, Class of 1984.)
I loved the work, and all the history behind it. I practiced as a graphic designer, and went into teaching, first at Syracuse University, then at Moore College of Art. I landed at Moravian College, in Bethlehem, PA, where I built a program in Graphic Design. I was Chair of the Art Department for ten years. Design History and Practice became part of the design major.

All aspects of book production—writing, editing, amending, printing, publishing, and reading are part of my ongoing looking and thinking.

I am a self-taught student of book and manuscript culture. I’ve been so fortunate to learn at UPenn at the Material Texts Seminars, originally organized by Peter Stallybrass, and through courses at Rare Book School, including one on manuscripts with Will Noel and
Dot Porter.

For more credentials, find my resume at: https://bit.ly/2LSxShS

Wholesale
Please contact me at anne@pentopress.design
Stores interested in purchasing Pen to Press’ products receive a generous discount.
Free shipping on orders over $50.

Custom work
I am happy to design for you or your institution.
Contact anne@pentopress.design

484.988.0722