Print Council of America

The Print Council of America is a United States-based professional organization devoted to the creation, dissemination, study, preservation, and appreciation of fine prints, both historical and contemporary. Its membership has primarily consisted of museum curators, but the organization has also included university professors, conservators of works on paper, collectors, and independent scholars whose work concerns printmaking and printed images. Founded in 1956, the council emerged during a period when museums and research institutions were expanding their print collections and developing more systematic approaches to cataloguing, exhibition, conservation, and interpretation. Its early membership included prominent figures in American and European print scholarship, museum administration, collecting, and connoisseurship. Lessing J. Rosenwald was an important early leader, while members such as Adelyn Breeskin, Harold Joachim, Una Johnson, A. Hyatt Mayor, Elizabeth Mongan, Jakob Rosenberg, Paul J. Sachs, Carl Schniewind, and Carl Zigrosser were associated with influential collections, exhibitions, publications, and research on prints. One of the council's best-known areas of activity has been the effort to clarify what constitutes an original print. In 1961 it issued What Is an Original Print?: Principles Recommended by the Print Council of America, which proposed terminology and principles for distinguishing original printmaking from reproductive or mechanically transferred imagery. The attempt to establish a shared definition generated disagreement among print specialists, including opposition from the World Print Council, but the guidance later became more broadly accepted and helped shape professional discussion about originality, authorship, editioning, and technique. The council has also contributed to the technical vocabulary of print scholarship. Its Print Council of America Paper Sample Book: A Practical Guide to the Description of Paper presented a standardized approach to describing papers used in fine prints. Such documentation is useful to curators, conservators, cataloguers, dealers, and researchers because paper characteristics can assist with identification, dating, provenance research, and the assessment of works on paper. In its current role, the Print Council of America functions less as a consumer-facing brand than as a specialist knowledge and professional network. It publishes books and research aids, provides educational material on printmaking techniques and authenticity, and offers guidance on the definition, care, and valuation of prints. Its Search Index to Print Catalogues Raisonnés is a free research service that helps students and scholars locate catalogue raisonnés documenting the print oeuvres of numerous artists. The organization also directs users toward collections held by major art libraries in the United States and Canada and maintains information about selected publications associated with print research. The council's significance lies in its role as an infrastructure organization for the field. Rather than selling a conventional product portfolio, it supports the standards, reference tools, professional exchange, and institutional practices that enable prints to be collected, conserved, researched, exhibited, and understood as fine art.

The Print Council of America was established in 1956 as a professional association for people engaged in the study and institutional care of prints. Its membership was centered on museum curators and expanded to include scholars, professors, conservators, collectors, and other specialists in works on paper. The organization developed in response to the need for stronger professional communication and more consistent methods for collecting, describing, exhibiting, and interpreting prints. The council's early figures included museum professionals and scholars whose work helped establish major print collections, organize influential exhibitions, and publish critical studies of printmakers. Lessing J. Rosenwald was an important early leader. Other associated members included Adelyn Breeskin, Harold Joachim, Una Johnson, A. Hyatt Mayor, Elizabeth Mongan, Jakob Rosenberg, Paul J. Sachs, Carl Schniewind, and Carl Zigrosser. Their collective influence reflected the council's role within the developing American field of print connoisseurship and museum practice. A central early concern was the status of the original print. Printmaking encompasses processes in which an artist creates an image on a matrix such as a woodblock, copper plate, stone, or screen and produces impressions from it, but it also overlaps with reproductive processes that reproduce an image created in another medium. In 1961 the council published What Is an Original Print?: Principles Recommended by the Print Council of America, an attempt to provide clearer professional principles for discussing originality, technique, and reproduction. The proposal was controversial when introduced and drew criticism from the World Print Council. Over time, however, its formulation became more widely accepted and contributed to a common vocabulary for museums, scholars, collectors, and the art trade. The organization later addressed the description of paper, an important aspect of print research and conservation. The Print Council of America Paper Sample Book: A Practical Guide to the Description of Paper supplied a more systematic way to record paper characteristics. This kind of standardization supports comparative research and can help specialists investigate the identity, chronology, manufacture, and physical condition of prints. Publication has remained a significant part of the council's work. Its resources have addressed printmaking techniques, authenticity, conservation, the definition of a print, and questions surrounding the value of prints. The council has also supported access to research infrastructure through its Search Index to Print Catalogues Raisonnés, a free index that directs users to catalogues documenting artists' print oeuvres. The index is especially useful for students and scholars beginning provenance, attribution, bibliography, or object-identification research. The council's resources further connect researchers with major art libraries in the United States and Canada and identify selected books published by or associated with the organization. In this way, the Print Council of America has operated as a field-building institution rather than as a conventional commercial brand. Its historical contribution is visible in the professional language, documentation practices, and reference systems used to support the study and preservation of fine prints.

• 1961

  Guidelines on original prints published

  [1]Print Council of Americaen.wikipedia.org

  The council issued What Is an Original Print?: Principles Recommended by the Print Council of America, proposing professional principles for distinguishing original printmaking from reproductive imagery.

• 1956

  Organization founded

  [1]Print Council of Americaen.wikipedia.org

  The Print Council of America was founded as a professional organization for curators, scholars, collectors, and other specialists concerned with fine prints.

• Paper-description guide developed

  [1]Print Council of Americaen.wikipedia.org

  The council published The Print Council of America Paper Sample Book, which provided a standardized method for describing paper used in fine prints.

• Search Index to Print Catalogues Raisonnés established

  [2]Print Council of America official websiteprintcouncil.org

  The council made available a free index directing researchers to catalogues raisonnés covering the print oeuvres of numerous artists.

A specialist professional and scholarly organization that develops and disseminates standards, research tools, and educational resources for the study and care of fine prints.

• Research service

  Search Index to Print Catalogues Raisonnés

  A free reference and discovery service that helps students, scholars, curators, and other researchers identify catalogues raisonnés documenting the print production of artists. It supports bibliography, attribution, provenance research, and the investigation of individual prints by directing users toward specialized catalogue resources.

• Professional guideline · 1961

  What Is an Original Print?: Principles Recommended by the Print Council of America

  A 1961 publication addressing the difficult distinction between original printmaking and reproductive printing. It sought to establish shared principles for discussing the relationship between artist, image, matrix, impression, and reproduction, and became an influential reference despite controversy surrounding its initial formulation.

• Conservation and cataloguing guide

  The Print Council of America Paper Sample Book

  A practical reference work presenting a standardized method for describing paper used in fine prints. The guide supports objective documentation of paper characteristics for cataloguing, conservation, technical examination, dating, and comparative research.

• 1961

  Establishing principles for the original printStrategy

  Background

  Print specialists lacked a universally accepted way to distinguish original printmaking from reproductive imagery and to describe the relationship between an artist and a printed impression.

  Action taken

  The council published a set of recommended principles in What Is an Original Print?: Principles Recommended by the Print Council of America.

  Aftermath

  The proposal prompted disagreement, including criticism from the World Print Council, but its definition later became more broadly accepted within professional print discourse.

  • World Print Council — The World Print Council objected to the council's proposed approach, and the issue generated controversy among print experts.

  Source

1. 1Print Council of Americaen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Print Council of America official websiteprintcouncil.org
3. 3Print Council of America records, 1956–2005aaa.si.edu