What is this collection?
This collection that I am calling “New College Screenprints” is comprised of 49 printing screens made and used by New College students and staff. Since most of the printing screens are at least 15 years old, they are falling apart, and some have rows of rusted staples poking out where they can easily break skin if not handled carefully. For this reason, their digitization was imperative so that they can be safely viewed.
The collection can be found in the NCSA Archives, which is in the Old Mail Room of the Hamilton Center at New College of Florida. Archive office hours are Mondays 11:00am - 12:00pm, and Tuesdays 4:00pm - 5:30pm.
Screenprinting is a printing method used to reproduce designs on fabric, primarily t-shirts. The designs on the screenprints below would have been reproduced multiple times for different people. New College students made these printing screens because they thought the design was important enough to not only produce but reproduce and distribute. Therefore, by looking at these screens we can find out what kind of things New College students thought important enough to commemorate.
If you’d like to learn more about how these screens are made and used, this is a video I found to be informative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogKeYH2wEE
History of the Printing Screens
New College has a screenprinting studio that is available to students, although in recent years it has been used less with the increasing accessibility of more professional, cheap t-shirt making companies and technology making the designing aspect easier. The presence of a screenprinting studio belonging to the school resulted in a high degree of utilization at its prime, and made it much more likely for these printing screens to remain in the care of the school.
What can the printing screens tell us?
In analyzing a collection of artifacts, it is important to use research questions to frame investigations. Mine were: What kind of events happened at New College during the past? What kind of things did New College students find significant? What sorts of things did past New College students want to commemorate?
This is reflected in the organization of this website by type of use, which was determined by the content of the screen’s designs. Through this classification, we can learn about the types of events or places that New College students thought were important enough to commenorate. The most common types of printing screen in the collection were for PCP (or COUP, although all of the screen pre-date this name change) or other student-run recreational campus events, such as the Crucial BBQ or the Easter Egg-stravaganza. Other types of printing screens are represented, such as those likely used for personal student projects removed from official College activities. Several screens were likely made to make shirts commemorating bands, which may not have been endorsed by New College in an official capacity, but were still an important aspect of student life— important enough to commemorate.
The physical process of screenprinting is evident in the printing screens. Looking closely at the screens, you can see the type of paint used, the strokes used to apply the painted design to an outside material, and other interventions used to get the clearest design possible. Many of the screens feature tape laid over part of the design. This is because when only certain parts of designs needed to be repainted, tape was placed over the part of the design that did not need to be retouched. Or, if a screen featured two designs, tape would be placed over the design not being used.