TRI'S CURTISS SHOW PRINT DIGITAL EXHIBIT
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The Curtiss Show Print collection, donated to Ohio State University Libraries' Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute by Nyle Stateler, is a remarkable compilation documenting the beautiful letterpress work done by the company for its show business clients. The job tickets, ledgers, correspondence, more than 1200 printing blocks
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photographs 
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and wonderful print materials including posters
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window cards
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heralds
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tickets
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and letterhead stationery
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These varied materials tell not only the story of the show printer, but also the history and legacy of
tent shows
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vaudeville companies
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minstrel shows
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Stock companies
showboats
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magic shows
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circuses
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and other traveling companies in the early to mid 20th century.
Curtiss Show Print began in Kalida, Ohio, in 1905, but founder Bill Curtiss moved his printing business to nearby Continental, Ohio, to take advantage of its location and access to the railroad. The shop specialized in turning orders around very quickly, and gained a reputation among its show business clients for fast and excellent work. Nyle Stateler took a job at Curtiss Show Print in 1941, learning to do setup, layout and printing.
With a brief hiatus for military service during World War II, he has spent his entire career working at, and later owning, Curtiss Show Print. He continues to keep the shop and all its presses, including a linotype machine, running and busy.
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In the fall 2006 quarter, the printing blocks and posters formed the core hands-on project for a class of theatre graduate students who created catalog records, selected pieces and wrote captions for an exhibition to be on display during the Winter 2007 term.
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The final class meeting for this project was held in the Ohio State University Libraries' Center for Book Arts/Logan Elm Press where book arts specialist Robert Tauber demonstrated the printing process by printing from selected Curtiss blocks on hand presses.
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As the Curtiss Show Print collection is processed, the work will be documented on this site. Please visit us periodically to follow our progress as the printing blocks are cleaned, cataloged, and printed on the hand presses of the Logan Elm Press/Center for the Book Arts. Those prints will then be digitized to provide easy access to the riches of the Curtiss Show Print collection.
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Recently the Curtiss Show Print Collection was selected to represent The Ohio State University Libraries in Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries (Washington DC: ARL, 2007). That publication was issued in print and is available online. The Curtiss page can be viewed at
http://www.celebratingresearch.org/libraries/ohiostate/curtiss.shtml
The collection was the subject of a January 2007 article in OnCampus, the university-wide newspaper.
http://oncampus.osu.edu/article.php?id=1041
In 2005, Nyle Stateler and Curtiss Show Print were the focus of an award-winning documentary, Continental, Ohio, produced by Murphy & Associates. Inc., and WOSU-TV
http://www.wosu.org/archive/continental/index.php. Continental, Ohio, received the 2005 Midwestern Regional Emmy Award for a documentary program. Continental, Ohio is available on DVD through WOSU.
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"Theatre is the universal means of expression. It embraces all of the arts through which human minds seek to reach one another."
Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee - November, 1986
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