Submitted photo Canfield Historical Society President Suzie McCabe uses a brayer roller to ink a vintage printing machine at the Mahoning Dispatch museum. The machine was used recently to print vintage Christmas cards as a fundraiser for the Canfield Historical Society.

CANFIELD — As a fundraiser for the Canfield Historical Society, vintage-style Christmas cards and downtown prints are being offered at the society’s Bond House, 44 W. Main St. The cards were hand-printed using the vintage Mahoning Dispatch printing presses.

“We started this project back in July,” said Bond House curator Laura Zeh. “We practiced and practiced the printing process to get it right.”

The Christmas cards have the H.W. Longfellow poem “Christmas Bells” printed on linen paper. The printing was done on a 1900 Chandler and Price proof press.

The press contains a large, heavy drum that rolls over the paper and does the printing. The letters have to be inked, which requires the use of a brayer roller that puts the ink onto a print block.

Zeh said the process is a precise one. Too much ink or too little and the end product is just a big smear of ink. It took many try-and-fail attempts before Zeh and society president Suzie McCabe perfected the craft.

The outside of the cards uses a 1924 Chandler and Price platen press that takes the typeset used by the Dispatch’s 1917 linotype machine. The type was hand set and the cards were printed and assembled using colored string.

The Christmas cards would have been the type sent out in the early 1900s.

“Each card is a little piece of living history,” Zeh said. “Every card carries the charm of yesterday’s craft and the beauty of slow, careful printing by human hands.”

A set of four cards with envelopes are available for $12 with all proceeds going to the historical society.

The society also has about 20 of the limited edition “Downtown Canfield 1960” prints left at $30 each. The prints are numbered and signed by the author, Craig Wetzel. Only 50 were printed. For more information on the cards or prints, call the society at 330-533-3458 or by email to canfieldhistoricalsociety@gmail.com.