Loud, Proud and Conservative:
Why I'm Attending Hamilton Wayzgooze 2025: Raising my Voice and Claiming It in a Field Oblivious to Faith, the Greatest Country in the World and Children's Rights.
It’s challenging at times to participate in a field largely peopled by creatives who are agnostic, unpatriotic and pro-abortion. We are talking about the world of letterpress, laced with liberal women who embrace leftist beliefs, a stark contrast to the world of printing not even 50-60 years ago when the field was dominated by men, largely white, conservative and church-going.
That’s only a generation or two ago. The religious beliefs from the 1970s and earlier shaped what was printed: broadsides that promoted speakers sharing their faith. One of the earliest posters produced by Hatch Showprint promoted Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1879. The Hamilton family of Hamilton Manufacturing fame in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. were faithful Christians and fervently patriotic, a sentiment which you see on display to some extent in the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, where an American flag is showcased by the massive old wood desk from the original facility Going further back, Johannes Gutenberg printed the Bible, which greatly helped solidify Christianity in Europe.
Let’s return for a moment to the wayzgoose. What is it, you might ask? It’s not clear exactly how the word originated but not surprisingly, the term has Christian roots. Traditionally, it was a party given by a master printer for his staff on St. Bartholomew’s Day (August 24). This feast day marked summer’s end and the start of working by candlelight.
Saint’s Alive, a Wayzgoose?
Nowadays, wayzgoose applies to a letterpress printer gathering across the world and they occur all year. Printers come to share their craft, sell special products and eat dinner together. They don’t eat a wayzgoose, (stuffed leg of pork) as was done in the past, but something more contemporary, say a hot meal with chicken, rice and vegetables.
The wayzgoose was an occasion for a company photograph, a snapshot in time of all current employees and their families.
They still take group photos at the wayzgoose. Now it’s about posing for social media and less about recording the passing of time. Get your selfie posed in front of a wall of wood type the height of a sixth-grader.
This is Now, That was Then
As the original patriotic and faithful owners of letterpress print shops retired and died, women who weren’t raised to attend church or synagogue bought the old printing presses and original wood types as studios were closed and equipment sold. Letterpress become more of an artistic way of expression, the slow way to express graphic design.
So these women (along with some men with the same kind of beliefs) have printed posters, notecards and chapbooks that embrace their beliefs that are largely anti-American, pro-choice and prejudiced against American citizens who follow the law and love their country. Yes, they love their country. They attend Fourth of July parades, support the President and his staff to return this country as it was founded.
So enter me in this liberal world. I often feel alone, and I certainly did at Wayzgoose 2023 as a grateful scholarship recipient, surrounded by angry Americans. Listening to roundtables and keynote speakers, I had to leave the room at times. It was hard to hear Americans whining about what they consider discrimination when we live in a country with so much opportunity.
But still I persisted, to borrow former presidential and Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton’s words. I persisted in a world that opposes faith, children’s rights and American exceptionalism. I persisted by talking and making friends with the staff at the Lighthouse Inn across the street where the Divine Mercy Chaplet is posted by the dining room, a clear sign that the owners are conservative, faithful Catholics. It must feel ironic at times to the Lighthouse Inn owners to have been part of the movement that started the Hamilton Wood Type Museum and to play host over the years to so many printers and graphic designers who clearly oppose the Catholic faith and the USA.
So why go to the Wayzoose when the talk will be all about DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion)? Well, I’m here to claim my voice in conservative Manitowoc Country where pro-life signs abound along the road that leads to the museum. I’m here to express my faith in bold terms surrounded by men and women who’ve chosen abortions, birth control and often sad, personal lives that exclude God.
I’m also here to also enjoy work with the old wood type at the museum. It’s more than 100 years old. In touching the end-grain maple wood, most of it from here in Wisconsin, I’m connecting with the same hands that likely fingered the Rosary, read the Bible and made the sign of the cross at church (now demolished) in Two Rivers. It’s powerful to make that connection. Some of the wood type was trimmed by women, no doubt far more conservative than the fingers that cut and trim wood type today on the museum’s pantograph.
I might even say a prayer to the deceased Hamilton family before I set foot into the museum for the wayzgoose. I’ll pray to St. Bartholomew, the Wayzgoose patron saint. Surely, he would look out for me surrounded by printers’ devils galore. So between the Hamiltons (no doubt saints if they’re in heaven) and recognized saints I’ll be in good hands with the wood type come November.
I also signed up for a workshop that’s bound to be rife with liberal themes, words and more. The verbiage is all about buzzwords immigration, heritage, family, relationship and customs.” I’m all about immigration, the legal variety. Illegals who are in the U.S. are largely here because they’re getting federal subsidies they wouldn’t have back in their home countries. I oppose subsidies of all kinds (including food stamps, which is a whole other topic). So I’ll have fun with this topic using wood type. I’ll print a broadside unlike any other.
Have any of you attended a printer’s conference like this? If so, what was your experience like? I’d love to hear more.
On another note, I’m in the finishing stages of my next novel, A Car Ferry Tale, which features a fallen-away Catholic. Sign up now to receive the first chapter in your USPS mailbox.
