Installation of the Presses
November 18, 2015
On a Wednesday morning a little after 8 a.m., Professor Johanna Drucker, Bob Freel (Head of Access Services and Building Manager at Powell Library), and Octavio Olvera (Visual Arts Specialist at the Department of Special Collections) gathered to supervise a team of movers who took the Hopkinson & Cope press out of storage and installed it in front of Special Collections at the Charles E. Young Research Library.
Memo Ruiz managed the strenuous yet delicate task. In preparation, the team attached cargo straps to the frame of the press and placed a blue moving blanket underneath by lifting the feet off the floor. Then, five to six men deftly slid the nearly one ton press out of the storage room door, down a narrow corridor, and around a bend until it was roughly in position.
After Mr. Olvera and Prof. Drucker gave instructions for final adjustments, the Hopkinson & Cope reached its current location safe and sound. Though it was at the mercy of dust and cats at the gatehouse of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, the preservation of this piece of UCLA’s history is now assured.