The Grabhorn Institute is one of the nation’s leading forums for the book arts. Formed as a nonprofit in 2000, Grabhorn Institute was founded to preserve two historic San Francisco enterprises: M&H Type, the nation’s oldest type foundry established in 1915, and Arion Press, the acclaimed letterpress printer started in 1976. Designated an “irreplaceable cultural treasure” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Grabhorn Institute maintains the last printing facility in America to make books entirely by hand, stewards the country’s second largest collection of metal typefaces, and sustains the nation’s only paid apprenticeships in hand bookmaking. 

Since 2000, the Institute has grown into a flourishing nonprofit that inspires new, diverse audiences for the printing arts through public talks, exhibitions, and educational programs that celebrate the vital importance of the book in society.

The mission of the Grabhorn Institute is to preserve and advance Arion Press and M&H Type as cultural treasures, to educate the next generation of hand bookmakers, to steward a historic collection of letterpress equipment and metal type, build new audiences for the book arts, and to support our unique San Francisco facility as a dynamic community hub committed to putting the printed word at the heart of a vibrant, equitable society.