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Photos from the printing process, teaming up with the talented printer, James, at the Aesthetic Union.

Getting the block printed with The Aesthetic Union, James pulling the first print. I love putting dreams onto woodblocks and linocuts and doing the carving, but I’m getting more comfortable with delegating the final printing to someone who does it professionally everyday of their lives. Watching someone intuit the needed pressure, ink density, and being able to adapt around problems quickly, it makes you appreciate collaboration. Not having to do everything on your own.

On July 13, 1852, Henry Wells and William Fargo opened Wells, Fargo & Company banks in Sacramento and San Francisco. It was at 424 Montgomery Street, the company’s San Francisco location, that the company’s first bank transaction took place in California. The location of their Sacramento branch was at the corner of Second and J Streets in the B.F. Hastings building.

Because of the Gold Rush, it was not long before Wells Fargo offices opened in other towns throughout the gold region, such as Auburn and Columbia, where the company not only exchanged gold dust for bank notes, but they soon expanded with a delivery service transporting letters, packages, and gold on stagecoaches.

For today, Howard letterpress printed a large photo engraving depicting the historic Wells Fargo Assay office in Folsom, California. This photo engraving is based on an illustration made by Jane Wandmaker Whitnack in 1942. This was printed with black rubber base ink using our Washington hand press, which was made in 1852.