The American Printing History Association (APHA) was founded in 1974 to foster and to promote interest in the history of printing, especially American printing, and in the preservation of its artifacts. The records document the activities of both the national organization and its local chapters, and include material on the board of directors, bylaws, chapters, committees, conferences, finance, meetings, membership, publications, and special projects.

These files have been compiled by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library from its origin in 1930 through the present day. The material derives largely from gifts, and the occasional purchase; much of the subject file in particular is made of ephemera included in the American Type Founders, Co. Library, purchased in 1942. Prospectuses and information sent by fine presses and book artists are added to the relevant files in an ongoing fashion. The files cover subjects from the beginning of printing to the current day.

The collection consists of the manauscripts of Fuhrmann's articles, notes, and related items on the history of printing and graphic arts. A great many of Fuhrmann's articles were about Johann Gutenberg. There is also correspondence, primarily with people well known in the printing trade.

The papers consist primarily of correspondence and documentation related to her professional activities as a professor, a librarian, and a scholar of early print and book history.

A collection of letters, manuscripts, and documents relating to the history of printing and the graphic arts. The collection is in six parts. Cataloged Correspondence and manuscripts, including cataloged letters to and from Henry Lewis Bullen, the librarian of American Typefounders Company Library. Uncataloged letters of the Typographic Library, including routine correspondence, letters of inquiry to Bullen, the Library's order file, and library correspondence of Columbia University, 1941-1946, pertaining to the collection. Correspondence, manuscripts, documents and printed material by and relating to Henry L. Bullen. Letter books, ledgers, daybooks, and journals of the early American typefounders, Binney and Ronaldson. A collection of over 200 typographical patents for the design of printing types (19th and 20th centuries). Archives of the Companía Real de Impresores, Madrid, relating to its operations and business.

A collection of correspondence, documents, and bound volumes pertaining to the Typothetae of New York. These papers contain correspondence of some of the officers and the recording secretary; materials relating to the Emergency Defense Fund, strikes and labor related problems; reports; bills, receipts, and other financial data; and miscellaneous printed materials relating to the organization, constitutions, and elections. The bound volumes consist of minutes of meetings, scrapbooks about Typothetae activities, account books, and a few miscellaneous items. Bound volume one is a minute book for 1865-1867 in the hand of Theodore Low De Vinne, Secretary. Volume 52 contains photographs taken by members at the annual convention in Nashville, October, 1897.

The William N. Weeden Color Printing Manuscript is an inventor's hand-written account in 1886 of his discovery of a printing method that produced multi-color printing with one impression. The collection includes color prints generated by the process.