What is a broadside?
The great-grandmother of the poster, the broadside was the earliest form of mass communication, dating back over 500 years. As literacy grew among the populace, the broadside grew in popularity, spreading news and ideas like wildfire. The broadside also has a long history of political ties, disseminating ideas and sparking social change—Martin Luther’s Reformation is a classic example of a movement brought about in part by the medium of the broadside.
My favorite broadside is sold out. When will you be printing more?
We’re sorry to say the answer is usually “never.” We print all our broadsides in limited editions, so generally when a piece sells out, it’s gone forever. All of our posters sell out eventually—some within weeks or months, others within days or even hours. So we’d suggest you grab ’em while you can. You can be the first to know about new broadsides by signing up for our mailing list. Also, though our older broadsides are sold out, we offer reproduction postcards of every piece, and those never sell out.
Can I get a postcard design printed out at a larger size?
We’re very careful to avoid confusion as to which of our pieces are hand-printed, and which are reproductions. So at this time, we only offer our reproductions at the 5 x 8 inch postcard size.
Where can I buy your book? Should I order it directly from you?
You can order our book, Dead Feminists: Historical Heroines in Living Color, directly from our web shop, or wherever books are sold! You can find links to all the major book retailers, plus some of our indie favorites, on our book page.
I’m a stockist. What do you offer for wholesale?
Our reproduction postcards are available for wholesale! We are represented by Artemis Book Sales for wholesale orders. You can find contact information for Artemis, as well as download a copy of our latest wholesale catalog, on our wholesale page. You can also find information on stocking our book in your store in our wholesale catalog.
Because they are hand-printed in very small quantities, our letterpress broadsides are not available for wholesale. We hope you’ll understand.
Will you speak at our event or institution?
We give presentations on our series on an occasional basis; we have spoken at museums, universities, letterpress/arts centers, conferences and libraries around the United States. If you are interested in inviting us to speak, please feel free to contact us.
Do you teach classes?
We have taught joint classes together, though it’s rare. Jessica teaches classes and workshops fairly frequently, though! We always announce upcoming classes and events through our mailing list.
What fonts do you use?
All the lettering on our broadsides (with the except of the small-print colophons) is completely hand-drawn, with pencil or pen, from scratch. We don’t trace or copy existing fonts or typefaces—we design custom lettering specifically for each piece. The letterforms and text styles might be influenced by a certain historical period/style and the “rules” of formal typography, but they’re all original designs. And that’s really the fun part about lettering: that every style of letterform has its own “voice,” and that creating your own type gives each piece so much more to say than just the words themselves.
Will you print a custom broadside just for me?
Because of our individual schedules and the amount of labor involved in our series, we are not currently taking collaborative letterpress commissions.
Will you print my name or other info onto one of your broadsides?
We’re sorry, but all our broadsides are stand-alone pieces with specific meanings behind them . We’re not able to alter them in any way.
Can I use your images for my website/blog/tattoo/event poster?
The images we post online are not generally licensed for personal or commercial use, and we only offer licensing of our images for very specific purposes (however, you are welcome to contact us if you’re not sure). All of our work is protected by U.S. copyright laws, so please do not use our images or writing without our written permission. Purchasing artwork does not grant reproduction rights or transfer copyright.
If you would like to do a feature about our work in your publication or blog, thank you! Please credit both of us (Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring), and let us know so we can help spread the word for you!
Can I write a guest/sponsored post for you, or put my ad on your website?
We do not accept sponsored content of any kind, nor do we advertise on this site or promote any brand. Our opinions are our own, and any non-profit we mention or support is done without the compensation or approval from any third party. Any requests to advertise on our site will be deleted without reply.
We do, however, have one exception to this rule: wherever our book, Dead Feminists: Historical Heroines in Living Color, links to Amazon.com, we receive a small commission from Amazon’s affiliate program. We are donating 100% of any affiliate commissions from this link to the Dead Feminists Fund.
What is the Dead Feminists Fund?
The Dead Feminists Fund is our foundation, which is operated and overseen by the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, and which we founded in 2016 upon the publication of our book. In honor of the power of women’s work, the Dead Feminists Fund supports nonprofits that empower girls and women to create change in their own communities. You can learn more about the Fund here, or you can make your tax-deductible donation here.
What’s the difference between your broadsides and your postcards? Isn’t a print a print?
Basically, one is hand-printed, and one is a reproduction. Our broadsides are letterpress prints, and are “hand-pulled”—by which we mean they were created individually, by hand, from an original plate or printing block. Hand-pulled prints are very often created in limited editions of a small number of prints. Because of the labor involved, the limited quantity, and because the handmade part of the process makes each print slightly different than the others in the edition, these prints are called multiple originals. Basically, that means every print in the edition is considered an original work of art—not just a “copy.” Though the techniques might vary, hand printmaking has existed as a fine-art medium for centuries. To label them as handmade originals, our broadsides are individually signed and numbered.
Our reproduction postcards, on the other hand, are copies. (Very high-quality copies, but still reproductions.) They are not printed by hand, but rather by a commercial printing process that allows us to create them in large quantities. To avoid confusion with our broadsides, our postcards are smaller in size, and are never signed or numbered. They also have a much lower price point than our broadsides.
I just placed an order in the shop. How long will it take for my stuff to arrive?
Unless our shop is in “vacation mode” (in which case you’d see a colored banner at the top of each shop page), we ship within 3 business days of your order. Unless special arrangements are made, we ship all packages via the US Postal Service. If you purchased Priority or Express shipping with your order, we will send you a tracking number as soon as your order ships.
Do you ship overseas?
Absolutely! We have shipped our broadsides and postcards all over the world—we can’t control how fast or reliable international shipping is, especially once it leaves the U.S., but if you’re willing to give it a shot, so are we. Unless special arrangements are requested, we ship all packages via the U.S. Postal Service. International shipping fees have increased precipitously over the past few years—we apologize for this, but USPS is still considerably less expensive than the commercial carriers. Once items leave the U.S. they are usually not able to be tracked past their last location here—unless you request Global Express shipping, which costs extra. On rare occasions, you may also be charged import taxes, customs fees, duties, or other charges by your home country when your package arrives. Unfortunately we can’t control when, where, why, or how customs agents might charge you these fees. All such fees are the responsibility of the customer. We mark all of our shipments “merchandise” on the customs form; we will not mark them as gifts because it is illegal—please do not ask us to do so.
Can I suggest a future Dead Feminist?
Sure! We can’t promise we’ll take you up on your suggestion, but if you can always drop us a line.
What if I suggest a living feminist? Will you start a “Live Feminists” series?
We have no plans to start a series featuring living feminists. Part of this is because featuring quotes by people who are still alive can be tricky, in terms of permissions and our habit of pairing current social issues in context with historic quotes. But mostly, our choice to feature historic (i.e. dead) feminists is intentional—from the very beginning we’ve wanted to highlight women from the past who have not received the attention they deserve for their lives and work. While we have featured some more recent dead feminists and some very well-known historic figures, we most love researching and celebrating lesser-known women from history—women who don’t have the benefit of social media and PR like many contemporary women have.
Do you have any suggestions for framing my broadside?
Our broadsides are not cut to a standard frame size (sorry about that), but there are several options beyond custom framing, which can get expensive. You can buy framing sectionals at many craft or art supply stores, and build your own frame that way (you would still need to source glass and a backing board with this option).
Or you can buy a standard size frame (we’d suggest 16 x 20 or 18×24) and simply have a custom mat or backing board cut to fit the narrower artwork. We like to float-mount our prints, using clear archival photo corners, onto acid-free (or 100% rag/cotton if we can get it) mat board, in bright colors that match those in our prints! This can be a fun, inexpensive option.
Or you might try a glass clip frame (you can find some varieties here or here), which sandwiches the print between two naked pieces of glass. The glass is a standard frame size, but the overhang disappears, so it’s a very elegant solution, and one that many of our collectors choose.
Whatever you decide, we’d strongly suggest hanging your print far away from a window. We use the most lightfast, permanent printing inks available, but sunlight has a way of fading absolutely everything over time, no matter how archival it is.