The archives of the Running Press have been donated to the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, where they will become part of the university’s growing collection of materials about book publishing and the intellectual and aesthetic history of Philadelphia. The donation was made by Buz Teacher, who cofounded Running Press in Philadelphia in 1972, and Janet Bukovinsky Teacher. The archive includes a complete catalogue of Running Press titles as well as correspondence, contracts, business records, and advertising and promotional brochures. Buz Teacher said he "couldn't be happier" that the company archive is headed for the Penn Library.
The university believes the archive will allow scholars at Penn to study publishing in America during a period when several important trends were occurring: the industry was moving from one led by independent houses to one controlled by large corporations; more commercial publishers, aimed at particular niches, were started; and the move from print to digital was surfacing for the first time. “The Running Press both anticipated and participated in many of these industry\wide transformations,” the university press release noted.
The Running Press archives join other records that document the history of some of Philadelphia’s cultural and business institutions, and will add to the university's resources about book publishing. “Running Press rode the crest of the publishing industry wave of the late 20th century,” said Dr. Daniel Traister, curator at Penn’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library. “Its records document a unique era of bookselling history and of Philadelphia history. This generous donation is a very welcome addition to Penn’s Special Collections.”
