Timothy Barrett (papermaker)

Barrett grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, once known as the "Paper City" due to its prominent papermaking industry.{{cite news |last1=Levine |first1=Mark |title=Can a Papermaker Help to Save Civilization? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/timothy-barrett-papermaker.html |access-date=22 April 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=17 February 2012}} His father, an English professor at Kalamazoo College, would take the family to visit local factories, including a paper mill on one occasion. Barrett became interested in papermaking at a young age and was introduced to the work of Dard Hunter as a teenager through the book Papermaking Through Eighteen Centuries.{{cite book |last1=Barrett |first1=Timothy D. |title=European Hand Papermaking: Traditions, Tools, and Techniques |date=2018 |publisher=The Legacy Press |location=Ann Arbor, Mich. |isbn=978-1-940965-11-6}} He built his own papermaking mould and deckle before ever making paper himself.

Barrett first experimented with papermaking while attending Antioch College, where he explored various other crafts including ceramics, stained glass, printmaking, and leather tanning. He received a BA in Art Communications from Antioch College in 1973. Following graduation, he worked with Kathryn Clark and Howard Clark at Twinrocker Handmade Paper in Indiana for two years.{{cite news |last1=Riehl |first1=John |title=The Story of a Papermaker: Inside the University of Iowa Center for the Book |url=https://magazine.foriowa.org/story.php?ed=true&storyid=2032 |access-date=20 April 2025 |work=Iowa Magazine |date=11 December 2020}}

In 1975, Barrett received a two-year Fulbright Fellowship to study papermaking in Japan.{{cite news |last1=Riordan |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Special Collections and Archives’ fall 2024 reading room exhibition, Japanese Pocket Lanterns, brings a delicate art to life |url=https://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/speccoll/2024/09/12/the-special-collections-and-archives-fall-2024-reading-room-exhibition-japanese-pocket-lanterns-brings-a-delicate-art-to-life/ |access-date=22 April 2025 |work=Iowa University Libraries News & Announcements |date=12 September 2024}} With no previous knowledge of Japanese culture or language, he explored the countryside to find papermakers and learn about their process. After returning from Japan, Barrett set up a papermaking workshop in his parents' barn while taking classes at Western Michigan University's School of Paper Science and Engineering.

In 1983, Barrett published Japanese Papermaking: Traditions, Tools, and Techniques based on his research in Japan as well as his experience as a practitioner.{{cite web |title=Timothy Barrett |url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2009/timothy-barrett |website=MacArthur Foundation |access-date=20 April 2025}} In the same year, along with book conservators Hedi Kyle and Gary Frost,{{cite web |title=Co-Directors |url=https://www.paperbookintensive.org/codirectors |website=Paper and Book Intensive |access-date=22 April 2025}} he co-founded the Paper and Book Intensive (PBI), an annual series of bookbinding, papermaking, and conservation workshops at the Ox-Bow School of Art.{{cite web |last1=Barrett |first1=Timothy |last2=Silver |first2=Jenna |title=Tim Barrett Collection - Collection Overview |url=https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/resources/858 |website=ArchivesSpace at the University of Iowa |access-date=22 April 2025 |date=2002}} He researched early European handmade papers for several years with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kress Foundation.{{cite web |title=Timothy Barrett |url=http://www.uiowa.edu/~ctrbook/people/staff/Barrett/Barrett.shtml |website=The University of Iowa Center for the Book |access-date=17 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100428043840/http://www.uiowa.edu/~ctrbook/people/staff/Barrett/Barrett.shtml |archive-date=28 April 2010 |date=2005 |url-status=dead}}

In 1986, Kim Merker founded the University of Iowa Center for the Book (UICB){{cite web |title=Karl Kimber Merker 1932-2013 |url=https://uicb.uiowa.edu/news/2013/04/karl-kimber-merker-1932-2013 |website=Iowa Center for the Book |access-date=22 April 2025 |date=29 April 2013}} and invited Barrett to join the faculty, making Iowa one of the only universities in the country to employ a papermaker. As the Center's paper specialist, Barrett developed papermaking curriculum, established and oversaw the Oakdale Research and Production Paper Facility, and continued his research. Barrett's research interests included Japanese papermaking, early European papermaking technology, the role of gelatin in paper permanence, and the aesthetics of traditional handmade paper. Barrett and his students designed and produced specialized handmade papers for use by book and paper conservators at institutions such as the Library of Congress and the Newberry Library, as well as fine press printers and book artists.

Barrett served as director of the UICB from 1996 to 2002. In 1999, he was commissioned by the National Archives and Records Administration to fabricate handmade paper for the “Charters of Freedom Re-encasement Project” to re-house the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the U.S. Constitution. The paper, which was made by Barrett and his staff and students from American-grown cotton and laid beneath the original parchment documents, "helps enhance the light appearance of the translucent parchment; provides a soft, stable cushion between the document and the perforated metal plate below; and stabilizes the humidity within each encasement."

In 2009, Barrett was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, often called the "genius grant", as a result of his research on early European handmade papers.{{cite news |title=Hybrid 2022 Minter Lecture in Conservation features renowned papermaker April 28 |url=https://www.psu.edu/news/university-libraries/story/hybrid-2022-minter-lecture-conservation-features-renowned-papermaker |access-date=22 April 2025 |work=Penn State University Libraries |date=22 April 2022}} In 2012 he was again director of the UICB, and he remained in that role until his retirement in 2020. In 2018, Barrett published European Hand Papermaking: Traditions, Tools, and Techniques,{{cite web |last1=Peachey |first1=Jeff |title=Two Awesome Looking New Books From The Legacy Press. Tim Barrett's European Papermaking and Pablo Alvarez's Translation of Paredes' Printing Manual |url=https://jeffpeachey.com/2018/10/23/two-awesome-looking-new-books-from-the-legacy-press/ |website=Peachey Conservation |access-date=21 April 2025 |date=23 October 2018}} a companion to his 1983 publication on Japanese papermaking; the book was described as "the first comprehensive how-to book about traditional European hand papermaking since Dard Hunter's renowned reference, Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft".{{cite web |title=European Hand Papermaking: Traditions, Tools, Techniques |url=https://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/138591 |website=Oak Knoll |access-date=22 April 2025}}

Barrett retired from the UICB in 2020 with plans to set up a workshop in his basement to continue making paper. In 2022, Barrett was selected as the speaker for the third annual William D. Minter Lectureship in Conservation at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. In 2024, Barrett curated an exhibition at the University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives Reading Room of his collection of Japanese chōchin lanterns, which he became interested in during his Fulbright Fellowship in Japan in the 1970s.

The Tim Barrett Collection at the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections holds archival materials from Barrett's career.{{cite web |title=Tim Barrett Collection |url=https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/node/80062 |website=University of Iowa |access-date=20 April 2025}}

• Fulbright Fellowship, 1975
• MacArthur Fellowship, 2009

• Nagashizuki: The Japanese Craft of Hand Papermaking (North Hills, Penn.: Bird & Bull Press, 1979)
• Japanese Papermaking: Traditions, Tools, and Techniques (New York: Weatherhill, 1983; {{ISBN|0-8348-0185-X}}){{cite web |title=Timothy D. Barrett |url=https://rarebookschool.org/faculty/history/timothy-barrett/ |website=Rare Book School - Faculty |access-date=23 April 2025}}
• European Hand Papermaking: Traditions, Tools, and Techniques (Ann Arbor, Mich.: The Legacy Press, 2018; {{ISBN|978-1-940965-11-6}})

• Early European Papers, Contemporary Conservation Papers: A Report on Research Undertaken from Fall 1984 Through Fall 1987 (Paper Conservator v. 13; London: Institute of Paper Conservation, 1989){{cite journal |last1=Barrett |first1=Timothy D. |title=Early European Papers, Contemporary Conservation Papers: A Report on Research Undertaken from Fall 1984 Through Fall 1987 |journal=The Paper Conservator |date=1989 |volume=13 |issue=1 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcon19/13/1 |access-date=21 April 2025}}

• Paper Through Time: Nondestructive Analysis of 14th- Through 19th-Century Papers (The University of Iowa, 2012){{cite web

|last1=Barrett |first1=Timothy

|last2=Ormsby |first2=Mark

|last3=Shannon |first3=Robert

|last4=Brückle |first4=Irene

|last5=Lang |first5=Joseph

|last6=Schilling |first6=Michael

|last7=Mazurek |first7=Joy

|last8=Wade |first8=Jennifer

|last9=White |first9=Jessica

|display-authors=1 |url=https://paper.lib.uiowa.edu/ |title=Home |website=Paper Through Time: Non-destructive Analysis of 14th- through 19th-Century European-style Papers |publisher=University of Iowa |access-date=21 April 2025 |date=2012–2025}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/object/ui%3Atimbarrett Tim Barrett Collection at the University of Iowa Libraries]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZrBsQx5eU Tim Barrett: The Story of a Papermaker] on YouTube

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Category:Antioch College alumni

Category:Living people

Category:MacArthur Fellows

Category:Papermakers

Category:Papermaking in the United States

Category:University of Iowa faculty

Category:Western Michigan University alumni

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)