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Exhibits from Towson University's Special Collections and University Archives

Woodcut Blocks

Woodcarving is one of the simplest ways to create relief printing blocks. Artists carve a design directly into a piece of plywood, which is inked and printed in books, newspapers, magazines, and fine art.

In the 1930s, students at the State Teacher’s College (later Towson University) used woodcuts to create original designs for the Tower Light newspaper’s title page. Here are images of the woodblocks and the prints they created. You may notice that the text on the woodblock in reversed - this is because relief printing creates a mirror image of the print block. In order for prints to read forwards, they must be designed and carved backwards.