“The NAHP Hall of Papermaking Champions is dedicated to innovators who have made significant contributions to the study and practice of hand papermaking.”

— Lynn Sures, former President, North American Hand Papermakers, 2020

NAHP Hall of Papermaking Champions

The NAHP Hall of Papermaking Champions is a historical resource of significant modern pioneers and researchers in hand papermaking which includes important contributors no longer with us. The NAHP Hall of Papermaking Champions offers documentation and important facts to further research on people in our field who have been inducted as a Papermaking Champion by a committee process and annual membership vote. The past informs the present, and leads us into the future.

NAHP has established the Hall of Papermaking Champions to honor individuals or a collaboration/group whose contributions during their careers have significantly inspired or changed the course of the papermaking field. Paper artists, traditional papermakers, toolmakers, scientists, conservators, historians and others are all eligible for nomination. (Nominees may be living or deceased.) Nominations may be submitted online to the Hall of Papermaking Champions Committee from April 15 to July 15 this year.

The Hall of Papermaking Champions committee chair and the Board encourage nominations from anyone, whether a member of NAHP or not. The committee considers all nominations submitted in a given year and makes its recommendations to the membership based on which nominees have significantly inspired or changed the course of the papermaking field. (Nominators may compose their nomination text using whatever software they prefer but please cut and paste it into the nomination form. Attachments are not allowed in the interest of efficient and accurate processing of nominations.) For an idea of the types of contributions that qualified in the past, readers are advised to review the essays on members of the Hall of Papermaking Champions that appear below.

The 2024 Hall of Papermaking Champions Committee will be chaired by Helen Hiebert, and will be formed in early 2024. Nominations opened April 15, 2024 and the Nominations Form is available here.

Dard Hunter

1883—1966. Pioneer and father of American papermaking

 

Elaine Koretsky

1932—2018. Scholar, papermaker, curator, and documentarian

 

Douglass Howell

1906—1994. 20th century papermaking pioneer, printer, and artist

 

Marilyn Sward

1941—2008. Educator, papermaker, and author

 

Arnold E. Grummer

1923—2012. Legendary papermaking educator

 

Laurence Barker

Paper Artist and Printmaker

 

Tim Barrett

Master craftsman, leading practitioner, scholar, innovator, and teacher of hand papermaking

 

Cathleen A. Baker

Author, biographer, publisher, educator, papermaker, and paper conservator

 

David Reina

Papermaking equipment designer and fabricator

 

Timothy Moore

Master craftsman, inventor, and papermaking mould maker

 

Tatana Kellner

Artist, teacher, and co-founder of Women’s Studio Workshop

 

Kathryn & Howard Clark

Papemakers and owners of Twinrocker Handmade Paper, Inc.

 

Amanda Degener & Michael Durgin

Co-founders of Hand Papermaking Magazine

 

Paul Wong

Artistic director of Dieu Donné for nearly 40 years and prolific artist collaborator

 

Aimee Lee

Leading authority on the history and technique of Korean papermaking

 

Helen Hiebert

Author, teacher, and host of Paper Talk podcast

 

Susan Gosin

Co-founder of Dieu Donné

 

Tom Balbo

Founder of the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation

 

Lilian A. Bell

Artist, researcher, and author of two significant reference books on fibers used in hand papermaking

 

Sara Gilfert

1929-2024. Founder of Paper Circle, a nonprofit papermaking studio dedicated to the art and craft of papermaking

 

Walter Hamady

1940-2019. Papermaker, teacher/professor, and fine and artist's book printer

 

Brian Queen

Papermaker, technologist, and author

 

Asao Shimura

Papermaker, researcher, and expert in papermaking, natural dyes, shifu, and kon'nyaku

 
 

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