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Who was Bobby Shafto and why the silver buckles?

The Silver Buckle Press is a working
museum of letterpress printing dedicated to preserving the craft of fine printing through limited-edition publications, lectures, demonstrations, and tours. The Silver Buckle Press is part of the General Library System, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is housed in room 236 Memorial Library.

Silver Buckle’s publishing program contributes to the intellectual life of the University and the furtherance of the book arts in society. Our books, pamphlets and broadsides present works of original scholarship; literary and artistic productions; and, on occasion, reprints of books unique to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. The Silver Buckle Press offers educational opportunities for interested individuals and groups, and sponsors workshops related to printing and the book arts.

The collection of 19th- and 20th-century equipment includes printing presses– notably an Albion and a Washington Hoe–, approximately two hundred fonts of metal and wood type, a fine collection of printer’s ornaments and cuts, and all the tools necessary to run a complete printing shop.

The original Silver Buckle Press collection was put together by Robert Shaftoe (1921-1972), an art director at the Ford Motor Company. Mr. Shaftoe was a hobby printer, an active member of a Michigan printing chapel (a printer’s club), and he helped set up the printing exhibits at the Dearborn Park Museum in Michigan.
Robert Shaftoe named his press “Silver Buckle” after the nursery rhyme “Bobby Shaftoe went to sea, silver buckles on his knees.” His description for the Silver Buckle Press was “a private press operated in pursuit of printing pleasure and enlightenment.” It was his hope that after his death the Press would be preserved intact and that it would be operated by a museum or library.
In 1973 the Silver Buckle Press was purchased from Robert Shaftoe’s estate by the University of Wisconsin libraries upon the urging of Professor Walter Hamady of the University of Wisconsin Department of Art, who lobbied to bring the Press to the University.

When the Silver Buckle Press came to Madison it was set up as a working museum. The “museum” part of that description refers to the preservation of the Press’s distinguished holdings of type and printing equipment; the “working” designation describes our role of demonstrating the art and practice of printing through an active publishing program. Together these two ideas have been integral parts of the mission of the Press. The Silver Buckle is devoted to the pursuit of printing excellence and to education on the significance of the cultural heritage of letterpress printing.

BOBBY SHAFTO
Bobby Shafto’s gone to sea, silver buckles on his knee,
He’ll come back and marry me, Bonny Bobby Shafto

Bobby Shafto’s tall and slim, he’s always dressed so neat and trim
The lasses they aal keek at him! Bonny Bobby Shafto

Bobby Shafto’s gone to sea, silver buckles on his knee
He’ll come back and marry me, Bonny Bobby Shafto

Bobby Shafto’s gettin’ a bairn, for to dangle in his airm
In his airm and on his knee, Bonny Bobby Shafto

Bobby Shafto’s gone to sea, silver buckles on his knee,
He’ll come back and marry me, Bonny Bobby Shafto

Bobby Shafto’s been to sea, Silver Buckles on his knee;
He’s come home and married me, Bonny Bobby Shafto!

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