The training of craft masters of the press in Sergipe in the context of professional education at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

This article investigates the training of typographers in Sergipe based on the study of 14 issues of the Sergipe Artífice magazine produced in the graphic arts workshop of the Apprentice Craftsman School of the state between 1934 and 1945. The aim is to understand the historical and the graphic production characteristics in the making of the magazine, identifying the subjects and their practices by examining historical documents. We follow the guidelines from the content analysis method according to Bardin (1977), summarized in three phases: pre-analysis; exploration of sources and results; interpretations. As results, the authors discovered a nominal list of 31 apprentice-typographers, who in the training process acquired general and technical knowledge involving typography, printing and bookbinding. The conclusions indicate that modernist conceptions regulated the practices of typography apprentices even before the training of design professionals in Brazil. This study also contributes to the area of History and Graphic Memory by revealing in the social field that training in typography was a possibility for the black population of Aracaju in the context of the post-abolition period.