history

If she got overwhelmed with orders, or was going to be away, she began asking if I could help, and she showed me the ropes. Elka created hand-lettered B&P catalogues each year that she photocopied and mailed out using addresses filed in a bursting rolodex or in notebooks. These catalogues listed all the prints/banners/calendars/postcards/books/videos and customers mailed or phoned in orders. Each order was then handwritten on a duplicate receipt book, the items collected from the office at Elka & Peter’s home, or the print shop, or the very-cold-in-winter “storeroom” in the barn, then packaged up, a hand-addressed label added, and mailed out from the Barton P.+O. Gradually, I ended up filling all the orders and Elka was glad to have one less responsibility to handle.

I worked about 3-4 hours, 2-3 days a week, usually filling 20-30 orders each time. As I hand-wrote the name/address three times (top of the receipt, mailing label, and in a notebook record Elka kept), I found myself imagining the folks who were to receive it, along with thoughts about how, if we moved to computer labeling, it sure would be easier! But, this old-fashioned hand-written procedure certainly was more personal, and I made sure to write “Thank you!” on the receipt like Elka always had. Then, off to the P.O. with overflowing tote bags filled with tubes and mailers. I learned to try to time those trips knowing when there would be two staff at the counter, to avoid holding up the line. The P.O. clerks so fondly remembered Elka, they never showed displeasure when I arrived, though one did suggest to me that this mailing procedure would go lots faster if we had a scale and pre-weighed and printed labels at the B & P office. 

Maybe around 2017 Bread & Puppet created a website, and then an online store. I would print out the orders at home, but the rest of the process stayed the same. With the online store, the orders increased. Elka kept careful record of the press’ expenses and income, and was very proud of the contribution the press made in supporting the theater, so more orders coming in was exciting! She also had very high standards for the work the press produced—she would notice if a paint color was a little off, or if a word was misspelled on the calendar, and corrections were made. 

When the pandemic hit, the Puppeteers who were out on tour came suddenly home. Some who wanted to stay on the farm were reimagining how they could continue the shows. They also realized they could rework the whole fulfillment process and move it into the 21^st century. It was good timing for me to pass my job on, and I was thrilled months later to see the office I had worked in had been totally transformed into the organized office Elka had so long dreamed of, and to see it was all equipped with the technology to make the mailing efficient! No more hand-written receipts and labels. No more holding up the line at the P.O. 

Now I volunteer at the print shop, usually once a week, for 2 hours of painting posters and banners. It is fun to hear which prints are the current big sellers—often they are the same ones I remember sending out time after time: Resistance Against Business as Usual, Cheap Art Manifesto. Hearing how connecting with people through social media has grown sales so much, that is very exciting! And it makes me extra glad that the fulfillment staff are not writing out labels by hand, or holding up the line at the P.O."

Today, that same care happens at a different scale. The tools have changed, but the spirit hasn't. We print labels instead of hand-addressing them, but the work still happens in a small office on the farm, where each order is packed and sent out into the world. In 2025, around 3,600 orders were packed and shipped from the Press, traveling far beyond Vermont to homes across the U.S. and 12 countries internationally. The online store has grown into a major support for the Press and the Bread and Puppet Theater, bringing in about half of the Press's income and helping sustain the larger work. 

With thanks for your continued care and support of the Press and its many hands,

Lydia