RIT Graphic Arts Research Center photographs

In 1937, the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology) absorbed the Empire State School of Printing. Under the direction of Dr. Mark Ellingson, the Institute's president, the School of Printing was transferred to RAMI and its first class was held that autumn. The program was changed to a two year format and the Institute was given complete administrative control. Ellingson had become convinced that there was a strong need for research and development in printing and graphic arts education, and this was a need that RIT could and should fill.

In 1948, a “Proposal for a Newspaper, Printing, and Graphic Arts Research Center” was compiled. Within three years, the Graphic Arts Research Center (GARC) was established in January 1951. Originally part of the Department of Publishing and Printing, the newly independent center brought together scientific and technical personnel and helped RIT to attain reknown as a force in graphic arts education and innovation.

Over the next twenty-five years, GARC published works on graphic arts technology, held workshops and seminars, and served as the research arm of the School of Printing with its web offset press laboratory and testing facility for printing equipment, inks, and processes. When the RIT Research Corporation (RITRC) was founded in 1980, several GARC projects were brought under the umbrella of the corporation, and GARC itself was renamed the Technical and Education Center of the Graphic Arts (T&E).