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48 GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 kept these designs on file for decades. With these customers in mind, Lee Morgan struck up a deal with then-co-owner and printer of the Yellow Springs News, Ken Champney. The News would take over printing these personalized bookplates using its own letterpress equipment and keep any prof - its, and The Antioch Company would hand over a large com- pendium of classic designs for the News to use. Gardner was hired by the News in 1990 for a variety of duties — “I don’t even know what the official job title was,” she said — including processing bookplate orders. The following year, she became part owner of the paper and began to focus more on the bookplate business, which Champney had renamed My Own Bookplate to distinguish it from the Antioch Publishing Company. “We would probably get a few orders each week — but we weren’t making much money with it,” Gardner said. With the News office’s small staff and the fairly small return for labor in mind, Gardner said the News’ owners had con - sidered selling the business several times over the next decade — but none of them had the heart to let go of the bookplates. By 2004, Gardner was ready to leave the News to pursue a master’s degree in special education — but she couldn’t leave the bookplates behind. Rather than cash out her owner’s shares in the News, she traded the shares for ownership of the book - plate business. “Nobody else was really interested in keeping [the bookplate business] up, so for a little while there I was get - ting my master’s and teaching and doing the bookplates — I don’t think I sat down at all that year!” Gardner said. With Gardner at the helm, the bookplate business became a one-woman opera- tion and changed direction — for a start, she changed its name to Bookplate Ink. “I thought it was a clever play on words, but it’s become kind of a nuisance because people always think it’s ‘Inc.’ for ‘incorporated’ — I kind of did myself in on that one,” Gardner said with a laugh. Next, Gardner built a website for the business and began accepting payments via credit card — something the News had never done and wouldn’t do for another decade after Gardner left. The transition more than doubled Bookplate Ink’s business; Gardner recalled that, a few days after making the option for credit card payments available on the Bookplate Ink website, she went on vacation. “When I came back a week later, I was stunned by how many orders we’d gotten,” she said. “I really think, in some ways, that the business just needed somebody to pay more attention to it.” ▲ One of the original bookplate designs, still in use. ▲ Karen Gardner, current owner of Bookplate, Ink, displays some of the legacy bookplates still available. P H O T O : L A U R E N ‘ C H U C K ’ S H O W S time, Lee Morgan found that the demand for personalized bookplates — as opposed to mass-produced ones — had diminished. However, the company had some longtime, diehard personalized book - plate customers. “The company had prom - ised their customers that they could always get their favorite [personalized] bookplate in the future,” Gardner said, noting that the company had Peifer Orchards & FarmMarket SPECIALIZING IN APPLES, PEACHES, BERRIES AND PUMPKINS. Our Farm Market offers seasonal locally grown produce, artisan foods and gifts. Family owned and operated since 1994. Open Seasonally, June – December 4590 U.S. 68 N • 937-767-2208 • www.PeiferOrchards.com Fresh roasted peanuts, fine chocolates and candies.  1576 E. Main St., Springfield, Ohio 45503 937.323.2591 Since 1937