[2] Inspired by her class on rare books at Columbia University,[3] Hammer and Amelia Buckley started the Bur Press in 1943.

[2] They printed a series of books called Kentucky Monographs as well as calendars with photographs by the Lexington Camera Club.

The members of the Bur Press included Hammer and Buckley as printers, Harriet McDonald Holladay as artist, and Mary Spears Van Meter as hand bookbinder.

The first print shop was in Buckley's basement; the second and last location of the press was a room added on to Bullock Place, Hammer's home.

Members included Victor Hammer, Carolyn Reading, Waller Oliver Bullock, Virginia Clark, Clavia Goodman, Lucy and Joseph Graves, Harriett McDonald, R. Hunter Middleton, Maria Bizzoni, Gordon Bechanan, Caroline Porter, Nancy Chambers, and Martha Livesay.