What’s Going on at the Museum
Printing the “Boston Massacre”
Saturday, March 30, 11:30 am lecture / 2:00 pm demonstration
Join Andy Volpe on Saturday, March 30, 2024 at the Museum of Printing for a slide lecture and live printing demonstration about Paul Revere’s most famous (infamous?) print from 1770, “The Bloody Massacre” — better known today as the “Boston Massacre.”
Read all about us in the Globe!
The Boston Globe finds us “fit to print”
What a visitor finds is a museum as marvelous as any in new England. Here is Ali Baba’s cave crossed with a print shop and pressroom. One of only three museums in the United states dedicated to printing and graphic arts, it has “the largest collection of typographic technology and ephemera in the world,” says MoP president Frank Romano. “We’re trying to save the past for the future,” he says.
Read Mark Feeney’s article in the Boston Sunday Globe, October 22, 2023 [pdf] ↠
Winter 2024 Events & Exhibits
The Museum of Printing is open to the public Saturdays, from 10am to 4pm. We are happy to open at other times. Email us at .
Exhibits
- Linotype and Ludlow hot metal linecasting most Saturdays
Print your own bookmark on an 1800s Acorn press.
- History of the Bible in English
Our entire room of Bibles continues to expand. Pick up a free booklet.
- History of the American Dictionary
See orginal copies of the first publications. Free booklet.
- History of the American Almanac(k)
See a collection of these unique publications from the 1800s and early 1900s.
- A Century of Graphic Design
In 1922 William Addison Dwiggins coined the term “graphic design.” Peruse two giant volumes that document 100 years of “graphic design.” Free booklet.
- The Only Collection of “Cold Type” Phototypesetters in the World
This technology replaced hot metal Linotypes but only lasted 44 years. 20 models on display.
Also see our upcoming workshops →
♦ Contact us:
Admission to all Museum events is free for members (join here).- Linotype and Ludlow hot metal linecasting most Saturdays
Museum of Printing Workshops in 2024
$125 each
Saturdays, 10am–4pm. Pizza lunch included.
Email for registration information. Workshops sell out early.April 6
Letterpress Intro+ WorkshopMay 4
Letterpress Intro+ WorkshopJune 1
Letterpress on Fabric WorkshopHaverhill Exchange Club Dedicates Freedom Shrine at Museum of Printing
Members of the Haverhill Exchange Club, who sponsored a “Freedom Shrine” and, local leaders, dedicated it at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Massachusetts. This gallery of history includes reproductions of George Washington’s first inaugural address where the first president urged a new Congress to consider a “reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for public harmony” in crafting a Bill of Rights. Past National President Haverhill member Bob Harb (pictured here) noted that the 20 original documents were on the Freedom Train that visited Haverhill on October 22, 1947 for a few days.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the preserved documents are editing marks—many documents are preserved in some pre-finished form. In this presentation, it’s clear the authors of some of the most important documents in U.S. history themselves had to revise.
The Museum owes a debt to the Exchange Club, for which the installation of “Freedom Shrines” in public places is a national project.
For more on the Haverhill Exchange Club, see http://www.haverhillexchangeclub.com.
History of Desktop Publishing Selected as Honorable Mention
History of Desktop Publishing by Frank Romano (with Miranda Mitrano) has been awarded Honorable Mention by the jury of the 18th International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) Breslauer Prize for Bibliography.
The ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography is the world’s leading prize honoring outstanding work in the field of bibliography and book history. The award is sponsored by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. The 18th edition of the prize was awarded in September, 2022 at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England.
The 2022 winners are:
- 1st Prize: Jack Baldwin, A Catalogue of Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in Glasgow Libraries and Museums, 2 volumes (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2020).
- 2nd Prize: Ernst Fischer; Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels – Historische Kommission. (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2020–21).
- 3rd Prize: Renaud Adam, Vivre et imprimer dans les Pays-Bas Méridionaux (Des Origines à la réforme), 2 vols (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018).
- Honorable Mention: Frank Romano (with Miranda Mitrano), History of Desktop Publishing (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2019).
For the full ILAB press release, see: https://ilab.org/article/celebrating-outstanding-works-of-bibliography-and-book-history-impressions-of-the-ilab-breslauer-prize-ceremony-2022
The book is available through the Museum of Printing gift shop in soft or hard cover as well as through the publisher, Oak Knoll Books: https://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/133734/frank-romano-with-miranda-mitrano/history-of-desktop-publishing
The World Cup of Printing History with Jim Hamilton
In this Print Media Centr podcast, Jim Hamilton, Museum of Printing board member and social media volunteer, shares his perspective on the #worldcupofprintinghistory Twitter hashtag that the museum ran during the Women’s World Cup in 2019 (and also in 2018 for the Men’s tournament).
https://podcasts.printmediacentr.com/podcast/the-world-cup-of-printing-history-with-jim-hamilton/
Mimeograph Machines
In the days before inkjet printers and Xerox machines, multiple copies were made on mimeograph machines.
In 1876, Thomas Edison filed the first US patent for autographic printing by means of a duplicating press with an electric pen for cutting stencils. A subsequent patent followed, and then Chicago inventor and businessman, Albert Blake Dick, took it to the next level. He merged his efforts with Edison’s, improved the stencils and licensed the patents. In 1887, the A. B. Dick Company released the Model “0” flatbed duplicator selling for $12 ($284 today). Dick named the machine the Edison Mimeograph and it was an immediate success. The company went on to become the world’s largest manufacturer of mimeograph equipment.
Awesome wood type
This font, beautiful in its size, color and simplicity, is on display in our art gallery. The Museum is fortunate to hold an extensive wood type collection that has been acquired over many years, including several sizable and relatively recent donations of significance. Stay tuned for future posts. . . .
Download our Letterpress Presses poster (pdf, 1.8 MB)
Download our Image Carrier Poster (pdf, 684 KB)
Programs are supported in part by grants from the Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Lawrence, Merrimac, Middleton, North Andover, West Newbury Cultural Councils, local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
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