Job:03171 Title:Typography Referenced (Rockport)
Page: 365
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Type-Specifi c Resources
Text
Job:03171 Title:Typography Referenced (Rockport)
Page: 365
The Museum
of Printing
NORTH ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS
www.museumofprinting.org
This establishment is dedicated to pre-
serving the history of graphic arts and
printing, which inevitably involve a great
deal of typography. The museum holds
in collection hundreds of antique print-
ing, typesetting, and bindery machines,
alongside an extensive library of books
and print-related documents.
The museum was incorporated as a
not-for-profi t organization in to save
for posterity the technologies that the
printing and typesetting industries no
longer use commercially. It also tells the
story of the transition from letterpress
printing through photographic processes
to today’s digital technology, using one of
the world’s largest collections of printing
hardware. A principal exhibit comprises
a timeline history of typography and
typesetting reaching back years and
covering hand-setting, hot metal type-
setting, photo typesetting, and of course,
the digital technology in use today.
Museum of the
Printing Arts
LEIPZIG, GERMANY
www.druckkunst-museum.de
The Museum of the Printing Arts in
Leipzig, Germany, off ers visitors the
chance to experience what it was once
like to work as a printer and typogra-
pher. It combines a working print shop
with the more traditional aspects of a
museum, covering years of print
and type history. Spread over four fl oors,
the collection is composed of more than
fully working machines and presses
demonstrating copperplate printing,
lithography, and letterpress, with a par-
ticular focus on manual and mechanical
typesetting. In addition, there is a fully
working type foundry where lead type is
cast by hand and by machine.
It is estimated that the museum’s
current collection includes approxi-
mately forty tons of lead type, matrices,
and steel dies. If that isn’t enough, it also
has a fully operational bookbindery. The
museum’s motto is “See, smell and touch,”
which is great news for visitors who want
to learn fi rsthand about the “black art”
of printing. The museum holds regular
workshops on a range of historic print-
ing techniques including traditional
typesetting and letterpress printing.
Museum of
Printing History
HOUSTON
www.printingmuseum.org
Four printers who wanted to preserve
and share with the community their own
large collections founded the Museum of
Printing History in . The museum’s
goal, which it shares with many of the
other museums listed in this book, is to
preserve printing technology and skills,
but it also is focused on the advancement
of literacy.
The permanent exhibits narrate the
story of written communication and the
way in which printing and print tech-
nology have transformed our lives, with
many galleries referencing the impor-
tance of the newspaper in this story.
Other featured artifacts from the col-
lection include Asian movable type,
illuminated manuscripts, a Guten-
berg press replica, a copy of Benjamin
Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette, an
extensive letterpress and type collection,
and antique bookbinding equipment.
Leipzig’s Museum of the Printing
Arts houses more than fully
working machines and presses.
A set of blackletter type matrices from
the vast collection held at the Museum of
the Printing Arts in Leipzig, Germany
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