The Museum of Printing (MoP), located in

Haverhill, Massachusetts Haverhill ( ) is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Haverhill is located 35 miles north of Boston on the New Hampshire border and about 17 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The population was 67,787 at the 2020 United States Cen ...

, is a museum dedicated to preserving the history of printing technologies and practices, the

graphic arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.

, and their role in the development of culture and literacy.

History

In 1978, a group of New England printers and publishers mobilized to preserve

hot metal typesetting In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting (also called mechanical typesetting, hot lead typesetting, hot metal, and hot type) is a technology for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mol ...

equipment which was being replaced by the '' Boston Globe'' newspaper. For the first 18 years, the growing collection was dispersed in various warehouses and spaces inaccessible to the public. In 1997, some of the collection was first opened to view in space formerly occupied by the Textile Museum in North Andover, Massachusetts. In 2016, Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Emeritus Frank Romano acquired and donated a former electrical supplies building in

to house the museum. The core of the collection was contributed by Romano, who spent his career in the development of the modern printing business. He contributed 6,000 books from his personal library, plus many classic machines, including early Macintosh desktop publishing computers contributed by

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...

. The typewriter collection has been the setting and facilitator of at least one successful marriage proposal, in 2020.

Collection

The displays include a number of historic machines and related artifacts: *Early Gutenberg-style hand-powered printing presses, progressing to small hand-operated presses used in the early 20th century * Linotype "hot metal" typecasting machine * Xerox 914 photocopier, mimeographs, spirit duplicators, and blueprint copiers * Typewriters, including composing typewriters such as the IBM Selectric Composer *A complex mechanical Chinese typewriter with thousands of characters *

Photolithography In integrated circuit manufacturing, photolithography or optical lithography is a general term used for techniques that use light to produce minutely patterned thin films of suitable materials over a substrate, such as a silicon wafer, to protect ...

and hand-engraving equipment * Bindery, finishing, and mailing equipment *A full-size drum scanner * Phototypesetters (claimed to be the largest collection in the world) * Desktop publishing setups such as the original Apple Macintosh and Laserwriter printer *Various data storage media used with printing, such as

magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

s, and specialized optical cartridges *Many different metal, optical, digital, and wood typefonts, including over 2500 wooden display fonts There is an extensive library of 7,000 books, periodicals, and media related to the history of paper and printing.

Programs

Operation of classic printing equipment is demonstrated, as well as exhibitions and hands-on workshops by artists who use printing technologies. In 2018, the museum celebrated a " QWERTY" Festival, featuring typewriters and their history and culture. There are art galleries, meeting spaces, and a museum store on premises. The store offers books, souvenirs, and classic printing artifacts.

Gallery

File:Typecasting mould.jpg, Typecasting mold File:Printing press 14.jpg, Ornately-decorated Columbian press File:19th century printing presses in museum display.jpg, Hand-powered 19th century letterpresses File:Platen press 10.jpg, Display of small portable presses File:Ludlow Type Caster.jpg, Ludlow typecaster setup File:Type files with typecases.jpg, Collection of metal typefonts File:Unitype typesetting machine ("cold type").jpg, Unitype "cold metal" typesetter File:MOP linotype 8, right side 2.jpg, Linotype "hot metal" typesetter File:MOP linotype, assembler entrance plate.jpg, Detail of Linotype mechanism File:Hammond typewriter (1).jpg, Hammond typewriter (c. 1913) File:Mimeograph in MOP.jpg, Mimeograph office duplicating machine File:Platen press 8.jpg, Museum store

References

External links

Official site
Buildings and structures in Haverhill, Massachusetts Printing in the United States Industry museums in Massachusetts Museums in Essex County, Massachusetts Printing museums in the United States {{Coord, 42, 46, 22.01, N, 71, 7, 15.31, W, display=title