The Museum of Printing (MoP), located in Haverhill, Massachusetts, is a museum dedicated to preserving the history of

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

technologies and practices, the graphic arts, 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 equipment which was being replaced by the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' 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 A textile museum is a museum with exhibits relating to the history and art of textiles, including: * Textile industries and manufacturing, often located in former factories or buildings involved in the design and production of yarn, cloth and clo ...

North Andover, Massachusetts North Andover is an affluent town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 30,915. History Native Americans inhabited what is now northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European c ...

. In 2016,

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Frank Romano acquired and donated a former electrical supplies building in Haverhill, Massachusetts 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 The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online ...

computers contributed by Steve Jobs. The typewriter collection has been the setting and facilitator of at least one successful

marriage proposal A marriage proposal is an event where one person in a relationship asks for the other's hand in marriage. If accepted, it marks the initiation of engagement, a mutual promise of later marriage. It often has a ritual quality. Traditional propo ...

, in 2020.

Collection

The displays include a number of historic machines and related artifacts: *Early Gutenberg-style hand-powered

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

es, progressing to small hand-operated presses used in the early 20th century * Linotype "hot metal" typecasting machine *

Xerox 914 The Xerox 914 was the first successful commercial plain paper copier. Introduced in 1959 by the Haloid/Xerox company. It revolutionized the document-copying industry. The culmination of inventor Chester Carlson's work on the xerographic process ...

photocopier,

mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the proc ...

spirit duplicator A spirit duplicator (also referred to as a Rexograph or Ditto machine in North America, Banda machine in the UK, Gestetner machine in Australia) is a printing method invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld that was commonly used for much of the ...

s, and

blueprint A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets. Introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842, the process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited number ...

copiers *

Typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

s, including composing typewriters such as the

IBM Selectric Composer The IBM Selectric typewriter was a highly successful line of electric typewriters introduced by IBM on 31 July 1961. Instead of the "basket" of individual typebars that swung up to strike the ribbon and page in a typical typewriter of the perio ...

*A complex mechanical

Chinese typewriter A Chinese typewriter is a typewriter that can type Chinese script. Early European typewriters began appearing in the early 19th century. However, as the Chinese language uses a logographic writing system, fitting thousands of Chinese characters o ...

with thousands of characters * Photolithography and hand-engraving equipment *

Bindery Bindery refers to a studio, workshop or factory where sheets of (usually) paper are fastened together to make books, but also where gold and other decorative elements are added to the exterior of books, where boxes or slipcases for books are made ...

, finishing, and mailing equipment *A full-size

drum scanner An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. Commonly used in offices are variations of the desktop ''flatbed scanner'' w ...

Phototypesetter Phototypesetting is a method of setting type. It uses photography to make columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper. It has been made obsolete by the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publishing (digital typesetting). The ...

s (claimed to be the largest collection in the world) *

Desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online ...

setups such as the original

Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

and

Laserwriter The LaserWriter is a laser printer with built-in PostScript interpreter sold by Apple, Inc. from 1985 to 1988. It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market. In combination with WYSIWYG publishing software like PageMake ...

printer *Various data storage media used with printing, such as magnetic tape, floppy disks, 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 QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden t ...

" 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 The Columbian press is a type of hand-operated printing press invented in the United States by George Clymer, around 1813. Made from cast iron, it was a very successful design and many thousands were made by him and by others during the 19th centu ...

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 A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the proc ...

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