Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum facts for kids
Front entrance of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum
|
|
| Established | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Location | Two Rivers, WI |
| Type | Historical and Art |
| Visitors | 5,000 per year |
| Founder | Two Rivers Historical Society |
| Public transit access |  Maritime Metro Transit |
The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum is a special place in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, USA. It started in 1999. This museum helps keep alive the history of wood type and letterpress printing. Wood type means big letters made of wood, used to print posters and signs. Letterpress printing is an old way of printing where ink is pressed onto paper.
The museum has a huge collection of over 1.5 million pieces of wood type! It also has old printing presses and cool vintage prints. Many students and groups visit to learn about this unique art. The museum holds many workshops and events throughout the year.
Contents
The Hamilton Company's Story
The Hamilton Manufacturing Company was started by James Edward Hamilton. They began making wood type in 1880. A newspaper editor named Lyman Nash needed letters quickly. He asked Hamilton to make them because ordering from Chicago took too long.
Hamilton's letters worked so well that other newspapers nearby started asking him for them. This is how the company grew! Today, Hamilton Manufacturing Company is known as Hamilton Scientific.
Moving to a New Home
In 2012, the museum learned it had to move from its original factory building. The owners needed the space back. The museum needed help and money to move its huge collection.
They started asking for donations and volunteers right away. People helped move all the heavy wood type and printing presses. The museum found a new home in a building that used to belong to the Formrite Company in Two Rivers. This new building was twice as big as the old one!
After being closed for almost a year, the museum opened its doors at the new location on November 13, 2013. The old historic factory building was taken down in 2015.
Fashion and Film Connections
The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum has even been part of fashion and movies!
Target's "Vintage Varsity" Collection
In 2011, the big store Target Corporation used designs from the museum's collection. They used these designs for their Fall fashion line. This collection was called "Vintage Varsity" and had the slogan "Cool Never Fades." The museum itself was one of the places where they took photos for their advertisements.
The Typeface Documentary
The museum was also featured in a documentary film called Typeface. This movie came out in 2009 and showed the museum's important work.
See also
- Amateur press association
- Chandler & Price
- Letterpress printing
- Vandercook
