Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum facts for kids
Front entrance of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum
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| Established | 1999 |
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| 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 cool place in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. It started in 1999 and is run by the Two Rivers Historical Society. This museum is all about saving, learning, making, and printing with wood type. Wood type means big wooden letters and designs used for printing. This old way of printing is called letterpress printing.
The museum is located in an old factory building. This factory was started by J.E. Hamilton way back in 1880. The museum has a huge collection! They have over 1.5 million pieces of wood type in more than 1,000 different styles. You can also see old printing presses and vintage prints there. The museum often holds workshops and welcomes groups of students from universities.
Contents
The Hamilton Manufacturing 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 for printing quickly. He asked Hamilton to make them because ordering from Chicago would take too long.
Hamilton's letters worked so well that other newspapers nearby started asking him to make letters for them too! This is how the company grew. Today, the company is known as Hamilton Scientific.
Moving to a New Home
In 2012, the museum got news that it needed to move out of the old Hamilton factory building. They had to leave by early 2013. The museum didn't have much money or enough people to help. So, they started asking for donations and volunteers right away.
The museum's new home is in another building in Two Rivers. This building used to belong to a company called Formrite. The best part is that the new building is twice as big as the old one!
After being closed for almost a year, the museum opened its doors at the new spot on November 13, 2013. The original historic factory building was torn down in 2015.
Target's "Vintage Varsity" Collection
In 2011, a big store called Target Corporation used designs from the museum's collection. They used these designs for their Fall clothing line. The collection was called "Vintage Varsity" and had the slogan "Cool Never Fades." The museum itself was one of three places where they took pictures for their ads.
Typeface Documentary Film
The museum was even featured in a movie! It was the main topic of a documentary film called Typeface in 2009.
See Also
- Amateur press association
- Chandler & Price
- Letterpress printing
- Vandercook
