Tag: museum

  • November 2025 Update

    Greetings again! It’s about that time of year where the greater American public gets thankful about the things in their lives. Lately I’ve become thankful for the Museum of Printing, a collection celebrating the engineering and design of printed materials and their manufacture.

    The museum sits in an unassuming building in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It’s only open on Saturdays, which gives one a narrow window to take everything in. On that particular day, my friend and I literally walked into a tour (the museum’s exhibits run right up to the entrance) and were warmly greeted by not one, but two guides. We were given a quick rundown of the Museum’s Bible Room, which — and there are no points for guessing correctly — contain scores of Bibles from throughout history, including replicas of the Gutenberg Bible. There was enough in this one room alone to spend an hour examining all the type designs and book constructions, as well as leafing through some of the larger Bibles. There was also a copy of the world’s smallest Bible, but according to the Museum, you’d need an electron microscope to read it.

    Catching up with the rest of the tour, there were a number of attractions that would pull in any graphic designer: exhibitions from local artists and designers; replicas and restorations of historical letterpresses; rare books of vintage typefaces; and prints from local newspapers. You’d think that a small space wouldn’t contain enough to be very engaging, but the space was dense with information.

    To be honest I don’t even care too much about the price tag printer on the right; check out that fine wooden book press on the left!
    This is a collection of Chinese glyphs for printing in that language. To be useful, you’d need more than these two wheels.

    Next up was the Museum’s collection of printing equipment. This room (which I only call a single room because it lacked significant partitions) held a variety of letterpresses, typewriters, Linotype machines, and offset printers. Best of all was the live demo of the Linotype machine, which itself has to be one of the most satisfying pieces of print engineering to engage the senses. Like a steam locomotive, the Linotype runs hot, emanating a noticeable amount of heat as it melts an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony into lines of metal type on the fly. There’s a metallic odor of the hot metal, mechanical arms raising and lowering to adjust parts on the fly, and the click-clack of the keyboard is followed by the cascading jingle of the templates for each glyph being automatically returned to their sorting trays.

    A close-up of the keyboard of a Linotype machine. In the lower left you can see fresh lines of type popping out hot from the machine.
    Here’s what a single line of Linotype looks like. Of course, it’s in reverse so that it prints correctly.

    The final room housed the Museum’s libraries, the most stunning of which was the Romano Library. Thousands of books about printing are housed here, and we even ran into Frank Romano himself, the curator and fellow New Yorker who not only amassed the collection, but worked on International Paper’s (now Sylvamo) Pocket Pal series of reference books for three decades. (I love my Pocket Pal; it’s a dense little book that contains everything a print designer needs to know, and plenty more that they probably don’t.)

    And typewriters? YOU BET!
    Visit the Romano Library to find thousands of books related to printing. You might also find Frank Romano, the curator.

    That particular Saturday was also significant because it was the day of one of the Museum’s garage sales. Along with books — which I bought — there were tabletop letterpresses, inks, paper, flat files, dies, cases of type (upper and lower, of course) and various odd tools and parts for them all. But there was a specific reason I had been waiting months for this day: to see if I could find a book press for my bookbinding hobby.

    This metal gear is solid.

    And find one I did! Well, actually there were at least three there, but most of them were six feet tall and I’m not doing anything larger than letter size. Sitting on a flat file, however, was a brilliant little tabletop book press, which was absolutely perfect for my needs. And it only weighs 63 pounds! Score!

    All in all, I’m making a solid recommendation for the Museum of Printing to anyone even slightly interested in the process. If you can get there during one of their sales, it’s the perfect opportunity to grab some unique and practical items.

    In other news, I’d like to announce that I’m working on setting of the public domain book The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois. As there is less illustration in this title, I’m hoping to have it ready sometime in Q1 2026. I’m also hoping to use my new press to create a couple of handbound volumes, which will be available in my shop.

    Speaking of which, the shop has been open with copies of Four Worlds, Valentine’s Day, and Kelly Ranger; take a look, why don’t you?

  • “Doris Duke’s Shangri La” at Museum of Arts and Design

    “Doris Duke’s Shangri La” at Museum of Arts and Design

    I went out with my girlfriend to the Museum of Arts and Design today. She suggested an exhibition at the museum (of whose existence I sheepishly admitted ignorance) called “Doris Duke’s Shangri La,” which showcased the fabulously wealthy heiress’ sizable collection of Islamic art from her similarly-themed estate in Honolulu.

    The exhibition occupies a single floor of MAD’s exhibition space, and contains a sweeping selection of embroideries, jewelry, furniture, clothing, tableware, family photos, video, and accessories. Also present are new large-scale photographs of the estate—named “Shangri La” —as well as architectural drawings of the grounds. Topping it off are a handful of artworks by contemporary artists who drew inspiration from the collection. All in all it’s an exhibition that feels very complete, offering broad strokes of history, personal stories, architecture, and modern relevance.

    Shangri La contains a good wealth of work, some of it already centuries old by the time it made it into Duke’s possession. Embroideries, rugs, basins, lamps, and chairs alike are at the high level of intricacy and geometric precision typical of the Muslim Middle Eastern region. The historical pieces vary in condition; the loss of color on some pieces is due the fact that Duke actively used her wares, rather than preserve them outright (obviously; she lived there, after all). That aside, Duke apparently had a discerning eye for individual pieces, though her broad interest led to some awkward room compositions. Some of the rooms in Shangri-La are outright garish, with pale pink and brown tiles set against loud green, red, and yellow lights, with brass and silverware from various eras decorating the shelves. Not that there’s anything wrong with collage, but some rooms feel unsettled: it’s clear what inspired the room, but some of the pieces just aren’t quite “right.” On the other hand, rooms like Duke’s personal washroom, are more beautiful for their necessary simplicity. This is in no small part due to the greater percentage of Western-designed motifs.

    Marion Sims Wyeth laying down some science.

    The architectural drawings and interior designs were some of my favorite pieces, if only for the draftsmanship. Like the studies of 19th Century draftsmen (or “draughtsmen,” if you want to be cool) they’re a mix of photo-realistic rendering and freehand line. I always think it’s fun seeing scribbles turn into something that looks like no human touched it at all.

    Overall, the show was satisfying and definitely worth the visit. MAD also has ongoing exhibitions which are easy to see in a single visit. Be sure to check out their open studio spaces, where you can watch and talk with resident artists as they create their new works. When my girlfriend and I visited, we were warmly greeted by Derek Haffar, whose sculpture explores the contrast between wholeness and empty space. There’s a whole dialogue on “seeing beneath the surface” and “filling in the gaps” that I could go into, but won’t. It’s best to see it yourself.

    “Doris Duke’s Shangri La” runs at the Museum of Arts and Design through February 17, 2013.

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