Museum of Printing History
Overview
Artifacts in the collection range in time from humanity's earliest writing through the twenty-first century.Contact Information
1324 West ClayHouse, Texas 77019
United States
Description
The Museum of Printing History displays a dynamic collection of historical documents, fine art prints, and antique printing equipment. Our Museum is more, though, than its permanent collection. It is alive with exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and demonstrations. In our galleries and working studios, we demonstrate the traditional processes of stone lithography, letterpress printing, papermaking, and bookbinding. Artifacts in the collection range in time from humanity's earliest writing through the twenty-first century. Our exhibitions document history from the origins of printing on Mesopotamian clay tablets around 3000 B.C., through pre-Gutenberg manuscript production. The collection reflects the beginning of printing in Europe with Gutenberg's invention of movable type, and illustrates printing of the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, and beyond. A visitor will find the Dharani Scroll, an 8th-century Japanese text which is commonly considered the first example of printing words onto paper; a page from William Caxton, the first printer of the English language; a Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary printed by Juan Pablo's, the first printer in the Americas; Old Master woodcuts and engravings; and various other treasures. In addition, the Museum contains exhibit spaces devoted to American Colonial printed documents and examples of early Texas printing.