What I did this weekend

In 1880 J.E. Hamilton of Two Rivers, Wisconsin quit his job to go into business making wood type and later expanded to include printing cabinets and printer's furniture. In 1889 the Hamilton Manufacturing Company was formed. This company went on to make dental cabinets, drafting furniture, medical furniture, and the first automatic clothes dryer.

I've lived seven miles from the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum for twenty years and finally got there this weekend. I knew the Hamilton company made the drawers for storing the print and a quick Google search led me to the website and I visited the museum on Saturday. I was impressed by the quality of the museum's online presence and the museum itself is fantastic. In addition to housing 1.5 million pieces of wood type, the museum contains a workshop. This adds another dimension to the museum experience since you can see people using wood type and experimenting with the medium. The gift shop sells prints, posters, broadsides, and postcards. Not only was I very impressed with the museum, it may end up being helpful my class project.

For more information the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum has a website, items for sale on etsy, and a presence on facebook and twitter.