#13 Experience 10 new things in Provo (7/10): Crandall Historical Printing Museum

Guys!! Best kept secret in Provo! The Crandall Historical Printing Museum was AmAzInG! I loved every second of it. Friends have told me about this museum for a while but I never went because you have to schedule a tour in advance. But, lucky for me, my entire print design class went as a field trip. :) I got class credit for completing this goal!

Gutenberg Printing Process

This video is a demonstration of how Gutenberg would have cast his moveable type using a handcaster tool (that he invented).

And here's the demonstration of how the actual printing press works! This is the ONLY working model of a Gutenberg printing press.  Pretty cool stuff.  We've come so far.

 And the final product! Here's the first half of the Bible (it took two books to print it).

Copy of the Gutenberg Bible (painted letters are done by hand afterward)

Printing of the Book of Mormon

Sixteen small pages fit on the press at once

This is an entire page that dropped...look at all the type

it's MUCH smaller than Gutenberg's type

A model of the gold plates, from which the Book of Mormon was translated. 

An artist's idea of what "reformed Egyptian" might have looked like

The first two words of the Book of Mormon, "I, Nephi" on the type sheet.
(if you can't read it, it's ok--it's upside down and backwards)

The tour is 2 hours long, free, and well worth it. They also talk about printing during the Revolutionary War and printing newspapers. The guys that run it have to be older than 80, and they're SUPER knowledgeable, so you want to go soon, if ya know what I mean. :) It's an unforgettable experience.