| Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum | |
|---|---|
Front entrance of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum |
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| Established | 2000 |
| Location | Two Rivers, WI |
| Type | Historical and Art |
| Director | James Van Lanen, Jr. |
| Curator | Jim Moran |
| Website | www.woodtype.org |
The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum was founded in the year 2000 and is located in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, USA. The museum is run by the Two Rivers Historical Society. It is dedicated to the preservation, study, production and printing of wood type used in letterpress printing. The museum is located in a factory building of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company founded in 1880 by James Edward Hamilton.[1] The museum has a collection of over 1.5 million pieces in more than 1,000 styles of wood type.[2] Also included are presses and vintage prints. The museum holds many workshops and conferences throughout the year and regularly welcomes groups of students from universities from across the United States.
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The Hamilton Manufacturing Company was started by James Edward Hamilton and began producing type in 1880.[3] Lyman Nash, editor of the Two Rivers Chronicle, asked Hamilton to make letters because he was short on time to order them from Chicago. Hamilton's letters printed so well that he began to take orders from other nearby newspapers.[4]
Hamilton is now known as Thermo Fisher Scientific and is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of laboratory equipment.[5]
U.S. retailer Target Corporation used pieces from the museum's collection for their 2011 Fall fashion line.[6] The collection was called "Vintage Varsity" and used the tag line "Cool Never Fades". The museum itself was one of three locations used for photo shoots for the line's print advertising campaign.[7]
The museum was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Typeface.