Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum

Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum
Front entrance of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum
Map
Established1999
LocationTwo Rivers, WI
TypeHistorical and Art
Visitors5,000 per year
FounderTwo Rivers Historical Society
DirectorPeter Crabb
Public transit accessBus interchange Maritime Metro Transit
Websitewww.woodtype.org

The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum was founded in 1999 and is located in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, United States.[1][2][3][4][5] 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 J.E. Hamilton.[6] The museum has a collection of over 1.5 million pieces in more than 1,000 styles of wood type.[7] 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.

Hamilton Manufacturing Co.

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The American Chromatic digital font, released by the Hamilton Wood Type museum based on its collection of antique fonts. (Specimen image created by FontShop.)

The Hamilton Manufacturing Company was started by James Edward Hamilton and began producing type in 1880.[8] 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.[8]

Hamilton is now known as Hamilton Scientific, after the sale by previous company owner Thermo Fisher Scientific to OpenGate Capital, LLC on October 24, 2012.[6]

Move from Hamilton Factory

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In the Fall of 2012 the museum was informed by the property owners that it would need to move from its location inside of the Hamilton Manufacturing Corporation and have the space vacated by early 2013. The museum, lacking funds and manpower, immediately began a campaign for donations and volunteers to help move the museum and the museum's collection.[9]

The new location of the museum is in a building formerly owned by the Formrite Company in Two Rivers. The new building provides twice as much space as the original location.[10]

After almost one year of being closed, the museum opened the doors at its new location on November 13, 2013.[11]

The original historic/manufacturing building was demolished in 2015.[12]

Target's Vintage Varsity Collection

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U.S. retailer Target Corporation used pieces from the museum's collection for their 2011 Fall fashion line.[13] 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.[14]

Typeface documentary

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The museum was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Typeface.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Shields, David. "What Is Wood Type?". Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Creative Destinations: Two Rivers, Where Wood Type Still Makes a Big Impression". Fastcodesign.com. 12 November 2010. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  3. ^ Cheng, Jacqui. "Wood Stock". The Magazine. Archived from the original on 15 August 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  4. ^ Simonson, Mark (18 August 2022). "Hamilton Wood Type Museum". Mark Simonson. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  5. ^ Hoefler, Jonathan. "Jonathan Hoefler 2017 Wayzgoose Presentation at Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum". YouTube. Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Company History". Hamilton Labs. Archived from the original on 2013-10-13. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  7. ^ "Creative Destinations: Two Rivers, Where Wood Type Still Makes a Big Impression". Fastcodesign.com. 12 November 2010. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  8. ^ a b "Hamilton's History". Hamilton Wood Type. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  9. ^ "Hamilton Wood Type must move, urgently needs funding" (PDF). Hamilton Wood Type. November 2012. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  10. ^ "About". Hamilton Wood Type. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  11. ^ "Museum Open in New Location!".
  12. ^ "Two Rivers plans post-Hamilton redevelopment".
  13. ^ "Target's back-to-school line goes old school". StarTribune.com. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  14. ^ "Target's Vintage Varsity Collection". Target Corporation. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
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44°08′33.3″N 87°34′25.9″W / 44.142583°N 87.573861°W / 44.142583; -87.573861

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