Crandall Historical Printing Museum

Last week I visited the Crandall Historical Printing Museum in Provo. I'd heard about it before, but I didn't expect the experience to be nearly as entertaining as it was.

I went to the Grandin Press and Print shop with my family when we visited Church historical sites in New England a few summers ago. It was cool enough, but the tour seemed kind of long and I wasn't particularly interested. My experience at the Crandall Museum was completely different.

A large part of that can probably be attributed to the fact that the people who run that museum are awesome. Their passion for both the printing history and its historical implications was astounding. After working in Special Collections for a year, I knew a fair amount about the history of printing; however, it wasn't so much the demonstrations of the physical process of printing that impressed me.

I've heard it said before that Gutenberg's invention of the printing press was an important step in the Church's later success, but I had no idea just how much of a difference it made. To think of a time period in which everything was handwritten (by the few people who were literate) seems incredible in a moment when I'm sitting here writing on this blog. My words are written as fast as my little fingers can type and will be visible to people around the world just seconds after I hit the "publish post" button.

In fact, in his talk "Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet" (the primary motivation for this blog experience), Elder M. Russell Ballard states:

There are perhaps few inventions that have had a greater impact on the world than the printing press, invented by the inspired Johannes Gutenberg around 1436. The printing press enabled knowledge, including that contained in the Holy Bible, to be shared more widely than ever before.

Elder Ballard then continues by calling the internet our modern printing press. While each of us individually could never compare in long-term influence to Gutenberg, it's cool to see that we can each do a small part.

I'd recommend a visit to the museum to anyone-- even people who wouldn't expect to find the history of printing the least bit interesting. You'll actually get to see a demonstration of how each individual letter in Gutenberg's movable type was cast, the printing of a page from the Gutenberg Bible, and a page from a real Gutenberg Bible. Another room focuses on printing's importance in the 13 colonies. You'll see examples from Thomas Paine's Common Sense as well as a printed version of the Declaration of Independence. The third room focuses on the Grandin Print Shop and the story of the Book of Mormon. I had forgotten was a process it was just to BIND all of those copies of the book, never name the seven months spent typesetting and printing. Plus, the linotype machine was basically brilliant. It gave me the urge to go out and buy a typewriter.

I wasn't initially thrilled with the idea of going on a two-hour museum tour on a weeknight, but the Crandall Museum was well worth the time. The end message of this whole experience is that the Lord has His hand in the moving forward of His work. (See this talk by Elder Hales.)

The Museum website is still a work in progress, but hopefully you'll soon be able to donate to the cause of expansion or take a virtual tour.


Also, President Monson worked in the printing industry for a long time, and he's pretty much the best.