The Crandall Museum

This week I went to the Crandall Museum for the second time and it was just as interesting as it was the first time.  The men who run that museum are so adorable and so passionate about every aspect of printing.  That love for their work is contagious.  You want to find out every piece of knowledge they have on this subject, and that’s quite  a bit of information.

I love the story of Gutenberg and learning about the incredible amount of things he had to invent to make printing the written word possible and the amount of years his inventions were the most advanced is absolutely unbelievable.  He created his printer and method of printer in the 1400’s and they were still using almost all the same technology in the early twentieth century.  The whole time I was listening to Gutenberg’s story I just kept thinking “how did he have the time and the brilliance to come up with so many different things?!”  I mean, he came up with the grape press as the basis of the printing press, he came up with the modifications to the machine that would make printing possible, he invented all the tools to create letters and molds, including the formula  for the type of metal used for the letters, and the formula for the sticky ink that had to be used.  I can’t even fathom coming up with that type of technology at that time in the world.  There is not another person I can think of that came up with that advanced of technology and that much technology.  The impact of that technology too, so huge.

One of the coolest part of the museum is the American room that is completely focused on how Gutenberg’s inventions effected the founding of America.  It’s crazy to realize that the America we know today would probably not exist without Gutenberg’s printer.  It was fun to have Benjamin Franklin tell us about everything.  In the America room you start to realize just how inspired Gutenberg must have been, as well as the Founding Fathers.  Like Benjamin Franklin, who was one of the biggest printers in America at the time.  Things like the pamphlet, Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, were so influential to the founding of America but would never have happened without the printing press.

The final room makes it clear how inspired the printing press was.  It’s a room based on the exact room the Book of Mormon was printed in.  It’s completely dedicated to how the Book of Mormon was printed as well as bound.  It’s incredible how little Palmyra, New York was the site of a master printer as well as a master bookbinder.  I know that it was all God’s doing.  He made history fall into place just the way it had to for the Restoration to be possible.

It’s just such a cool little place because it gives such a testimony of God’s hand in this world and the inspiration he provides.  I love the idea that all the missionaries will get to go through it.  I would definitely go back to refresh my memory on all that great information.