Print Shop Apprentice
Offered throughout the year.
Program Length: 2 hours
The printing press is a mechanical printing device for making copies of identical text on multiple sheets of paper. Movable type, which allowed individual characters to be arranged to form words, was invented in China by Bi Shang in the mid 12th century. German Johannes Gutenberg is credited by most scholars with its initial invention in 1445. Previously, bookmaking entailed copying all the words and illustrations by hand. Oftern the copying had been done onto parchment, animal skin that had been scraped until it was clean, smooth, and thin. The labour that went into creating them made each book very expensive. The use of movable type to mass produce printed works forever changed the lives of people all over the world.
Students will learn why print shops were so important in 19th and early 20th century rural communities. Your class will view the One-on-One interview with Nels Maher in which he speaks of his life as a press man in Grey County. Following this presentation your class will tour through the Nels Maher Print Shop exhibit viewing the various pieces of machinery and blocks of type. Groups will visit the Archives and compare newspapers from the 1880s, the 1920s, and today. They will also look at old and new telephone books, posters, advertisements, and letters, handwritten and typed. Students will create their own newspaper front page using small paint rollers on printer's cuts or blocks of type and other raised images.
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