Crandall Printing Museum

Going to the Crandall Printing Museum was an amazing experience. I have been to many museums, but rarely do the tour guides radiate such passion for the subject.
We started off the tour by gathering in the Gutenberg room and Brother Crandall shared the history of the bible and dispensations and the methods of writing the records found in the bible. It was reminiscent of the “Bible Manuscript Tour” in the Special Collections. He talked about the different forms of record keeping throughout history. Then another man, a historian, told us how Gutenberg came to create his press. He talked about how he was originally a blacksmith and good with metals. He showed and described the detailed process of making each one of the characters and how different inventions would lead to other inventions. He showed us the handpress and how to make each character piece. Then he showed us the first pages of the bible they had done in the same type of character style that Gutenberg used.
Then we moved to Benjamin Franklin room where a man told us about Benjamin Franklin’s story with the press and how it was an integral part of his life.
Then we went downstairs to a room with a press extremely similar to the one that the original copies of the Book of Mormon were printed on. He told us the story of how the Book of Mormon came to be printed. It is an incredible story. 23 year old Joseph Smith was in Palmyra where only recently the Erie Canal had been built so a 24 year old printer could get a novel 2,000 pound iron cast press to Palmyra. Not only that, but they printed the 5,000 copies in 7 months, or averaging 2 sheets every minute for 11 hours a day for that time. It was incredible to hear the details of the publication of this amazing book. It was also enlightening to learn that the Book of Mormon was translated without ANY punctuation. All punctuation in the Book of Mormon was put in by the 27 printer who was a main factor in the printing of the book.
It was a great experience to go to the museum and experience their passion for the printing industry. It was wonderful to see how Gutenberg’s invention has not only affected the history and development of the world, but of our church.