July 28, 2018 - We were in Carson, CA today to visit the International Printing Museum. The International Printing Museum has one of the largest collections of antique printing presses in the United States. David Jacobson of Gutenberg Expositions and collector Ernest A. Lindner started the museum in 1988 to house the Lindner collection of antique printing machinery. Recognized by many authorities as the finest collection in the world, the Lindner Collection spans more than 500 years of graphic communication history.
You'll see a few pictures of our tour guide Peter, who was very knowledgeable about every aspect of the printing business and printing history. The tour lasted about 90 minutes and we came home with a lot of souvenirs!
This printing press dates to Colonial times and is similar to the press used by Benjamin Franklin. This particular press is the third oldest press in the country.
This is a reproduction of the famous Guttenberg press. No one knows what happened to Guttenberg's original presses since Guttenberg's fate was to die a pauper after spending his life perfecting the press that changed the world.
This "office" is a recreation of a typical 1860's Western newspaper office, like the Virginia City, Nevada office of the Territorial Enterprise, where Mark Twain got his start as a reporter. Samuel Clemons adopted his pen name there in 1863. Peter is holding a copy of the Enterprise.
We watched as the "slugs" were made on this linotype machine spelling out "Bob and Judy" on printed announcements.
It was a fascinating tour and we certainly learned how the invention of the printing press literally changed the world. For instance, Guttenberg's press came on line in 1450. Before the press, for the first half of that century, only 20,000 books were hand produced. After the Guttenberg press, over 1.5 million books were produced during the second half of the century. It was an information explosion!
We've never had lunch in Carson so picking a restaurant wasn't easy. There are a lot of various cuisines to choose from, however, we decided to try Mike & Nate's House of Seafood, probably because they had a lobster roll on the menu, which was Judy's choice. Oh, the lobster roll came with garlic parmesan fries.
I went for their steamed mussels in a medium spicy sauce, in the bag, of course. Everything was great!
