Penrith Museum of Printing on show at the state archives

By Noel Rowsell

Penrith Museum of Printing had a “live” operating printing exhibition at the Open Day at the Western Sydney records Centre on Saturday 15th April.

they had both the treadle-operated PeArL press and hand-operated ADAnA press on display, with the volunteers hand-setting in lead printer’s type, the names of visitors, which were then printed on a mini poster on the PeArL press. these were so wellreceived and visitors were amazed at how the “old” technology worked. this Letterpress Printing was established by Johannes Gutenberg in 1442, and was the main type of printing till the late 1800’s - early 1900’s, when type-setting machines were invented, revolutionising the “Black Art”. the other type of printing was Calligraphy, where printing was done with pen and ink. the Printing Museum’s appearance at the expo. was decided upon after a highly successful ‘live’ printing exhibition at the Arms of Australia inn historical precinct at emu Plains on Australia Day this year. the Museum is now looking forward to hopefully continuing to have a travelling display to attend historical displays and events in the future, as these are so successful, and enjoyed by adults and children alike, as our members perform “the Magic of Printing” to the general public. the Museum has always been so well received and members are constantly asked questions about how newspapers and printing was done in the past. the heart of the State Archives was open to the public on the day for a rare opportunity for the public to discover the largest collection of records relating to the history of nSW. numerous in-depth talks were held on the day relating to various sections of history, and the Printing Museum had their stall amidst other historical societies, such as ‘the royal Australian historical society’, ‘the Society of Australian Geneologists’, and the ‘nepean Family history Society’.