&nb sp;   This last week I had the opportunity to attend a tour of the Crandall Printing Museum located on Center Street in Provo, Utah. The museum is very interesting and unique. The museum has several antique printing presses dated from different times of the printing press era. One of their prize printers is an original Gutenberg Press. The adorable men, directed by Mr. Crandall, lead us through the tour starting with an explanation of the very beginnings of how written text was recorded since the times of Adam and Eve. Scripture was the main record preserved during those times. These written texts were recorded primarily on metal plates and animal skin at the time.  In Mesopotamia cuneiform became the primary recording tool. The scribes would carve shapes into clay tablets with a read stick and let it bake. Later animal skin became more popular, specifically velum which then lead to the use of paper.

Biblical Scripture was the most common copied record up until Gutenberg changed the world of duplicating books. Previous duplication was reserved for monastery monks. When Gutenberg first began his career he was inclined to keep to the same resemblance the monks used in scripture. Gutenberg’s skill with metal, as a goldsmith, is what inspired the idea to make metal movable type. He was able to also use the inspiration of an olive press, as a giant screw, to develop the best function for his press. The tour then moved on to the importance of Gutenberg’s invention in the creation of the new American Nation. The press was an essential aspect that encouraged and helped spread the ideas of liberty and freedom in the colonial states. The printing press played a major role in Benjamin Franklin’s life. He grew up a lover of books which lead to his career in working with printing presses to make copies of the books he so dearly loved. Franklin eventually made his living off of a monthly Almanac providing the necessary facts and information for the people in his town.

The final room in which Mr. Crandall and his associates took us in was related to the printing done for the first publication of the Book of Mormon.  They had a printing press identical to the one that was used in Palmyra, New York in the 1830’s. It was incredible to see the resemblance and similarities in which the Book of Mormon was first printed compared to when Gutenberg printed the first Bible. The screw function was the exact same as the olive press example. Beaters were still used to spread the ink evenly over the metal type before each paper was laid down. It is remarkable to imagine the task for the workers that had to make the five thousand copies in that time period. Just accomplishing the task of making the first twenty-five hundred pages seemed insurmountable, let alone repeating that thirty one times and then begin the long process of binding all five thousand copies. The process of binding that many books alone took two years to complete.

Mr. Crandall finished the tour by baring a beautiful testimony of his conviction that the workers were truly blessed with increased strength and ability to complete the immense task in which they accomplished in so little time.

Tags: Crandall Printing Museum Book Mormon Bible Benjamin Franklin Press Gutenber

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