News and Events
Ludlowpalooza! Spring Garage & Book Sale
What: Ludlowpalooza! Spring Garage & Book Sale
When: Saturday, April 25, 2026 10am–4pm
Where: Museum of Printing, 15 Thornton Ave., Haverhill, MA
The Museum of Printing is having our semi-annual Garage & Book Sale on Saturday, April 25th and it’s a Ludlow Palooza! Three Ludlow Typograph units plus matrices and related items will be available for those who want to create their own letterpress type.Shop amazing printing presses, Ludlows, cutters, type, ink, and a special “name your price” section of presses.
And don’t skip out on the Book Sale. We have books about printing, including many books on typography, graphic arts and the arts. And a table full of paper just waiting for your creativity.
For a quick overview, check out this short video by Museum of Printing Director of Operations Mitchel Ahern: https://youtu.be/1qIzYQ_RqVM.
Saturday Workshops & Events Spring 2026
On any given Saturday/Open Day there could be a public event in the Meeting Room, in the Community Studio, or on the Exhibit Floor. Depending on the content of the event (workshop, lecture or demo), there could be more than one in a day.
Click the red links for more info and to register for workshops & events.
April
- Saturday 4
- Letterpress on Fabric Workshop
Sign up here→ - Saturday 11
- Book Arts Open Studio
Sign up→ - Saturday 18
- Lecture: “Printing Revolution” with Andy Volpe, 1 pm
- Saturday April 25
- Garage & Book Sale, 10–4
May
- Saturday 2
- Letterpress Intro+ Workshop
Sign up here→ - Saturday 9
- Book Arts Open Studio
Sign up→ - Saturday 23
- Rustic Paper Making for Adults, 11 am to 3 pm
• $95 per person Sign up here→
June
- Saturday 6
- Letterpress Intro+ Workshop
Sign up here→
- Saturday 13
- Book Arts Open Studio • Sign up Here
- Saturday 20, 2pm
- Frank Romano Master Class: Module 1Sign up Here
- Saturday 27, 1pm
- Lecture: “Printing Created America” with Frank RomanoSign up here→
The Romano Typographic History Project
Module 1 Begins on May 2nd
Museum of Printing President Frank Romano will lead a two-part Typographic History Master Class starting in May at the Museum. Entitled “The Romano Typographic History Project,” the series will consist of two modules totaling ten, 90-minute lectures on major milestones in the history of typographic technology. The topics for Module 1 are:
- History of the Linotype Company (May 2)
- History of the Ludlow Typograph (May 16)
- History of the Typewriter and Mimeograph (May 30)
- History of Phototypesetting (June 6)
- History of Desktop Publishing (June 20)
Introducing our New Museum Manager: Mindy Mitrano
The Museum of Printing has named long-time volunteer Mindy Mitrano to the newly created role of Museum Manager. The move is one of a series of actions by the Haverhill, Massachusetts-based museum as it enters its next half century of telling the rich story of print and other forms of communications.Mitrano, who also lives in Haverhill, began her association with the Museum in 2018 as the librarian. Her other roles at the Museum have included gift shop curation, event management, and the monthly Book Arts Open Studio.
In addition to her work with the Museum, Mitrano is a professionally trained graphic designer with a foundation in fine arts. Originally from the Finger Lakes region of New York, she’s known locally as Mindy Paper. She teaches a variety of classes at her combination art studio and cookie bakery, often integrating watercolor, typography, cut paper manipulation, letterpress printing, paper-making, or book binding.
In her new role as Museum Manager, Mitrano will oversee day-to-day operations of the Museum. She will also coordinate the work of its dedicated core of volunteers as well as outreach to schools, non-profits, and others. “Mindy has long been an active and valuable member of the Museum of Printing community,” said Museum of Printing President Frank Romano, who helped to found the Museum and is one of the nation’s leading experts on printing and related topics. “She will help the Museum continue to grow and expand its important work.”
Mindy Mitrano Is a 2026 ECCF Creative County Changemaker!
The Museum of Printing is delighted to announce that Museum Manager Mindy Mitrano has been selected by the Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) to be a part of the 2026 ECCF Creative County ChangeMakers, an alliance of artists, nonprofit and municipal leaders, and small business owners who are collaboratively driving community change inclusive of arts and culture. For details, see: https://www.eccf.org/blog/2026/03/12/residents-selected-for-eccfs-creative-county-changemakers-program/Hidden in a closet, a 200-year-old piece of Boston’s printing past emerges
Mitchel Ahern, the director of operations at the Museum of Printing (left), and Peter Corriveau, the assistant director of operations at the museum, lift the press into the back of a truck for transport. Lane Turner/Globe Staff
Stored and forgotten in a cramped closet in a South End basement, a 200-year-old printing press — 600 pounds of iron, wood, and plenty of dust — lurched recently toward a new chapter in its long and mysterious life.
Hauled onto makeshift dollies at Franklin Cummings Tech, a two-year trade college, this throwback innovation from the early 19th century attracted a gaggle of admirers as it rolled toward a moving van parked on nearby, cobblestone alley.
The press, built by Adam Ramage of Philadelphia in about 1815, is among only two or three believed to remain in existence, according to Mitchel Ahern, operations director at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill.
As Ahern helped extract the machine, broad smiles and compliments from movers and school staff greeted the press as it slowly emerged from its hideaway.
“Very cool,” cooed Ahern, who said the press willreceive star treatment among the museum’s displays of printing’s centuries-long evolution.
“It’s really exciting to see a press like this pop up,” Ahern said. “In its day, this was printing technology. Our mission is to keep this kind of thing out of landfills.”
Its recent discovery at Franklin Cummings Tech, which is moving to Roxbury for the spring semester after 117 years in the South End, is a reminder of the school’s close association with Benjamin Franklin, the Boston-born printer and Founding Father whose generosity led directly to the college’s creation.
Bible Bound
International Juried Exhibition
May 1 – September 1, 2026Reception + Award Ceremony
May 9, 2026, 2 – 4pmThe Bible has had a profound impact on humanity, literature, art, history, and culture for over 2,000 years. As one of the oldest and most influential texts, it has shaped civilizations, religious practices, and cultural expressions. From illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages to Johannes Gutenberg’s first printed Bible in 1455, the Bible has played a key role in the development of printing and bookmaking.
The Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Mass. invited artists to create miniature artists books inspired by the Bible, reinterpreting its meaning through form, materials, scale, and various binding techniques. The exhibition highlights the Bible’s enduring impact and is displayed alongside the new “Rare Bible Room,” which features over 100 rare Bibles and 30 Bible leaves.
Curator: Ania Gilmore
Jurors: Ania Gilmore and Frank RomanoCongratulations to all artists invited for the Bible Bound International Juried Exhibition!
Frank Romano has been elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society
Museum of Printing President Frank Romano has been elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), a 213-year-old national research library and community of learners dedicated to discovering and sharing a deeper understanding of the American past. Frank joins a distinguished roster of more than 1,200 members from forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and five other countries.
See Revolutionary Technology at the Museum of Printing
Check out this GBH story by Chris Burrell that references the Museum of Printing and quotes Gary Gregory and Museum President Frank Romano.
And come see the English Common Press they are talking about!
Read the story: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-05-07/before-the-american-revolution-these-massachusetts-publishers-rebelled-in-print →
Photo of Gary Gregory inking a replica of a Colonial-era press by Rian Nelson / GBH News
The Museum of Printing Celebrates the Role of Print in the American Revolution
Over the next year and a half, the Museum of Printing is celebrating the start of the American Revolution (April 19, 1775) and the signing of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) with a series of talks and workshops, including some that are sponsored by a grant from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.Our preparations for this began with the arrival in February of an authentic replica of an English Common Press, courtesy of our friend Gary Gregory, proprietor of the Printing Office of Edes & Gill. The English Common Press is a wooden hand-press that was used for printing in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the first press that came to America. It was the press that printed the pamphlets, broadsides, and newspapers that energized the revolution and the press that printed the Declaration of Independence. The printing press helped create America and this kind of press is an extremely important part of our history.
This replica will be used to print copies of the Declaration of Independence for Museum of Printing visitors. It is only one of two operational wooden presses in New England. This is the same press that was in the lobby of our previous building in North Andover, Massachusetts. Most recently it has resided at Old North Church in Boston where it was seen by thousands of visitors over the years at the Printing Office of Edes & Gill.
The grant that we received from the Massachusetts Office of Tourism (MOTT) has allowed us to offer four free events to Museum visitors. The first of those has already taken place on March 15th. Entitled “Wood Type Use, History, & Identification” it was led by lecture/workshop led by James Grieshaber of Virgin Wood Type in Rochester, New York. Three more events will follow:
The Folding of the Paper Mill: Paper Samples through the Decades
Visitors can explore and learn how paper mills adapted and evolved throughout the years through this new exhibit at the Museum.
$15,000 Matching Gift Opportunity
One of our members has generously pledged $15,000 in matching funds, which means that every dollar donated to the Museum of Printing between now and November 1, 2024 is effectively doubled! Please help us reach this goal. Every dollar counts!
Update: We extended the date of this matching grant to December 31st and we reached our goal. Many thanks to all who contributed.
Thirty five Years of Printing for the Gloucester Fishing Industry, 1977–2012
In early 2024 I was asked by the Director of The Cape Ann Museum to document the history of my printing business and its connection to the Massachusetts fishing industry.
The following story is about my company, and recounts some of the global, national, and local trends that affected us in Gloucester during the last several decades. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Self-Publishing and On-Demand Printing with Jim Hamilton
Saturday, June 22nd at 1 pm
Did you miss Jim’s talk? Not to worry! He has provided a scripted PDF for those who are interested.
Read all about us in the Globe!
The Boston Globe finds us “fit to print”
What a visitor finds is a museum as marvelous as any in new England. Here is Ali Baba’s cave crossed with a print shop and pressroom. One of only three museums in the United states dedicated to printing and graphic arts, it has “the largest collection of typographic technology and ephemera in the world,” says MoP president Frank Romano. “We’re trying to save the past for the future,” he says.
Read Mark Feeney’s article in the Boston Sunday Globe, October 22, 2023 [pdf] ↠
Haverhill Exchange Club Dedicates Freedom Shrine at Museum of Printing
Members of the Haverhill Exchange Club, who sponsored a “Freedom Shrine” and, local leaders, dedicated it at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Massachusetts. This gallery of history includes reproductions of George Washington’s first inaugural address where the first president urged a new Congress to consider a “reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for public harmony” in crafting a Bill of Rights. Past National President Haverhill member Bob Harb (pictured here) noted that the 20 original documents were on the Freedom Train that visited Haverhill on October 22, 1947 for a few days.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the preserved documents are editing marks—many documents are preserved in some pre-finished form. In this presentation, it’s clear the authors of some of the most important documents in U.S. history themselves had to revise.
The Museum owes a debt to the Exchange Club, for which the installation of “Freedom Shrines” in public places is a national project.
For more on the Haverhill Exchange Club, see http://www.haverhillexchangeclub.com.
History of Desktop Publishing Selected as Honorable Mention
History of Desktop Publishing by Frank Romano (with Miranda Mitrano) has been awarded Honorable Mention by the jury of the 18th International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) Breslauer Prize for Bibliography.
The ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography is the world’s leading prize honoring outstanding work in the field of bibliography and book history. The award is sponsored by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. The 18th edition of the prize was awarded in September, 2022 at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England.
The 2022 winners are:
- 1st Prize: Jack Baldwin, A Catalogue of Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in Glasgow Libraries and Museums, 2 volumes (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2020).
- 2nd Prize: Ernst Fischer; Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels – Historische Kommission. (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2020–21).
- 3rd Prize: Renaud Adam, Vivre et imprimer dans les Pays-Bas Méridionaux (Des Origines à la réforme), 2 vols (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018).
- Honorable Mention: Frank Romano (with Miranda Mitrano), History of Desktop Publishing (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2019).
For the full ILAB press release, see: https://ilab.org/article/celebrating-outstanding-works-of-bibliography-and-book-history-impressions-of-the-ilab-breslauer-prize-ceremony-2022
The book is available through the Museum of Printing gift shop in soft or hard cover as well as through the publisher, Oak Knoll Books: https://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/133734/frank-romano-with-miranda-mitrano/history-of-desktop-publishing
History of the Ludlow Typograph
Frank Romano’s latest book is now available! It is called History of the Ludlow Typograph and covers the remarkable tale of a device that is still in use by letterpress printers around the world today. Romano writes about the people, the company, the machine, and the type library that established typographic tastes.
Born at the beginning of the 20th century, the active production lifespan of the Ludlow Typograph lasted just over 80 years, but its impact has continued. In the last decade of the 20th century as typography evolved from metal to film to digital, many of the fonts in use were based on hot metal libraries. One of the major trendsetters for typographers was the Ludlow Typograph.
At 535 pages and with over 400 illustrations, this book digs deeper into the history of the Ludlow Typograph than any previous book. Interested in reading it? You can find it in our gift shop, or just click the red DONATE button at the top right of the page and make a donation to the Museum of Printing. You will then receive this landmark book as a gift ($75 for the hardcover version and $45 for the softcover version).
The Museum of Printing Unveils Plans for a Linotype Service & Repair Directory
As part of its Linotype Legacy initiative, the Museum of Printing is creating an international directory of people who repair Linotype and other hot-metal typesetting machines. If you offer such services, or if you know of someone who does, please submit contact information via this web form: linotype-professionals-signup-form.
We also ask that you share this information broadly through social media, using the hashtag #LinotypeRepair.
We believe that by gathering this information we will be able to achieve one of the key goals of the Linotype Legacy initiative, which is to make it easier to find those who can service and repair Linotype machines.
The Museum of Printing’s Linotype Legacy fundraising initiative was begun in December of 2019. The latest development in the Museum of Printing’s Linotype Legacy work is a series of 10 videos with master mechanic Dave Seat. These can be viewed on our YouTube page.
White House Chronicle Visits the Museum of Printing
Haverhill, MA (July 5, 2021) – Nationally syndicated columnist Llewellyn King, the executive producer and host of the weekly PBS news and public affairs program White House Chronicle, visited the Museum of Printing recently and interviewed Museum of Printing President Frank Romano about printing technology and the history of the newspaper. Also on hand was the producer and co-host, journalist Linda Gasparello.
The episode, entitled “American Newspaper Printing from Hot Type to Computers,” began airing on July 2, 2021 and will be seen on many PBS stations. It can also be viewed on demand at https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/569972704.