MoP commemorates Haverhill ties to Bible translation and 19th century missionary movement

The American missionary movement of the 19th century began in Haverhill, Mass. Haverhill was also a center for Bible translations. Adoniram Judson, (1788–1850) American linguist and Baptist missionary in Myanmar (Burma) translated the Bible into Burmese with his wife Ann Hazeltine Judson.

To commemorate the Haverhill Bible connection, the Museum of Printing has consolidated its extensive Bible collection and reference material in one exhibit and resource room.

A replica of the Gutenberg Bible lets you leaf through the book that started it all. There are over thirty historic Bibles plus many other printed religious publications and artifacts. Leaves from Luther’s German translation are on display. It changed the world of religion forever.

The Museum has one leaf from every Bible printed in Colonial America, including the first Bible printed in America, the Eliot Bible of 1663 in the Algonquin Indian language.

The King James Bible had typographical errors. Later, the 1762 Baskerville Bible was printed. It is considered one of the most beautiful Bibles and the typeface designed for it is named for its designer, John Baskerville, and still used to this day.

There are giant folio-sized Bibles and pocket-sized Bibles on display. The so-called Pony Express Bible was small enough to travel with the mail riders racing across the Western Plains.

An entire English Bible was not published in the United States until Robert Aitken’s Bible came out in 1782. In 1808, Aitken’s daughter Jane was the first woman to print a Bible in America (the Thompson Bible). “The Book of 1,000 Tongues” has a Bible passage set in every world language known in 1939. Many of those languages have disappeared. The new Bible Resource and Exhibit Room tells the story of the printed Bible throughout history.

< Museum of Printing acquires major vintage type collection  |  Museum of Printing Celebrates Print during the Haverhill Cultural Treasures Virtual Camp >