An Evening at the Crandall Printing Museum

When I worked at the Enfield Shaker Museum, people always used to come into our 6-story main building and say, “wow! I’ve lived near here all my life and I didn’t even know this place existed!” And every time, I would look at them and think, “how is that even possible? I’m from two states away and I knew this place existed.”
Well, I think I finally understand what those guys were talking about. This semester, Dr. Holzapfel told us that we had an assignment to visit a place called the “Crandall Printing Museum” in Provo. “Provo?” I thought. “There is no such place in Provo.”

Well, apparently the Crandall Printing Museum does exist. It’s a cute little building hidden in the southern suburbs of Provo. It’s, unfortunately, 19 blocks from my apartment near the MTC, which was not a fun walk after a long day of school, but I do have to say that I’m glad I went.

The Crandall Printing Museum is a relatively new (only about 15 years old) establishment run by three elderly and cute-funny tour guides. For two hours, they regale you with stories about the art and evolution of printing, from Gutenberg, printer of the Bible, to E.B. Grandin, printer of the Book of Mormon. Along the way, they hit Founding Father Benjamin Franklin and discuss the Revolutionary War, and they add in a few other tidbits about the printing press for the Deseret News.
I will say one thing: I have a huge, huge appreciation for printing now that I’ve been to this museum. I can’t tell you how painstaking the process of printing must have been for the men who did it back in the day. I mean, imagine: first, you have to create letter models out of metal. Then, you have to place them side by side, upside down, on a template for printing. You need to space them correctly. After this process is accomplished, you have to place the whole thing on a press, ink up your letters just right, which takes awhile, and then press it out onto paper…and that’s just for the first few pages.

Understanding this process in the making of the Bible and the Book of Mormon gives me a great appreciation for the hard work and dedication of their printers. It took over 7 months to even get the first few copies of the Book of Mormon completed. I’m so grateful for these printing pioneers who made words and books more readily available for those who needed to read them.

To learn more about the Crandall Museum, visit http://crandallmuseum.org.