Crandall Printing Museum

I found the Crandall Printing Museum highly interesting. It was very fun to learn about printing because I knew absolutely nothing about it beforehand. The guides were incredibly knowledgeable, and it was even better that they actually worked as printers during their life. They knew so many fun facts and made the presentation very interesting and hands-on which made it easier to learn.
One thing I found fascinating was that Gutenberg’s Printing Press, which he invented in 1440, was not improved upon until the late 20th Century. This is incredible! The technology that he used to create his moveable type and printing press in the 1400s could not be improved for hundreds of years! He was a truly intelligent and inspired man that he could make that kind of invention during the era in which he lived.
Another thing that struck me was the amount of time that went into printing. It was a truly time consuming process! I can’t believe they had to pick out every single letter, and then put them into a long line of type. And do that with every single line of type throughout the whole paper! I thought it was funny that they would hire 14 years old boys to do this during the summer; it was probably the only people they could persuade to do the tedious job.
The point I found the most amazing was how they tied the Joseph Smith story into printing. They talked about how incredible it was that there was a Gutenberg press in Joseph Smith’s town, along with the presence of a bookbinder. These two things were very uncommon and I think it was truly the work of God that they were together in the same town where Joseph was ready to publish the Book of Mormon. He told us that the printer was reluctant to print the Book of Mormon at first, but he took the job because he needed the money. So Joseph Smith ordered 5,000 copies of the book of Mormon to be printed, and he wanted them done by April 6. The amazing part of the story is that starting in August like they did, the job should have taken at least 2 years. But incredibly, they were done by April 6 so that Joseph Smith could organize the church. Men could not have done this job on their own. Truly Heavenly Father had his hand in the work of the printing of the Book of Mormon. You could tell how amazing this was by the emotion of the guide who told us this story. He had printed his entire life and knew the hard work and time that printing required. He had tears in his eyes as he adamantly told us that God helped those men who printed the Book of Mormon. This to me was a very testimony building experience, and convinced me even more of the divinity of the Book of Mormon.
We are so lucky to have the Crandall Printing Museum so close to us in Provo. It is one of the best printing museums in the entire world, and is continually gathering new artifacts for display and improving their museum so that people can gain a new appreciation towards the work of printing.