We started printing at the Museum a few years ago using the Columbian Eagle press invented by an American, George Clymer.  The particular press that we use was made in about 1876.

Originally the idea was just to use the printing workshop to produce large advertising posters for the Museum; something that we still do to publicize all our major events.  Soon, however, we found that demonstrating printing to our visitors became more important than producing the posters and we branched out into printing small posters for children with their names on whilst they waited. This gave us a chance to talk about printing, typefaces, fonts, point sizes, etc., etc., etc.  We don't charge for these posters although we have a donations box which helps us to pay for consumables like tins of ink, new printing blocks and white spirit to clean everything up.

A relatively new venture is to use the 160 year old Legget's Queen press made by the local firm of Ransomes in Ipswich; set up to print an A3 sized poster, this gives the chance for visitors to do some "hands on" and print their own poster using Victorian technology.  We make a small charge for this.

We are at the Museum at all major events and most Saturday mornings throughout the season; we may also be there at other times when we can get in.