On Saturday, my friend Katlyn and I drove up to the town of Two Rivers, WI to help set up the new space that the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum has relocated to. For those unfamiliar with the Hamilton, it is the only museum dedicated to the preservation, study, production, and printing of wood type and houses the largest collection of wood type in the world. We pretty much just geeked out about type all day.
They've relocated a short distance from their old facility (pictured above) to a new home right by the lake. Their new location is a former pipe-shaping factory, so in addition to nerding out about type all day, I just walked around in a completely enamoured state taking pictures and drawing all of the industrial details of the building.
Other volunteers had driven in from Green Bay, Minneapolis, and even Kentucky! Great to nerd out with fellow type lovers. Jim the museum director is super nice and encouraged us to open any of the drawers and check out their extensive collection.
They've still got quite a bit of work to do as you can see from the picture above. The majority of the space is still a sea of palettes that need to be unpacked or shuffled around so that other tasks can be accomplished like painting, flooring, and lighting.
(If you're lucky, you'll get to tear down a room with crowbars and hammers. Is there an organization that is the opposite of Habitat for Humanity? I want to volunteer for that.)
If you're interested in volunteering you can find more information on their website. Honestly, I think it was the most fun I've ever had volunteering for something.
SO awesome! Jim came to speak at the Make Shit conference in Madison a couple weeks ago and it was SO interesting! Are you going to Wayzgoose this November? I really want to, but unfortunately I'm on kiddo duty that weekend, so I can't.
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