British Museum of Printing

The British Museum of Printing is a major project, led by Lee Hale (University of Birmingham) and the National Printing Heritage Committee, that aims to build a virtual museum of printing and, eventually, found a physical museum for the nation. It will draw together collections from around the country, bringing them to a wide audience through a site currently being developed by Heritage Creative. This project is a multi-institutional collaboration between several organisations: the Printing Historical Society, the Centre for Printing History and Culture, Winterbourne House and Garden, Ironbridge Gorge Museums, the University of Sussex, Birmingham City University.

Early modernists are familiar with figures such as William Caxton, William Ponsonby, and later in the period Jacob Tonson, both as technological innovators, and cultural figures who contributed to the development of English Literature and its marketplace, and the shape of the printed codex. Beyond our period, though, Britain holds an undeniably important place in printing history with many industrial advances made either in the United Kingdom or by British inventors.

Currently, British printing heritage is at risk, with historical printing artefacts and archives neither documented nor preserved in a co-ordinated manner. The majority of museum holdings are in storage and inaccessible to the public. So a British Museum of Printing is long overdue. As a first step towards bringing the nation’s printing heritage together and making it publicly visible, I am working in a Steering Group with heritage professionals and print historians to create a virtual resource. We have been delighted to receive funding from the Printing Historical Society, the Centre for Printing History and Culture, The Baskerville Society, The Bibliographical Society, Birmingham City University, and the University of Sussex.

Our current tasks are to engage an online audience for the museum, and work with collection holders to design criteria for the inclusion of their materials. And conduct the constant work of fundraising.

If you would like to know more, please email rachel.stenner@sussex.ac.uk.

Sterring Group: Caroline Archer, Giles Bergel, Georgina Grant, John Hinks, Lee Hale, Paul Nash, David Osbaldestin, Rachel Stenner, Holly Trant