#1 Reason to Visit Wisconsin

Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum. Wow. I heard about this place several months ago, from a friend I met in Buenos Aires, a young letterpress printer with a penchant for nostalgic US American printing (think Hatch Show Print). He asked with great enthusiasm if I had ever been to Wisconsin? I explained that Wisconsin wasn't really a place most people dream of visiting. "But it's the home to Hamilton Museum!" he replied, and after some online investigations I, too, aspired to visit Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

A special someone gifted me the visit to this museum, as a 26th birthday present. We flew into Chicago and drove up along Lake Michigan to Two Rivers until we saw the tall smokestack that said "Hamilton."

 

Vintage and handcrafted eye-candy abounds in the museum, as well as past and current printed material from linocut broadsides to typeset posters. One wall featured a collage of oversized wood typography that superstore Target used as a background for models in a fairly recent photo shoot. (Target collaborated with Hamilton to create a line of type-centered apparel. Check out the video here!) Once a factory, now a museum. 

experience is acquired, not manufactured = a good reminder

This is the machine once used to put lines on lined paper!