Printing Office and Tin Shop (formerly known as Print Shop and Village Print Shop)

The Printing Office:

Built inside the Village in 1933, half of this building is a printing shop, and the other half is a tinsmith shop.
In the print shop, a variety of presses are demonstrated, from early powered presses to a hand press.
The presenter sets the type to show the patrons how printing was done in the days before automation, including the typesetting of the letters and woodcuts. Using the hand press, the visitor can see how the early papers were printed by hand.
In our modern age of instant information via phone, home computer, radio, and other electronic sources band devices, many of the folks today - especially school age children - do not realize how important the occupation of printing was to the towns and villages of the 19th century, in many cases the only source of news of the outside world.



The Tin Shop:

The tinsmith made lanterns, candleholders, and household utensils from the 17th through the early 20th century. Called the poor man's silver, all that was needed to work with tin was a few simple tools to create the many different types of items and necessities.

In Greenfield Village, the process of printing and tin-smithing are demonstrated much in the same way as it was done in the previous century. A wide variety of hand-made tin examples are on display inside the tin shop, and the smithy also makes items needed for use inside the historical buildings inside the Village, including kitchen items used at the farms as well as candle holders hanging on the walls of the colonial homes.
And the purchasing of Village-made items are available in the gift shop.




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Comments

TRaffan said…
The frame of the building was originally a machine shop in Exeter, NH, the same place the Giddings home came from. In 1933 Cutler had this building built around the original frame at the Chicago World's Fair as a display building then moved it to the Village in '35 where the addition on the print side was added for the steam engine that powered the shop for many years
March 19, 2019 at 8:08 PM
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